A mainspring is a spiral torsion spring of metal ribbon that is the power source in mechanical watches and some clocks. Winding the timepiece, by turning a knob or key, stores energy in the mainspring by twisting the spiral tighter. The force of the mainspring then turns the clock's wheels as it unwinds, until the next winding is needed. The adjectives wind-up and spring-wound refer to mechanisms powered by mainsprings, which also include kitchen timers, music boxes, wind-up toys and clockwork radios.
Read more about Mainspring: Modern Mainsprings, How They Work, History, Broken Mainsprings, The Myth of 'overwinding', Self-winding Watches and 'unbreakable' Mainsprings, 'Tired' or 'set' Mainsprings, Power Reserve Indicator, Unusual Forms of Mainspring
Famous quotes containing the word mainspring:
“His life was a sort of dream, as are most lives with the mainspring left out.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Thus all our dignity lies in thought. Through it we must raise ourselves, and not through space or time, which we cannot fill. Let us endeavor, then, to think well: this is the mainspring of morality.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)