A BOY AND A MOTOR

By Raymond F. Yates
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Harper Books by the Same Author

THE BOY’S BOOK OF COMMUNICATIONS
THE BOY’S BOOK OF MAGNETISM
A BOY AND A BATTERY
A BOY AND A MOTOR

2
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

A BOY AND A MOTOR. Copyright, 1944, by Raymond F

Yates. Printed in the United States of America. All rights in this book
are reserved. It may not be used for dramatic, motion- or talking-
picture purposes without written authorization from the holder of
these rights. Nor may the book or part thereof be reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without permission in writing except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For
information address: Harper Brothers,
East 33rd Street, New York, N. 1.

3
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

To
SUZANNE STAHLER
good little friend, good little neighbor

4
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 THE EARLY MOTOR BUILDERS...................................11

Chapter 3 HOW MOTORS WORK....................................................26

Chapter 4 THE “SIMPLE SIMON” MOTOR....................................35

Chapter 5 THE “WHIRLING CORK” MOTOR................................40

Chapter 6 MAKING “LITTLE SPEEDY”.........................................45

Chapter 7 MAKING THE “ROOFING NAIL MOTOR”...................52

Chapter 8 LEARNING TO “DRIVE” ELECTRIC HORSES............56

Chapter 9 A REVERSER FOR “LITTLE SPEEDY”.........................62

Chapter 10 MOTORS IN THE WORKADAY WORLD....................66

5
A BOY AND A MOTOR

6
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1. Faraday’s first electric generator or dynamo was constructed in

the manner shown. When supplied with current, the dynamo became a
motor...................................................................................................17
Fig. 2. An electric current is generated when a coil is moved near a
permanent magnet or in any magnetic field. This is the principle of the
electric generator or dynamo...............................................................19
Fig. 3. The shape of the magnetic field of a bar or a horseshoe magnet
may he traced by the use of fine iron filings placed over cardboard. .20
Fig. 4. What is known as the “motor effect” is demonstrated when a
magnetic compass is placed near a wire carrying an electric current.
Either the North or South pole of the compass will turn toward the
wire. This will depend upon the direction of the current in the wire. .22
Fig. 5. This experiment, performed with an ordinary Boy Scout
compass, will show that the reversal of current in a circuit will repel
one end of the compass needle and attract the opposite end...............23
Fig. 6. Fine iron filings sprinkled around a wire carrying a heavy
electric current will outline the so-called “magnetic lines of force”...24
Fig. 7. A long coil of wire with current traveling through it. produces a
magnetic field similar to that produced by a bar magnet....................25
Fig. 8. A loop of wire free to move will behave as a magnet when
current passes through it.....................................................................27
Fig. 9. A wire carrying an electric current behaves like a magnet. If it
is free to move, it will be attracted or repelled (depending upon the
direction of the current) by another magnet. This is called the “motor
effect”..................................................................................................28
Fig. 10. Coils of wire also behave as magnets when current passes
through them. They will be repelled or attracted by permanent
magnets...............................................................................................29
Fig. 11. The arrangement of the elements of a simple electric motor
with what is known as a “permanent magnetic field”.........................30
Fig. 12. The arrangement of parts and electrical connections for a
simple motor with a permanent magnet field......................................31
Fig. 13. The electrical connections of a “series wound” motor. Here
part of the current used to propel the motor is used in creating a
magnetic field......................................................................................33

7
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 14. The Simple Simon motor; great for high speed but not much
for power.............................................................................................36
Fig. 15. The construction details for the Simple Simon motor...........37
Fig. 16. The extreme simplicity of the “whirling cork” motor is shown
here......................................................................................................40
Fig. 17. The complete plan for the construction of the “whirling cork”
motor...................................................................................................42
Fig. 18. The “cork” motor is tested by its young builder....................44
Fig. 19. “Little Speedy”—the most powerful of the group of motors
described.............................................................................................46
Fig. 20. The construction plan for “Little Speedy”.............................49
Fig. 21. A young engineer gives” Little Speedy” a trial run...............50
Fig. 22. The construction plan for the motor “roofing nail” motor.....53
Fig. 23. The “roofing nail” motor complete and ready for business...54
Fig. 24. How the electric switch and rheostat are made.....................56
Fig. 25. The electric switch, the “key” that “opens” and “closes” the
electric circuits....................................................................................57
Fig. 26. The electric current regulator or rheostat...............................59
Fig. 27. The plan and assembly of the water rheostat.........................60
Fig. 28. How electric motors are controlled with a rheostat and a
switch..................................................................................................61
Fig. 29. The construction plans for the current reverser.....................63
Fig. 30. The reversing switch for “Little Speedy”..............................64
Fig. 31. How the current reverser is connected to the motor and
battery..................................................................................................65

8
A BOY AND A MOTOR

9
A BOY AND A MOTOR

10
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 1 THE EARLY MOTOR BUILDERS

In the year 1820, electricity was an infant science. Michael
Faraday, that great English Prince of Experimenters, as he was called,
was hard at work uncovering the laws of a giant that had been
slumbering since the world began. Our own Professor Joseph Henry,
not far behind Faraday, was also hard at work in his laboratory at the
Albany Academy. And he, too, did much to shoe the billions of
“electrical horses” that were later set free to do the work of the world.
This was the birth period of electric power. Nature was slowly
yielding a great secret. That electricity and magnetism were related
was slowly and painstakingly being uncovered. Wherever electricity
was found moving in the forming of electric current, there, too, was
magnetism and, curiously enough, when the mysterious sister force of
magnetism was made to move, electricity was found present. Men of
science began to dream great dreams.
In the late 1820’S, Professor Henry, then one of the great
authorities of the new science of electromagnetism, constructed the
world’s first large electromagnet. It took the form of an iron core
around which many layers of insulated wire were wound. When
electric current from a large battery of cells flowed through the wire, a
powerful magnetic field was generated and this magnetic field had the
power of attraction when iron was brought near it. Professor Henry
installed his magnet at the factory of the Pen- field Iron Works in
Vermont. There it was used to sift iron ore in the process of separation
before smelting. So far as history records, this was the first time
electromagnetism was used commercially.
At that time Thomas Davenport, one of our unsung heroes in
the great story of electricity, was an obscure blacksmith in the small
village of Branden, Vermont. Davenport had heard of Professor
Henry’s wonderful electromagnet and he visited the plant of the
Penfield Iron Works to see it in operation. Returning to his forge he,
too, began to dream great dreams. Surely, he thought, there must be
some way in which this pulling power of the electromagnet could be
harnessed to produce motion. As the sparks showered from his anvil,
he thought of an electric engine having a rotating member carrying a
series of electromagnets and so arranged that each electromagnet
would be pulled by a stationary electromagnet. Gradually the, idea

