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The principal or most important spring in a piece of mechanism, especially the moving spring of a watch or clock or the spring in a gunlock which impels the hammer. Hence: The chief or most powerful motive; the efficient cause of action.

The cone or conical wheel of a watch or clock, designed to equalize the power of the mainspring by having the chain from the barrel which contains the spring wind in a spiral groove on the surface of the cone in such a manner that the diameter of the cone at the point where the chain acts may correspond with the degree…

seeth all his goings. Job xxxiv. 21. Going barrel. (Horology) (a) A barrel containing the mainspring, and having teeth on its periphery to drive the train. (b) A device for maintaining a force to drive the train while the timepiece is being wound up. -- Going forth. (Script.) (a) Outlet; way of exit. "Every going fort…

A piece attached to, or forming part of, the hammer of a gunlock, upon which the mainspring acts and in which are the notches for sear point to enter.

ip's crew is commonly divided. -- Watch barrel, the brass box in a watch, containing the mainspring. -- Watch bell (Naut.), a bell struck when the half-hour glass is run out, or at the end of each half hour. Craig. -- Watch bill (Naut.), a list of the officers and crew of a ship as divided into watches, with their s…