Mahovos

English

Etymology

Russian?

Noun

Mahovos

1. (engineering, archaic) A device for saving power in stopping and starting a railroad car, by means of a heavy flywheel.
   • 1869, Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, Machinery and Processes of the Industrial Arts‎^[1], page 160:

     For this purpose, on the axes of the friction wheels which sustain the Mahovos, there is a second pair of wheels somewhat smaller, and nearer the middle, which ordinarily run out of contact with anything.

   • 1870, Harper's New Monthly Magazine‎^[2], volume 40, page 933:

     Among other important novelties in mechanical science exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1867, and brought to our notice by the admirable report of Dr. Barnard, of Columbia College, is one called the "mahovos," the invention of a Russian engineer, which, it is though, contains the germ of an important improvement.

   • 1884, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary‎^[3], volume 1:

     The Mahovo is the name given by the inventor, Captain C. Von Schubersky, of Russia, to an adaptation of the fly-wheel to accumulate a reserve of force to be used at intervals when a greater power is needed.