11
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

took form until Davenport was so sure of success that he set about
constructing the device of his dreams.
In those days, one could not go to the electric shop around the
corner to buy wire or accessories and Thomas Davenport was a poor,
hard-working man with barely enough income to keep him and 1iis
young wife. Copper wire was a rarity and copper with insulated
covering was not to be had. Less determined men might have been
discouraged but not Davenport.
How much sacrifice he made to purchase his raw wire, the
world will never know, but the story of the sacrifice his pretty young
wife involuntarily made has been told. After her marriage, she had
carefully laid away her silk bridal gown. Davenport found it and, quite
unknown to her, took it to his workshop and painstakingly cut it to
shreds. Each strip of the silk was wound around his precious copper
wire so that the wire could be wound into coils for the magnets of the
motor of his dreams.
His job completed, poor Thomas Davenport finally screwed up
enough courage to tell his wife of his misdoing. She sat and listened
quietly, the tears streaming down her cheeks but she was a brave soul
and thereafter the Davenports were of one mind in the completion of a
project that finally became the first faltering step forward in the
conquest of electric power.
As the model electric motor took form, the Davenports
anxiously awaited the day when power from a battery might send it
whirling away to its place in history. The little family sacrificed
everything but food and the barest necessities of life to hasten that
day. Finally, the first motor stood complete on the bench and the
Davenports applied the electric current. After a few adjustments, the
crude armature of the motor turned and a tremendous chapter in the
history of power was opened.
To perfect and exploit his invention, Davenport formed a stock
company which he called the Electro-Magnetic Association. We can
well imagine the courage of these early stockholders in the electric
power industry. They were heroes, every one of them placing their
hard earned cash in a venture that, to the common people of that day,
must have amounted to an association of dreamers and fools.
It must be confessed that Davenport, hero that he was, had been
supplied with the essentials of his motor by other master minds,
principally the great Faraday and Joseph Henry, Professor of Natural

12
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Science at the Albany Academy. Although not so well known as our

moderns like Steinmetz, Tesla or Westinghouse, Joseph Henry was an
intellectual giant who marked his century (1797-1878) as few others
had marked it. Indeed the electric motor was developed like many
other great inventions; it was fashioned out of elements supplied by a
number of independent workers. The telephone, for instance, would
have been impossible save for the work of Volta, Galvani, Faraday
and many others, most of them dead and gone, before the fabricator,
Alexander Graham Bell, appeared on the scene.
Michael Faraday, the man who, more than any other, paved the
approach to Davenport’s motor, was born in London, England, in
1791. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a bookbinder, one
Ridban, in Blandford Street, who turned out to be a disagreeable
tyrant. Young Faraday’s principal compensation was that of being
privileged to read books on science before they reached publication. It
was not long before his eager and insatiable mind had grasped the
principles of both of the then-infant sciences, electricity and
chemistry.
Many shining hours in his otherwise drab existence were also
supplied by the lectures of Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution.
Faraday’s hungry mind consumed every scrap of Davy’s offerings.
Not only that but the meticulous Faraday kept elaborate notes on
Davy’s lectures and, when the series was completed, the young man
bound his papers and submitted them to Sir Humphry with the request
for employment at the Royal Institute in the place of one William
Payne who had been engaged as handy man about the laboratory; a
sort of janitor who washed bottles, swept floors and made himself
generally useful.
Sir Humphry was impressed with Faraday’s notes and his first
interview with the young man, who was then twenty-two years of age,
resulted in his recommendation to the managers of the Institute that he
be employed. Faraday was accepted and the world lost an indifferent
bookbinder and gained a Prince of Experimenters whose contributions
to electrical science founded electricity in the workaday world. It was
Faraday more than any other man who bridged the gap between
electricity as a curious laboratory phenomenon and electricity as an
agent of industry.
If we wish to confine our definition of an electric motor to the
creation of mechanical motion through electrical means, Michael

13
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Faraday invented the first motor during 1821, sixteen years before
Davenport’s contribution. His motor, which we shall examine later,
was not, however, able to deliver power whereas Davenport’s was
able to propel small machines. In Faraday’s case, he merely caused
two small wires carrying electric current to revolve about a magnet
under the impulse of electromagnetic forces. This now-famous
experiment bore fruit for the first time on Christmas Day, 1821,
shortly after his marriage. The young couple lived in a few rooms
above the headquarters and laboratory of the Royal Institute and
Faraday called up to his young wife to “come see them dance,”
meaning the moving wires. Here was the birth of an idea that was to
be of tremendous significance to the world although at the time it was
appreciated by only a few men with a knowledge of the bare essentials
of electrical science. Today, we have electric motors delivering power
that could be matched only by 10,000 straining horses.
Faraday’s creation of motion by the interplay of
electromagnetic forces was soon followed by another classical
experiment conducted by Peter Barlow of Woolwich, England. It was
in 1824 that Barlow came forth with a metal wheel that was made to
revolve slowly in a magnetic field supplied by an ordinary horseshoe
magnet. This amounted to the next step in the development of the
electric motor. Although the little disc could barely move itself, it did
revolve and it did further demonstrate that properly arranged
electromagnetic devices were capable of producing continuous
motion.
Thomas Davenport knew little or nothing about Faraday or
Barlow. He was not a learned man in the sciences but he was
imaginative, patient, and persistent which are, after all, the principal
qualifications of genius. Davenport drew his inspiration from
Professor Joseph Henry whose contributions to electrical science were
of the first order of importance and who, quite unwittingly, duplicated
many of Faraday’s researches with identical results. For one thing, he
improved electromagnets which were made by winding wire around
pieces of iron. When electric current was passed through the wire
from batteries, the iron would become magnetized and remain so until
the electric current was withdrawn.
The power of such electromagnets was limited for two reasons.
First, all electric current of that day was generated by batteries. Indeed
it was part of poor Faraday’s early morning chores at the laboratories

14
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

of the Royal Institute to revive or renew his batteries so that they

might last out the day. The power of such devices was also limited
because wire had no insulation and only one layer of wire could be
wound around a piece of iron. Professor Joseph Henry saw that it
might be possible to insulate wire and thereby separate the turns and
layers so that electromagnetism could be made more powerful and
more concentrated. He and his associates laboriously wound hundreds
of feet of wire with silk cloth and large electromagnets so prepared
were finally able to lift as much as 3000 pounds of iron although
supplied with current by a series of faltering electric cells. Little did
Professor Henry realize that he was shaping the doom of a young
bride’s wedding gown!
At the time Thomas Davenport was hard at work on his motors,
another patient fellow in Russia, Moritz Hermann Jacobi, was also
experimenting and his design was quite similar to Davenport’s. His
final motor was very large and required a large battery of electric cells
for its current. Jacobi was so thrilled with the results that he built a
small boat and propelled it with his motor on the Neva River.
After Davenport and Jacobi came a long list of motor builders,
designers, improvers, and inventors. Indeed the work of perfecting the
electric motor still goes on, as the weekly issues of our Patent Office
Gazette show. Immediately following the two pioneers about whom
we have been reading, Fromant, Farmer and Pacinotti each made a
contribution toward improvement but each was finally thwarted
because of the lack of adequate sources of electric current. The
chemical cells used in the batteries were expensive and troublesome
and failed quickly when called upon to supply a large volume of
current. A new and better generator of electric power was needed.
Men had motors but little with which to drive them.
Again the brilliant mind of Michael Faraday came to the aid of
the infant giant, electricity. It was Faraday’s researches that paved the
way to the dynamo and it was the dynamo that made the use of large,
powerful electric motors practical. The dynamoelectric machine was
very similar to a motor but, in place of using electricity, it generated
electricity when it was driven by a steam engine or a water wheel. In
each case, mechanical energy was converted to electrical energy and
converted back to mechanical energy through the agency of the
electric motor. Large dynamos generated large amounts of current but
it was not in the nature of things that any generator of electricity

15
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

should deliver in electric current more than the equivalent of the

mechanical power used to drive it. Inasmuch as such machines were
never 100 per cent efficient (no machine is, as a matter of fact) they
would deliver less power than was supplied to them.
So much for the brief history of the electric motor up to the
invention of the dynamo. Fortunately for the young reader of this
book, many of the experiments conducted by Faraday and the early
electrical experimenters may be duplicated with simple and in-
expensive homemade equipment. The duplication of these
experiments will amount to exciting adventures in electrical science
and they will teach the student many of the basic facts of electrical
engines. Thereafter, we may approach the construction of toy motors
with confidence born of knowledge.

