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In a mechanism, two elements, or bodies, which are so applied to each other as to mutually constrain relative motion.

An instrument for studying the mechanism of accommodation.

An arm attached to a swinging notched arc or rack, to let off the striking mechanism of a repeating clock.

Any mechanism having a rack, as a rack and pinion.

a shell of not less than one pound weight, the explosion of each cartridge operating the mechanism for ejecting the empty shell, loading, and firing the next shot, the latter being guns that require one operation of the hand at each discharge, to load the gun. (2)

A mechanism composed of a ratchet wheel, or ratch, and pawl. See Ratchet wheel, below, and 2d Ratch. Ratchet brace (Mech.), a boring brace, having a ratchet wheel and pawl for rotating the tool by back and forth movements of the brace handle. -- Ratchet drill, a portable machine for working a drill by hand, consisting…

ck succession; especially: (a) A form of firearm so constructed that by the action of the mechanism the charges are successively introduced from a chamber containing them into the breech of the barrel, and fired. (b) A form in which the charges are held in, and discharged from, a revolving chamber at the breech of the…

Acting of or by one's self or by itself; -- said especially of a machine or mechanism which is made to perform of or for itself what is usually done by human agency; automatic; as, a self-acting feed apparatus; a self-acting mule; a self-acting press.

A reaping machine containing mechanism for binding the grain into sheaves.

A mechanism (usually one operated by electricity, compressed air, a spring, or an explosive gas), attached to an internal- combustion engine, as on an automobile, and used as a means of starting the engine without cranking it by hand.

he organs of smell, sight, and hearing. -- Sense organ (Physiol.), a specially irritable mechanism by which some one natural force or form of energy is enabled to excite sensory nerves; as the eye, ear, an end bulb or tactile corpuscle, etc. -- Sense organule (Anat.), one of the modified epithelial cells in or near w…

own had side sleeves down to mid leg. Laneham. Side action, in breech-loading firearms, a mechanism for operating the breech block, which is moved by a lever that turns sidewise. -- Side arms, weapons worn at the side, as sword, bayonet, pistols, etc. -- Side ax, an ax of which the handle is bent to one side. -- Sid…

apping beetle; an elater. -- Spring box, the box or barrel in a watch, or other piece of mechanism, in which the spring is contained. -- Spring fly (Zoöl.), a caddice fly; -- so called because it appears in the spring. -- Spring grass (Bot.), a vernal grass. See under Vernal. -- Spring gun, a firearm disharged by a…

Wound by mechanism connected with the stem; as, a stem-winding watch.

Designating, or pert. to, any device for operating mechanisms at a distance. --Tel`e*mech"a*nism (#), n.

An attack; an assault. One thrust at your pure, pretended mechanism. Dr. H. More.

and carriages which follow them into the field. Campbell (Dict. Mil. Sci.). -- Train of mechanism, a series of moving pieces, as wheels and pinions, each of which is follower to that which drives it, and driver to that which follows it. -- Train road, a slight railway for small cars, -- used for construction, or in…

To undo the mechanism of; to unmake; as, to unmechanize a structure. [Obs.] Sterne.

Causing movement in the walls of vessels; as, the vasomotor mechanisms; the vasomotor nerves, a system of nerves distributed over the muscular coats of the blood vessels. Vasomotor center, the chief dominating or general center which supplies all the unstriped muscles of the arterial system with motor nerves, situated…

An automatic machine gun in which the mechanism is worked by the recoil, assisted by the pressure of gases from the muzzle, which expand in a gas chamber against a disk attached to the end of the barrel, thus moving the latter to the rear with increased recoil, and against the front wall of the gas chamber, checking th…