Mercury time delay switch

Claim 1

A MERCURY SWITCH COMPRISING MEANS PROVIDING A PAIR OF CHAMBERS, ELECTRODE MEANS EXPOSED TO THE INTERIOR OF AT LEAST ONE OF SAID CHAMBERS, MEANS PROVIDING A RESTRICTED ELONGATED PASSAGE FOR FLOW OF MERCURY BETWEEN SAID CHAMBERS, AND MERCURY WITHIN THE SWITCH FOR CONDUCTIVE CONTACT WITH SAID ELECTRODE MEANS AND ADAPTED TO FLOW FROM ONE CHAMBER TO THE OTHER THROUGH SAID RESTRICTD ELONGATED PASSAGE, SAID MERCURY CONTAINING IN SOLUTION A METAL IN AN AMOUNT NOT SUBSTANTIALLY IN EXCESS OF 1% AND SAID PASSAGE HAVING ITS WALLS FORMED OF A METAL WETTABLE BY SAID MERCURY CONTAINING THE METAL IN SOLUTION, SAID METAL IN SOLUTION PROVIDING UNIFORM WETTING OF SAID WALLS SO THAT SAID MERCURY IS CAPABLE OF FLOWING AS UNIFORMLY AND SLOWLY MOVING STREAM THROUGH SAID PASSAGE UNDER THE ACTION OF GRAVITY TO ACCUMULATE AS A POOL IN SAID OTHER CHAMBER, THE RESTRICTION OF SAID PASSAGE BEING SUCH AS TO CONTROL THE RATE OF FLOW OF THE MERCURY THERETHROUGH TO PROVIDE A TIME DELAY, AFTER INITIATION OF FLOW, FOR CHANGE OF THE CONDUCTIVE RELATIONSHIP OF THE MERCURY TO SAID ELECTRODE MEANS.