16
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 2 ELECTRICITY IS LIKE THIS—

Although the date of October 28, 1831, has not been set down
by our historians, it turned out to be one of the most important days in
the history of mankind. Michael Faraday made it so when he mounted
a small metal disc between the poles of a magnet. Two metal brushes
or contactors were arranged, one on the shaft and one on the edge of
the disc, so that electrical connection could be maintained while the
disc revolved. Each contactor or brush was connected to a sensitive
galvanometer or current measuring device. The simple arrangement is
shown in Fig 1.

Fig. 1. Faraday’s first electric generator or dynamo was constructed

in the manner shown. When supplied with current, the dynamo became a
motor
When Faraday turned the metal disc with the small crank, the
galvanometer or electric meter showed that an electric current was
generated and flowed in the simple circuit. When the disc was
stopped, no current flowed and, when it slowed down, less current
flowed. Here mechanical energy was being directly converted into
electrical energy. At last a way had been found to produce electric
current without the aid of the chemical or voltaic cell. The bands
should have played and a holiday should have been declared but
Faraday’s contribution caused not a ripple except among a small
group of experimenters associated with electrical research. Even
Faraday himself went about the Royal Institute laboratories much as
usual, little dreaming of the tremendous importance of his invention.

17
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Having accomplished the feat, he set about analyzing it. Into his
meticulous notebooks went the basic principles of dynamoelectric
machinery and, although over a hundred years have passed by, these
principles, as set down by him, still stand. Time has treated them well.
No young student of electricity or builder of motors should pass
by the story of the dynamo. Here we find not only a large part of the
story of electricity itself but we also discover that there is little
difference between dynamos and motors. When motors of certain
types are driven either by other motors, water wheels or engines, they
become dynamos; in place of consuming current, they generate it.
In a sense, a dynamo is like a pump in a water system. The
larger it is, the greater the amount of electricity it will generate and the
greater the amount of power that must be used to turn it. Some of our
dynamos or generators in use today require as much as 70,000
horsepower to drive them. This would amount to a single file of
horses extending for a distance of ii o miles or from New York to
Philadelphia with 20 miles of horses left over.
The “faster” the dynamos “pump” electricity, the greater will be
the voltage generated, and we discover that electric voltage is similar
to that which we call pressure in a water system. Here we find that, as
in the case of the water wheel, there can be very high electric
pressures or voltages without a great deal of power. For instance,
water may issue from a nozzle at a pressure of 1000 pounds per
square inch (which is a very high pressure) and yet, if the stream
issuing from the nozzle were directed against a giant water wheel, it
would not budge it. The giant water wheel would need water volume
as well as pressure. So it is with electricity. A million volts of
electricity is no index of power. A million volts might not have
enough energy to move a toy electric motor. For real power electricity,
like water, must have “volume” and this “volume” is called current or
amperage. The ampere means work and the volt refers to that part of
electric current that supplies the pressure or the force that pushes the
current through the wires of an electric circuit.
A proper understanding of the dynamo or motor requires an
understanding of the first principles of electricity and magnetism, two
very closely related sciences. Indeed they are so closely related that
scientists have difficulty in discovering where electricity begins and
magnetism leaves off. It is much like the two sides of a single coin.
Magnetism is always generated when electricity moves through a wire

18
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

and electricity is always generated in wires and conductors when

either magnets or the wires or conductors are moved when they are
close to each other. Here again the work of the genius, Faraday,
established this law by the use of the simple equipment shown in
Fig.2. He employed a simple hollow coil of wire (now called a
solenoid) connected to a sensitive current detector or galvanometer.
When Faraday plunged an ordinary steel magnet into the coil, the
needle of the galvanometer moved, proving the presence of electric
current. When the magnet remained motionless, however, no electric
current was generated. The only way in which electricity could be
produced with a stationary magnet was to move the coil instead of the
magnet. Of course, moving either the coil or the magnet represented
work and it was early discovered that with no work, there was no
electric energy. This was very much in keeping with the general laws
of nature that prove that we cannot get something for nothing. It
would be very fine indeed if we could simply leave a magnet inside a
coil of wire and generate all of the electricity that we needed. But the
matter is not nearly so simple as that.

Fig. 2. An electric current is generated when a coil is moved near a

permanent magnet or in any magnetic field. This is the principle of the
electric generator or dynamo

19
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Pushing our study of first principles back further, we arrive at

the very beginning; the ordinary steel magnet. Iron can be magnetized
and will conduct magnetism but, unlike steel and for some reason not
yet thoroughly understood, it will not hold its magnetism. Drawn
away from the source, it quickly reverts to its non-magnetic state.
Steel, on the other hand, tenaciously holds on to its magnetism; not all
of it but most of it.
Magnetism, like electricity, is invisible and it was Faraday who
first visualized magnetism from a magnet as being composed of “lines
of force”; something like invisible tentacles that reached out to grip
and hold or pull magnet-ward metals like steel or iron.
If some thought is given to this matter we come to see that iron
powder or finely divided iron-like filings might act in the manner of
independent small magnets in the presence of magnetism and that they
might set themselves up to follow the mysterious “lines of force.”
This is very true. To discover it for ourselves, a piece of light
cardboard is placed over the ends (or poles) of a magnet as shown at A
in Fig. 3. The finely divided iron particles behave as tiny soldiers
toeing the lines of force even when the lines bend and it is discovered
that they do bend in a manner depending upon the shape of the
magnet. At B (Fig. ) the cardboard and filings are placed over what is
known as a bar magnet. Here it is seen that at the midpoint of the bar,
magnetism reaches a zero point. The lines of force are most intense
near the ends of the magnet and they curve out from this point
becoming weaker and weaker as the distance increases.

