12-07-2024, 12:52 PM
"There would appear to be no advantage in mercury relays" Not no advantage I think but very few, good ones at that too. To name the ones I can think of...
No contact wear
No contact bounce
Very little thermal EMF
When I was at Vitramon we used hundreds of mercury wetted reed relays to switch the test gear to the capacitance measurement instrument (they were very expensive HP jobs measuring 100 or so per second). These relays had to be a certain way up for use.
Then you have the most ingenious time delay tilt switches used in clocks etc. that had a restriction to slow the reverse flow of the mercury, very clever.
No contact wear
No contact bounce
Very little thermal EMF
When I was at Vitramon we used hundreds of mercury wetted reed relays to switch the test gear to the capacitance measurement instrument (they were very expensive HP jobs measuring 100 or so per second). These relays had to be a certain way up for use.
Then you have the most ingenious time delay tilt switches used in clocks etc. that had a restriction to slow the reverse flow of the mercury, very clever.
I want a PNP valve!
