In hindsight I think the tilt switch actually is mercury based. It has the right weight and feel when shaken (flumpy instead of clacky), and would actually be the perfect choice for this application.

Mercury relays used to be fairly common until they were banned by non-technical people suffering from hysteria. In reality, mercury was an exceptionally good choice in many specialist electrical applications, and the "safe" replacements (loose ball bearings that rattle about and make bad connections) are so unreliable that they are a primary cause of equipment failure and subsequent landfill.

Mercury in its liquid state is actually fairly benign. The main hazards are associated with prolonged exposure to heated vapour or in more aggressive chemical forms.
The classic phrase "Mad as a hatter" comes from the health issues that traditional hatters had due to prolonged inhalation of vapour from the use of heated bowls of mercury for shaping felt hats.

A modern version of this earthquake can would probably need an electronic circuit to operate reliably, using a modern ball bearing tilt switch to trigger a timer and drive transistor.

If you wish to buy some proper mercury tilt switches the keywords are "glass tilt switch".
Note the absence of the word mercury from the keywords to appease the Munchausen environmentalists.


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