Fig. 3. The shape of the magnetic field of a bar or a horseshoe magnet

may he traced by the use of fine iron filings placed over cardboard

20
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

All magnets have what are known as poles. One end is called
the North (N) pole and the other or opposite end is called the South
(S) pole. The behavior of one pole toward the other is most
interesting. It is found that when an N pole is brought near an S pole,
attraction takes place. Not so when S and S or N and N poles are
brought together. Here a rather violent form of repulsion or “pushing
away” is noticed. One of the basic laws of magnetism and electricity
is derived from this behavior and it states in very simple terms that
“like or similar poles repel each other and dislike poles attract each
other.”
One of the most sensational discoveries in the history of science
showed the mysterious connection between electricity and magnetism.
Prior to 1819, the men who had experimented with electricity were
strongly suspicious of some relationship between it and magnetism
but no one, not even the all-seeing Faraday, was able to place a finger
on it and say, “There it is.”
The discovery was left for a young Danish professor of Physics
at the University of Copenhagen, Hans Christian Oersted. Up to
Professor Oersted’s time, it was not known that a magnetic field
surrounded a wire carrying an electric current. Surmising that such
might be the case, Oersted thought that if this was so, an ordinary
compass should indicate the fact. As a result of his suspicions, he set
up the simple experiment shown in Fig. 4. The compass needle was in
a normal position and its South pole was pointing at the earth’s North
pole. Unfortunately, nothing happened when Oersted sent a current
through the wire. Still mystified, he abandoned the experiment. Some
time later, during the year 1819, Oersted was using an electric circuit
and a compass sat close by on his laboratory bench. This time, and
quite by accident, he noticed that the compass needle moved violently
when current passed through the electric circuit and that the needle
pointed toward the wire carrying the current. When the current was
reversed in the circuit, the needle would promptly reverse itself; that
is, the opposite end would swing around. Oersted’s first experiment
failed to yield results because the needle of the compass was already
pointed at the wire and Oersted failed to reverse the current in the
circuit.

21
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 4. What is known as the “motor effect” is demonstrated when a

magnetic compass is placed near a wire carrying an electric current. Either
the North or South pole of the compass will turn toward the wire. This will
depend upon the direction of the current in the wire
When the knowledge of Oersted’s discovery spread and it was
actually found that electricity was closely related to magnetism,
Faraday’s eager mind was given a great deal of fuel and his greatest
discoveries promptly followed. So many new experiments were
suggested that it took him many years to perform all of them.
Fortunately for the student, many of these early masterpieces of
research may be duplicated by simple equipment and very little
preparation. A single dry cell, even of the flashlight type, and a ten-
cent store Boy Scout compass may be used to duplicate Oersted’s
great experiment. The arrangement is shown in Fig. 5. The reversal of
the current is brought about by reversing the position of the wire
where it is connected to the dry cell. The dry cell should not be left
connected in this manner for more than a few seconds at a time
because this amounts to a direct short circuit which will soon damage
the cell.

22
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 5. This experiment, performed with an ordinary Boy Scout

compass, will show that the reversal of current in a circuit will repel one end
of the compass needle and attract the opposite end
Another simple experiment may be conducted to show that the
magnetic field surrounding a wire carrying an electric current has a
definite pattern just as in the case of the magnetic field of force
issuing from the poles of a magnet. The demonstration is made by
pushing a wire through a piece of cardboard, as shown in Fig. 6. Only
the barest sprinkling of iron filings is made to increase their sensitivity
to the magnetic effects of the current that is sent through the wire.

23
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 6. Fine iron filings sprinkled around a wire carrying a heavy

electric current will outline the so-called “magnetic lines of force”
Although this is a simple experiment, one with a flare for
research would notice several things. First, it would be seen that the
magnetic lines of force were perfectly round. Secondly, it would be
noted that they are arranged concentrically (one within the other) and
that they are closer together near the wire. As they spread out from the
wire they become more widely separated, indicating growing
weakness. Further experimentation would show us that the stronger
the current passing through the wire, the stronger the magnetic field
generated. There is a very direct relation between the two.
It was to be expected that sooner or later, the early
experimenters, having found that magnetism was generated by the
passage of electricity through wires, would seek to find some way in
which the wire could be concentrated or bunched so as to concentrate
the magnetic effects. Wire was therefore insulated and then formed
into coils. Current was then sent through the coils and the shapes of
the magnetic fields depended upon the shape of the coils. In Fig. 7 we
see the magnetic pattern developed by an ordinary coil. Such coils
behave precisely like ordinary magnets. They have North and South
poles. These may be reversed by reversing the current.

24
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 7. A long coil of wire with current traveling through it. produces a
magnetic field similar to that produced by a bar magnet
Among the questions that the inquiring young mind might ask
would be, “If a coil of wire carrying an electric current behaves like a
magnet, could such a coil be used in place of a compass? In short,
would its N pole be attracted by the S pole of the earth and vice
versa?” The answer to this is definitely yes, the problem being a
simple mechanical one. It might be diflju1t to make a light weight coil
and to suspend it in such a way as to make it sensitive enough and at
the same time carry current to it.

25
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 3 HOW MOTORS WORK

Our last chapter explained the relationship between electricity
and magnetism. We are now prepared to tackle the subject of the
motor by itself and to discover what makes it go.
By way of a brief review, it will be recalled that like magnetic
poles, whether on magnets or coils, repel each other and that dislike
poles (as N and S) attract each other. Therein lies a great deal of the
secret of electric locomotion. Were it not for these simple and easily
understood facts, there would be no electric motor. Of course, the
matter of attraction and repulsion can also be expressed as “pushing”
and “pulling.” In the steam engine, the pressure of the steam pushes
the pistons forward and the momentum of the flywheel pulls it back
again. We have some form of “push” in all of our engines.
The last chapter also brought out the fact that the interaction of
a magnetic field generated by a so- called permanent steel magnet and
one generated by a coil of wire was the same as the interaction of
magnetism generated either by two magnets or two coils. This is just
like saying that there is only one kind of magnetism regardless of its
source.
In Fig. 8 and the photograph an experiment is illustrated which
has been called the “motor effect.” Here a piece of wire forming part
of an electric circuit has been arranged on two hinges so that it may be
moved up or down. As current from a battery moves through the wire,
a steel magnet brought near the hinged wire w1lFeither attract or repel
it depending upon (1) the direction of the electric current in the wire
and (2) which one of the two poles of the magnet are brought near the
wire.

26
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 8. A loop of wire free to move will behave as a magnet when

current passes through it
If a permanent magnet will attract or repel a single wire
carrying an electric current, what might happen if a very large and
powerful permanent magnet was brought near a large coil carrying a
heavy current? The answer is simple and is just what might be
expected; there would be much more powerful attraction and
repulsion or pushing and pulling. It has long since been known that
the degree of pushing and pulling is limited by the power of the
magnetic fields in the motor coils. If the coils are large and are
supplied with very heavy electric currents, a large number of
horsepower will be generated by the motor. The power produced may
be approximately calculated by the application of fifth grade
arithmetic if the amount of electricity in volts and amperes consumed
by the motor is known. If the motor operates at 110 volts and
consumes 10 amperes, we simply multiply 110 by 10 which equals
1100. Multiplying volts by amperes supplies the unit of electric
power, the watt, named in honor of James Watt, the early designer of
steam engines. We have, then, 1100 watts of power. It so happens that
there are 746 watts in a horsepower and if 1100 is divided by 746 it is
found that 1100 watts is approximately the equivalent of one and one-
half horsepower.

