Abstract: The present switch has a main switch lever so pivoted in the trough of an insulating housing, that the lever plays in a path, slightly deviating from the troughway. This assures contact pressure between the conducting lever and fixed contacts along the troughway. A conducting gate switch lever is designed for making and breaking the feeding connection between an electrical source and the main lever. With the gate lever "off", the main lever may pass along a row of fixed contacts without any effect, until the selected contact is reached. Then, the gate lever may be energized by making connection with the source; thus a piece of equipment is fed over the selected fixed contact. The present switch safely handles, unlike a rotating switch, ionized gases, because these gases do not drift by several contacts on their way out. No unwanted electrical bridging to other than the selected pieces of equipment will occur.

Abstract: Electric switches work with an electric arc when they switch on or off. A bridge of ionized gas builds up in an air gap between the metal contacts. The larger and the more open to the outside this air gap is, the easier the arc will break up; an air draft raised by heat will lift the gas bridge from the contacts quickly, if the gap is not cased in. The present invention is a switch, offering an all-around escape for ionized, hot gases out of that air gap. At the same time, by a large lever movement a flying contact is being latched between lugs of counter contacts which form a wedge holder, thus forestalling a return of the lever. This switch is simpler to make than the conventional fulcrum metal lever, pushing with its lower end a coilspring aside and pressing contact to contact.