There is disclosed a paddle switch operated by pushing on the lower portion
of a rocker paddle to turn the switch "on" or "off". The lower edge of the paddle
pivots in and out about its upper edge. The switch includes flexible driver means
coupled to be driven by the rocker paddle. When the rocker paddle is pushed in,
it urges the flexible driver means to rotate a cam means in a first, clock wise
direction, or a second, counter clock wise direction. Alternate rotation of the
cam drives a slider member having a cam follower back and forth along a linear
axis. A shaped leaf spring cooperates with the cam follower to assist in the movement
of the slider and determines its rest positions. An indicator such as an LED is
used to indicate the state of conduction of the switch. When the rocker paddle
is released, it is biased by a spring to pivot back to its initial position. The
rocker paddle of the switch is not located within a frame and has a surface along
its vertical axis of positive first differential and zero second differential,
comprised of a combination of splines which extend between points of varying distances
from a datum plane. This surface has zero second differential when the rate of
height increase of individual splines is constant.