27
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 9. A wire carrying an electric current behaves like a magnet. If it

is free to move, it will be attracted or repelled (depending upon the direction
of the current) by another magnet. This is called the “motor effect”
The thoughtful young reader will perhaps begin to surmise how
motors operate. He will visualize some sort of a rotating member with
coils and a stationary coil or coils supplying the magnetism that reacts
with the magnetism generated by the coils carried on the rotating
member. By the aid of some sort of shifting electrical contacts
arranged between the power source, which may be a battery, and the
revolving member, he can see how it would be possible to keep the
moving coils “at odds” with the stationary ones so that a quick series
of “pushes” and “pulls” would keep the revolving member in motion.
The revolving part of the motor, it seems, is called upon to catch its
electricity “on the fly” as it were. However, this should not be difficult
because we all know that electricity is far quicker than “scat.” It is
capable of reaching a speed of 10,000 miles a second through wire.
Things would have to move pretty fast to keep up with that.
In the drawing, Fig. 10, another experiment is shown to
demonstrate what engineers call the “motor effect.” Here a hollow
electric coil (always called a solenoid) is suspended by electric wires
in such a way that, even while it moves, it can receive electricity. Thus
when a direct current is sent through this coil, the coil will perform
like a magnet. One end will be North and the opposite end will be
South. Reversing the current will reverse the magnetic poles.

28
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Now if a strong permanent magnet, or another coil excited with

direct current, is brought near the suspended coil, one of two things
will happen. Either the suspended coil will be pulled toward the
magnet or the coil, acting as a magnet on it, or it will be repelled or
pushed away. This will depend upon which of the two poles of the
approaching magnet or coil is pointed at the suspended magnet.

Fig. 10. Coils of wire also behave as magnets when current passes
through them. They will be repelled or attracted by permanent magnets
Really this device amounts to a very simple motor. If the
elements were arranged properly, it would be possible to keep the
suspended coil in motion. If the magnet (or coil) held in the hand were
reversed at the proper speed, it would always be in a position to pull
or attract one end of the revolving coil. We can also understand that it
might be possible to use two reversed magnets to act on the revolving
coil in such a manner that one would be pushing while the other was
pulling.
The drawing, Fig. 11, shows the construction of a small motor
used to demonstrate the principle of electric locomotion. Study of the

29
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

drawing reveals a revolving coil mounted on a shaft and a permanent

magnet so arranged that the coil revolves close to it. It will also be
noticed that one end of the revolving coil is connected to the shaft
upon which it revolves, and that the other end of the wire comprising
the coil is connected to a pin. The pin is so positioned in relation to
the moving coil that every time the coil reaches a certain definite
position in relation to the magnet, the pin contacts a tiny brass strip
connected to a battery. If the electric circuit is traced through, it will
be found that this completes the electric circuit and for an instant (just
the proper instant indeed) electric current flows through the coil. Thus
is the coil repeatedly attracted to the magnet as it revolves. It is in this
way that the tiny coil receives what we might call an
electromagnetic”kick” every time it reaches a certain position. Of
course, when the simple motor is in operation, the action happens so
rapidly that the eye cannot follow it.

Fig. 11. The arrangement of the elements of a simple electric motor

with what is known as a “permanent magnetic field”
In Fig. 12 the simple electrical connections of an improved
form of elementary electric motor are given. Here it is found that two.
Small and flexible strips of sheet copper or brass are used to keep
current flowing through the coil as it revolves. This current is
permitted to flow at just the proper instant so that the proper sequence
of repulsion (push) and attraction (pull) will take place between the
magnetic field of the permanent magnet and the magnetic field of the
revolving coil. It is in this fashion that electric energy is changed
directly into mechanical energy. The more electric energy fed to the
motor, the greater the power of the motor.

30
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 12. The arrangement of parts and electrical connections for a

simple motor with a permanent magnet field
As young electricians, we must understand that the magnetism
generated by the magnet is also important. If this is weak, the motor
will be weak no matter what its size or how much electricity we feed
to it. The amount of electricity consumed by a motor will not only
depend upon the size of the motor and the amount of wire in its
revolving coil but also upon the work required of the motor or, as the
engineers say, its load. If the motor has no load but is running light,
then very little electricity will be used. As soon as a load is placed on
the motor, the electric power consumed will rapidly increase and if the
load becomes greater than the electric power present to run the motor,
the motor will stall. On the other hand, if a motor operates with an
overload where the source of electric power is sufficient, the machine
will become heated’ and finally burn out. It must also be clear to the
young reader that we could not expect to have a very powerful motor
with one loop of wire as the moving part and a small permanent
magnet for the magnetic field. As we move along, the methods used in
building large, powerful motors will be discovered.
Coming back to our analysis of the motor (see Fig. 12) it is
noted that the loop of wire comprising the moving part is shown in a
horizontal position. The direction taken by the electric current

31
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

supplied by the battery is indicated by the arrows. At this particular

instant, with the moving loop of wire in this position, the North pole
of the magnet will exert an upward force on the A section of the loop
while the South pole of the magnet will exert a downward force on the
B side of the loop.
Now let us imagine that loop of wire in a vertical position. Here
it is practically free either of attraction or of repulsion but it must be
remembered that all moving things have something called momentum;
they tend to move along after the power that caused them to move is
withdrawn. This is the reason why automobiles coast after the clutch
has been pushed in. In the case of the tiny loop of wire, it also
“coasts” beyond the dead point-or vertical position. However, when a
point much beyond this is reached, it will be noted that the sliding
contacts bearing on the rotating contact members (commutator)
reverse the electric current from the battery and when this happens the
electromagnetic force continues the rotation of the wire loop.
Now it so happens that permanent magnets produce limited
magnetism. A magnet of a given size becomes, as the engineers say,
“saturated,” and no matter what is done, it will have reached its limit
insofar as the strength of its magnetic field is concerned. The use of
such magnets would place a distinct limit on the power of motors.
How can this limitation be overcome?
An earlier chapter of this book referred to the magnetic fields
that surrounded wires carrying electric current. Every inch of even the
longest wires carrying electric current are encased in this invisible and
mysterious “pulling” and “pushing” power. Clever young engineers
will quickly see that if this wire, in place of being stretched out over a
great distance, is rolled up into a tight little coil, in a sense the
magnetism will be ”rolled up” also and the magnetism will thereafter
be highly concentrated when an electric current is passed through the
coil. Such a coil is called an electromagnet and the use of the
electromagnet permits us to set up extremely powerful magnetic
fields. When such coils are properly designed and heavy currents are
sent through them, extremely powerful attraction can be generated.
Owing to the limitations of permanent magnets, it would seem
advisable to re-design the simple motor shown in Fig. 12, substituting
an electromagnet for the permanent magnet. This turns out to be an
exceptionally clever move which, with other changes, will provide a
great deal more power. Of course, greater power will never be realized

32
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

so long as the moving coil is comprised of a single wire. The power

delivered by any motor depends upon the intensity of the interacting
magnetic fields and if one is strong and the other weak, a weak motor
will result. In order that both the magnetic fields of our re-designed
motor shall be strong, it will be necessary to add considerable wire to
the revolving loop. In place of a single loop, perhaps thirty or forty
loops may be placed in position but the size and length of this wire
must depend on the strength of the magnetic field generated by the
stationary coil which is wound upon a soft iron piece as illustrated in
Fig. 13, showing the redesigned motor.

