Center-off floating contact for electric switches

Claim 1

An electric switch comprising a case, a pair of spaced contact terminals in said case, a yoke terminal located intermediate said contact terminals, said yoke terminal being made of a unitary, flat conductive metal, an electrically conductive movable contact lever cooperating with the top edge of said yoke terminal, said yoke terminal being arrayed transversely to the path of said lever, said contact lever being slidable relative to said yoke terminal in either direction for closing the circuit alternatively between either of said contact terminals and said yoke terminal, a generally central conical aperture in said contact lever, said aperture having an annular tapered wall, a downwardly extending recess in the top edge of said yoke terminal in the area of said lever aperture, a pair of laterally aligned arcuate recesses on the bottom of said contact lever, said arcuate recesses being arrayed on opposite sides of said central aperture and cooperating with the top edges of said yoke terminal bounding the recess therein, a pivotable actuator on said case, a spring biased conical nib on said actuator, the conical end of said nib being urged to mate intimately with said conical aperture and yieldably to maintain said lever in the horizontal open circuit center-off position relative to said yoke terminal when said arcuate recesses releasably engage the top edges of said yoke terminal.