"Bill Rubenstein" wrote: (clip) The coffee cup goes on the lathe. When it spills because of vibration, it shorts the contact on a liquid sensing switch... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ How about a pendulum with a coffee cup in the path of its arc? The cup is on one end of a teeter-totter, with a ball balanced on the other end. When the ball comes off, it rolls onto a chute...
Rube, zat you?
You'd be surprised at how unsophisticated some things are. I always took it for granted that the shake switch in the washing machine was something exotic until I saw ours. Nylon "finger" depressing a length of wire. Any shake, slides off and trips the microswitch.
Also slides off and won't spin if the wife lets the lid slam ....
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