Fig. 13. The electrical connections of a “series wound” motor. Here

part of the current used to propel the motor is used in creating a magnetic
field
Somewhere it was said that magnetism passes through iron with
less effort than it passes through air. Engineers who design motors are
most interested in permitting the magnetism of a motor to pass
between its poles and through its moving coils with as much ease and
freedom as possible. Therefore, they always wind these revolving
coils on soft iron drums.
Now that a new motor has been assembled, it might be well if
we stopped for a moment to learn the names of its parts. The wire
wound around the soft iron body of the motor is called the field coil.
This, it will be noted, is connected in such a way that the electric
current from the battery passes through it on its way to the revolving

33
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

coil. The field coil is said to be in series with the revolving coil and
this is called a series wound motor.
The revolving coil (or coils) of a motor of this and similar types
is called the armature. The copper contactors mounted on the motor
shaft are called segments and they comprise what is known as the
corn- imitator. Electrical connection with the revolving segments of
the commutator, which really amounts to a revolving switch
distributing current to the revolving coil or coils at the proper instants,
is established by means of contactors called brushes which, in the case
of small toy motors, may amount only to light springy copper. Larger
and more powerful motors have brushes made of soft carbon which is
a good conductor of electricity. Brushes, no matter what they are
made of, always press gently against the segments of the commutator.
The electric motors used in the workaday world differ
somewhat in construction depending upon the current (A.C. or D.C.)
that is used and the services for which they are intended.

34
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 4 THE “SIMPLE SIMON” MOTOR

So far our lessons in motor electricity or, as the engineers call
it, electrodynamics, have been confined to the classical principles.
With the very simple motor at hand, a new idea takes form. Here is a
motor that does not conform to standard practice. Yet it is practical
and any enterprising young electrician may have a great deal of fun
with it.
The basis of its operation is delightfully simple to understand.
Even a quick examination of Fig. 14 will help the young reader to
grasp the idea back of the machine. Here we find a soft iron bar with a
small shaft mounted in its center. The bar is free to revolve before the
simple electromagnet which receives its current from a near-by dry
cell. It will be clear that when current flows through the
electromagnet, the electromagnet will attract the end of the soft iron
bar nearest to it and that that end of the bar will move toward it
inasmuch as the whole bar can swing around on the shaft. Of course,
if the current remained in the electromagnet, it would continue to
attract the end of the bar and the whole bar would then remain
stationary after it reached the point closest to the end of the
electromagnet. We can see, however, that continuous motion might
result if some sort of mechanism was fixed that would automatically
turn the current on and off when the revolving bar reached the
position shown in the drawing. Fortunately, this mechanism may be
easily devised. All that is needed is a small spring that will contact the
ends of the revolving soft iron bar at the proper instant so that electric
current will flow through the electromagnet at the proper instant. It
must also be turned off at the proper instant.

35
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 14. The Simple Simon motor; great for high speed but not much
for power
The little motor about to be made has a number of things to
recommend it. It will last for years, it is simple to fashion, and it
develops a very high speed. Only a modest set of tools is required and
any boy who is at all clever with his hands should be able to complete
the job of construction in a half day.
Construction is started with a 1/4 -inch (diameter) iron carriage
bolt 5 inches long. This is available at almost any hardware store for
about three cents. This should be cleaned with emery cloth and bent in
a vise to the shape indicated in Fig.15. This shaping will have to be
accomplished with a rather heavy hammer and the job should be done
with as much accuracy as possible. The builder will note that the
threaded end of the bolt is carefully preserved and that the head of the
bolt is cut off with a hacksaw. Later the threaded end turns out to be
very useful in fastening the electromagnet to the wooden baseboard.

36
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 15. The construction details for the Simple Simon motor
The electromagnet is wound on the iron bolt but, before this can
be done, some sort of preparation must be made because good
electricians never wind wire directly over metal even though the wire
is insulated. The surface of the bolt at the point where the wire is to be
placed is first covered with a single layer of ordinary electricians’
friction tape or the sort of adhesive tape found in the medicine
cabinet.
Once more the young motor builder will have to impose upon
the good nature of the local electrician or radio store proprietor for a
bit of wire with which to wind the electromagnet of the motor. This
may have either cotton, silk or enamel for insulation. About 40 or 50
feet of No. 22 to 24 will serve nicely and it should be wound into

37
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

position as tightly as possible. Upon the completion of the winding,

one must be careful not to allow the wire to unwind partially by
leaving the free end loose. This should be temporarily twisted with the
other or starting end, several inches of which should be left protruding
for the establishment of electrical connections after assembly has been
accomplished.
Perhaps the builder will have to search for the piece of soft iron
to use as the revolving member. Care should be taken to see to it that
steel is not used in place of soft iron because in that event our
otherwise speedy little motor will not function at all. Any sort of scrap
iron or wrought iron will do, and here it might be advisable to seek
father’s assistance. If he is not able to help, then a machinist or a
repair man who works with metals should be able to supply guidance.
This soft iron bar is cut to the size shown. As the drawing
instructs, it will be necessary to drill a small hole through the center of
the bar for the shaft which may be a small finishing nail with the head
cut off. Both ends of the nail are brought to a sharp point by the aid of
a fine file. Pivot bearings are used because they offer very little
friction and will permit a low- power such as this one to reach a very
high speed. The little bearing members are cut from the sheet metal of
an ordinary tin can and the dimples or indentations for the pointed
shaft are made either with a prick punch or a large darning needle. A
sharp blow with a small hammer is all that is needed. Once the
assembly has been made, a single drop of very light machine oil on
the pivot bearing will still further reduce resistance.
Next, the builder must provide the spring electrical contact. It is
the function of this member of the motor parts to contact the whirling
bar (really the armature) of the motor so that electricity will flow
through the electromagnet at just the proper instant. It is these
impulses of magnetism that keep the ends of the bar of soft iron flying
electromagnet-ward while the motor is in operation. A piece of thin
spring brass will serve nicely for this member but, if this is not
available, ordinary “tin” will do. In any event, very careful adjustment
is necessary here. Only the slightest contact is necessary at each end
of the bar. Too heavy a contact will steal all of the energy generated
by the little motor and it will stop. The builder must also realize that
this is not a self-starting motor. Each time it is started, the builder
must give it a good send-off with his fingers.

38
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

One dry cell is usually sufficient but a battery of two will

develop a great deal of motor speed. The little device consumes such a
small amount that it will operate for a good many hours on a single
cell. If the luxury of a battery of four cells is possible, then one might
develop enough power to drive small light toys.

39
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 5 THE “WHIRLING CORK” MOTOR

As inexperienced motor makers, we shall have to be satisfied at
first with motors that are powerful enough to move themselves only.
This means, in short, motors that simply “go” and that do not have the
power necessary to drive other mechanisms.
Fortunately for the young motor maker who does not have
access to large stores of materials and tools, our “flying cork” model
may be assembled with bits and parts found about the house, provided
two small toy magnets are at hand. These are used to supply the
magnetic field.
Inasmuch as the armature or the revolving part of the motor is
the most important member of the assembly, that might well come
first on the construction list.

Fig. 16. The extreme simplicity of the “whirling cork” motor is shown
here
A cork is among the primary requisites and it must be a very
special kind of cork, one without a taper. A diligent search around the
house will usually turn up a cork of this sort. If such a thing cannot be
found, then a piece of balsa wood may be cut to this size and shape.
Such a job calls for some accuracy. The armature body must be
perfectly round. Otherwise it will be badly out of balance when it
revolves and the speed of the motor will be greatly reduced as a result.
Should the unbalance be too great, the motor will fail to operate at all.

