Mercury switch braking system

Claim 1

An automatic stability control system for a vehicle to prevent swerving and swaying of said vehicle, said system comprising means for sensing lateral acceleration forces acting upon said vehicle to provide electrical acceleration signals representative of said forces, and brake means associated with said vehicle and responsive to said acceleration signals to actuate said brake means to prevent swaying and swerving of said vehicle, said sensing means including sensitivity adjustment means for setting the minimum magnitude of lateral acceleration force to which said sensing means responds to provide said acceleration signals, said sensing means including a pair of inclined mercury switch assemblies oriented to sense left and right lateral acceleration, said adjustment means including manually actuated means to vary the angle of inclination of the mercury switch assemblies, said switch assemblies including means indicating lateral acceleration approaching an unstable condition prior to the actuation of the brake means, each of said mercury switch assemblies including a pair of longitudinally spaced contacts in a container oriented in inclined position, a third contact extending longitudinally in the container in spaced relation to the pair of contacts, a quantity of conductive mercury in the container normally closing a circuit between the third contact and the lowest of the pair of contacts, said quantity of mercury being movable by lateral acceleration initially into a position for closing a circuit between the third contact and both of the pair of contacts to provide means for indicating lateral acceleration approaching an unstable condition and subsequently to a position closing a circuit between the third contact and the second contact of the pair of contacts located at the upper end of the container for applying the brake means when the lateral acceleration reaches an unstable condition thereby providing a precautionary warning of an approach to an unstable condition.