throw a handle
throw a lever

Then gradually the pile of sacks rose right out of the floor, and the Fourth threw a handle.

Leon touched one of the buttons, then threw a lever back.

He came back to the star-pilot chair and threw a lever.

He threw a lever and the twin 1500-horsepower engines roared to life.

Squint approached a small metal box inside the wall, threw a lever.

Before departing, though, one threw a lever which sent the elevator upward again.

All I have to do is throw a lever and it will drop and bang through those doors.

He threw a lever on the instrument panel.

Court threw a lever and -hastily spun a wheel.

Instantly Hanson threw a lever and began reeling in the magnet cables.

The inner door opened as Penton threw a lever.

While we were wondering what all that meant, Captain Becker threw a lever on the control panel and got up from his chair.

My keeper threw a lever on the revolver that was aimed at my belt buckle.

The chief threw a lever.

Tom threw a lever, extending a set of caterpillar treads below the hull, and steered the craft in a search pattern.

Tom threw a lever extending its caterpillar treads and drove the seacopter into the water beyond the air bubble.

Clinging to the control wheel with one hand, he threw a lever, reversing blade pitch, then gunned the throttle and hauled back on the wheel.

This is the end, Julian 5th, for both of us," and even as he uttered the last word he threw a lever mounted upon a control board before him.

Naroin threw a lever and precious electricity poured from the ship's accumulators, setting the scarred machinery into motion with a rumble of grinding gears.

All the frame operator had to do was throw a lever and the eight 'feet' planted themselves on the pads in the correct sequence and with the required pressure.

Mikey threw a lever on the side of his device and the silvery ball whisked down the trough and out over the valley in a high, lazy arc.

He didn't hit the ground hard-his nanite friends cushioned the fall-but Jode shut the door behind the boy and threw a lever on the shack's outer wall.

Almost instantly, as he threw a lever which must have been beside him, a heavy glass screen or shield sprang up, from the top of the seat in front of us, against which his back rested.

Something down there was still moving, a big piece of the internal engine; the man threw a lever on the gun, pulling it back and pushing forward with a sharp click-clack, then raised the muzzle and aimed once more.

It was Jonnie's job to throw a lever that sent beams through the whirlwind, check the panel to see whether a purple or a red light went on, and throw levers that sent the ore on for transshipment (purple), or dumped it to the side and sounded an alarm (red).