40
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

The next thing on the list of materials is wire and here the
builder may have to hie himself to the local radio shop for help. Very
fine insulated wire is needed and it should be of No. 28 or 30 gauge. It
so happens that every radio shop has plenty of such wire about in old
radio sets and in obsolete equipment such as radio and audio-
frequency transformers. Seven or eight feet of the wire will be plenty,
but the shop proprietor may simply give the applicant one of the
devices upon which the wire is wound. Careful removal of the wire
will be necessary to prevent it from kinking or to prevent the loss of
the insulation or covering.
Before the winding is started, the builder had best find the
center of the cork or balsa wood armature form. Perhaps as much as a
half hour should be devoted to this task if we are to have a nicely
balanced, smoothly running motor. Testing of this kind must be done
with the bearings. Therefore the builder should cut them to shape from
a tin can and mount them as shown in the drawing, Fig. 17. This done,
a pin is driven into the center of each end of the armature form and
this is then rested on the bearings and spun with the fingers. If the
armature form will spin for some time, good balance has been
achieved. If not, there will be a very noticeable wobble and the
armature will come to rest in a short time. In this event, the builder
withdraws the pins, re-sets them and tries once more to achieve
balance. Time spent in this adjustment will be amply repaid.
Balance achieved, two more pins are set in place as indicated in
the drawing, Fig. 17. These, too, must be positioned at an equal
distance from the, center of the armature so that they will not destroy
the balance of the revolving part.
The latter two pins are to serve really as segments of a
commutator; indeed they are the commutator.

41
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 17. The complete plan for the construction of the “whirling cork”
motor
As will be noticed in the drawing, they are so placed as to make
flying contact with two small stationary wires connected to the
terminals of the dry cell. Another part of the secret of making this
motor operate at high speed lies in arranging these tiny wires in such a
way as to make only the gentlest contact with the flying pins as they
pass. The pins used must be of the same size.

42
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

The winding of the armature must be done with great care and
exactly the same number of turns of wire must be placed on each side.
To start the winding, the builder first clears the insulation away from
the end of the wire for a distance of exactly one inch. This bare end is
then tightly wound around one of the contactor pins previously placed
in the end of the armature drum or form. The winding is then begun
and continued until twelve turns are put in place on one side of the
form. Then a cross-over is made and twelve turns are placed on the
opposite side of the form. The builder should try to put the wire in
place with even tension in an effort to further preserve the balance of
the moving part. Should too much unequal winding tension be used,
one side of the armature will have more wire on it than the other and
only a slight difference is necessary to destroy any balance previously
achieved.
When the armature winding was begun, the builder was asked
to peel off just one inch of the insulation so that this inch of bare,
clean wire could be wound around one of the contact pins. When the
last turn of wire is set in place, this same procedure is followed, again
in an effort to preserve the balance of the delicate little armature.
Owing to the high speed developed by a motor of this type, it
may be advisable to wind two or three turns of thread around the
middle of the armature to prevent the wire from becoming loose and
shifting its position. In any event, if the builder has a bit of shellac
handy, no harm will be done by covering the whole armature with this
preparation. The excellent adhesive properties of this may make it
unnecessary to use the thread.
After the small stationary contactor wires have been set up and
adjusted so as to cause minimum interference with the movement of
the armature, the magnets are put in place on the blocks. Full power
and the highest speed will be developed by the motor only if the poles
of the magnets are brought as close as possible to the armature. The
relationship of the facing poles of the magnets is also of great
importance because the motor will refuse to run if these are not
correct. Thereafter, if the motor refuses to run after the dry cell is
connected to it, one of the magnets is turned upside down, which
reverses its poles. If this is the trouble with the motor, the correction
will have been made and the motor should start off, Of course, the
motor will refuse to start if the two pins on the armature are out of
contact with the stationary wires at the moment the current is applied.

43
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Otherwise, no current from the dry cell will be able to reach the
armature coils. Hence, a spin with the fingers will also set the motor
off to a sure, quick start.

Fig. 18. The “cork” motor is tested by its young builder

There is little advantage in using more than the power of a
single dry cell on this motor. Indeed the use of a battery of two or
more dry cells would cause the coils of the motor to heat badly and
the cells would be very short-lived as a result of too great a current
drain.
Back in the second chapter of our little book, we said
something about the power of any motor depending upon the strength
of the magnetic field. There is a wonderful opportunity to prove this
point with the motor at hand. The small magnets used for the
magnetic field need only to be moved further away from the armature.
As they are moved back, a point will eventually be reached where the
magnetic field in the vicinity of the armature will become so weak as
to stop the motor.

44
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 6 MAKING “LITTLE SPEEDY”

“Little Speedy,” as the boys who made the original called it, is a
remarkable motor. It is capable of a speed of 2,000 revolutions per
minute and, like all of our motors, it calls for very simple techniques
and materials in its construction. What is more, it will, with
reasonable care, serve us faithfully throughout our childhood, always
ready and willing to supply power for our toys.
First, we shall need a small horseshoe magnet. The size and
actual shape is not important so long as the magnet is powerful. If it is
weak, our motor will also be weak. Should the builder be able to
purchase one of the newer Alnico magnets, then he will have a far
more powerful motor than would otherwise be possible.
Our present motor, although it may not look the part when
compared with the large motors of the workaday world, is built along
classical lines, the design having been taken from the early motors
that appeared during the middle of the last century. When made with
reasonable care, it will be found to be powerful enough to drive small
toys.
The armature of the motor is a two-pole affair and, as in the
case of our “Cork” motors, it revolves before the permanent magnet
(North and South poles) because one of its poles is attracting one leg
or pole of the revolving armature while the opposite leg or pole is
repelling the other. This action is automatically continued because the
commutator carried on the armature shaft changes the direction of the
current passing through the armature coils at just the proper interval.
At all times, one pole of the flying armature is being “pulled” by one
of the poles of the magnet (as N+S) while the opposite pole is being
“pushed” (as N—N or S—S).

45
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 19. “Little Speedy”—the most powerful of the group of motors

described
Perhaps the builder will have to do a bit of searching before he
comes upon a piece of soft iron of the right size that may be used in
the construction of the armature. This cannot be of steel. The steel will
become quickly magnetized and thereafter our little motor will be a
motor in appearance only. A local blacksmith will be able to help if he
has a supply of what is known as scrap iron. A piece about 6 inches
long, 1/2 inch wide and 1/8 inch thick will serve the purpose nicely
and a bit of annealing will do no harm. To do this, the piece is held in
the flame of a gas stove until it becomes red hot. It is then left to cool
gradually. Such treatment will still further soften the iron and that is
what is needed; the softer the better. This done, the builder will
proceed to cut the soft iron piece to the dimensions indicated in the
drawing. Only a fine file and a hacksaw will be needed for this work..
Once more, the amateur motor builder is cautioned to seek
accuracy at this point. Should one end of the piece of soft iron be filed
away more than the other, trouble will result later on when it will be
necessary to balance the revolving part of the machine. Should the
armature be badly out of balance, the motor will not run. Hence,
vigilance begins with the sawing and filing and is carried through to
the completion of the job. If, after filing, the builder finds upon
measurement that one end of the soft iron piece is wider than the
other, he should file it down. A really careful worker will mark the
center of the iron and work until it will balance perfectly on the edge
of a knife. The next operation is that of bending the armature piece to

46
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

shape. This must be done in a vise and with a hammer. As the work
proceeds, the importance of balance is kept constantly in mind. The
piece is carefully marked where the bends are to be made.
This done, a hole must be drilled through the exact center of the
armature and this should be just large enough to admit the large
finishing nail (minus head) that is to be used as a shaft. This member
is soldered to the armature frame. If soldering facilities are not
available, then the builder will have to seek out assistance in some
neighborhood workshop. The best possible accuracy is called for so
that the soft iron armature frame will revolve accurately without
wobbling.
This latter operation prepares the armature for winding but
before this is done, it will be advisable to set the motor bearings up
and to test the armature for balance before the wire is wound in place
on the two poles. Then if the armature is badly out of balance, it will
be an easy matter to set it in the vise and file off metal on the heavy
side until balance is restored.
Before the wire is wound in place, the soft iron poles are
covered with a single layer of adhesive tape. Exactly the same amount
of tape is used on each leg.
A motor of maximum power calls for the use of 100 feet of No.
24 cotton-covered wire on each pole of the armature. This is wound
tightly and each turn of wire is made to hug the adjacent turn as
closely as possible.
In motors of this type it is required that the wire on the second
pole of the armature be wound in place in the opposite direction.
Therefore, when the builder begins the second coil, the winding
continues in the same way save for this reversal.
No matter how carefully the armature winding is set in place, it
will be quite impossible to have the same amount of wire on each pole
even though the same number of turns are counted. Therefore, it will
be advisable to test again the armature for balance after the windings
are completed and the ends of the wire arc temporarily twisted
together to prevent unwinding. Testing will usually show that one side
of the armature is heavier than the other. This may be easily remedied
by the removal of one or two turns of wire which will not seriously
interfere with the “electrical balance” required.

47
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

The balancing achieved, the armature is now set aside while we

work on the commutator. Should the builder have some shellac at
hand, no harm will be done if both coils of the armature arc smeared
with it before this member is temporarily set aside.
The next job is going to tax the ingenuity of even the best
young mechanics. Should the fellows without a great deal of tool
experience find themselves unable to accomplish the work, perhaps
the services of dad may be enlisted or it may be that some neighbor
handy man will be glad to render assistance.
For the commutator of the motor we must obtain a small piece
of brass or copper tubing. The hole in the tube should be about 1/4
inch in diameter and the tube may have an outside diameter of 3/8 of
an inch or more. Really the size is not extremely important save that
the tubing should not be so large as to be out of proportion with the
rest of the motor.
A piece of the 1/2 inch long tubing will be needed for the
commutator and it will be necessary to drive a piece of wood
doweling (rod) into the tube. A forced fit must be made so that there
will be no danger of the dowel coming out later. This done, both ends
of the tube are filed so that the wood will be flush with the metal tube.
The builder will now need some tiny brads less than 1/4 inch
long and, if they cannot be gotten at the local hardware store, it will be
necessary to press ordinary pins into service, cutting them off at the
head end.
Perhaps further work should not be done on the motor without a
careful examination of the drawing, Fig. 20, which shows the detailed
operations for the construction of the commutator. Here it will be
noted that four tiny holes are drilled in each end of the commutator
tube and that these must be slightly smaller than the diameter of the
brads or pins used. The drilling continues on down through the inside
wood dowel. It is at this point that a very serious mistake might be
made. This commutator is to be mounted on the shaft of the motor and
the copper or brass tube forming the commutator should be
electrically separated or insulated from the motor shaft. Should the
brads or pins pass through the holes in the dowel and contact the
motor shaft, the commutator would not function and the motor would
not operate. There fore the builder must see to it that the brads or pins
do not proceed this far. Yet they should be firmly enough placed to
hold the two segments of the commutator to the dowel after the

48
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

segments are formed by the use of a hacksaw. If what is known as a

jewelers’ hacksaw can be used for this purpose, a very fine cut may be
made. Otherwise, the ordinary hacksaw must be employed. In any
event, the worker proceeds with care because the commutator is, after
all, a delicate part of the motor.

Fig. 20. The construction plan for “Little Speedy”

The builder is now confronted with the task of drilling a straight
hole through the exact center of the wood dowel in the metal tube.
This is not quite so easy as it sounds. Either a crooked hole or an off-
center hole will cause the commutator to wobble and may even make
the motor inoperative.
The best machine to use for such drilling is a lathe but few
readers have such elaborate equipment. The next choice is a power
drill press but to use this successfully, the ends of the commutator
assembly must be perfectly square and the builder is still faced with
the rather difficult problem of finding the exact center of the dowel
before drilling.

49
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 21. A young engineer gives” Little Speedy” a trial run

Should the builder not know a lathe owner in his neighborhood,
he should seek out a machine shop. The job is so simple that not more
than ten or fifteen cents should be charged, yet the matter is so
important that the success or failure of the whole venture depends
upon it.
The reader who has carefully followed the instructions, and
who learned something from the first chapters dealing with the
principles of electric motors, will quickly understand the need of
establishing some sort of a relationship between the position of the
commutator on the shaft of the motor, the armature coils, and the
permanent magnet. After all, our motor will not operate at all unless
such a proper relationship is set up. The commutator functions as a
revolving electric switch which permits electric current to flow in the
right direction through the right coil at the right instant so that the
permanent magnetic field may properly interact with the
electromagnetic fields set up by the revolving armature coils. We must
see to it that the fit between the armature shaft and the commutator is
snug enough to prevent a gradual shifting of the latter when the motor
is running. Reference to our drawing, Fig. 20, will show the proper

50
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

setting of the commutator in relation to the coils and the permanent

magnet.
The making and installation of the brushes is next on the
program. The brushes are really sliding contacts that permit the
current from the battery to pass through the armature coils. If these
brushes are too heavy or press against the commutator too tightly, the
little motor will not develop power enough to overcome the friction
set up. What we need is light, thin brushes cut from thin sheet copper
or brass. They must press very lightly against the commutator, and the
commutator as well as the brushes must at all times be kept clean and
free from oil.
The bearings for the motor are of the pivot type that we have
used in other motors. Such bearings are simple and extremely
efficient. They should, however, be cut from thin sheet metal and
should not press too heavily against the ends of the motor shaft.
The installation and the adjustment of bearings completes the
job and places at our disposal a small motor that will offer many hours
of fine service. Little Speedy is really a fine motor, full of pep and
always ready to set off on new adventures in electromotive electricity.

51
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 7 MAKING THE “ROOFING NAIL

MOTOR”
The little “roofing nail motor,” as we shall be I calling it,
operates on the same principle as the motor described in Chapter 4. In
place of the motion being produced by magnetic attraction for the
opposite ends of a soft iron bar, the magnetism generated by the
electromagnet applies itself to the successive attraction of four roofing
nails driven into an ordinary thread spool which serves as the
armature of the little machine. A contactor device is so arranged at the
end of the spool that electric current will flow through the
electromagnet at just the proper instant, each roofing nail being
attracted and pulled forward, in turn.
Construction may as well begin with the armature. The thread
spool used is one of ordinary size and the roofing nails are selected
because of their large heads. Should the builder not have them handy,
there is no reason why 10-penny nails cannot be used when they are
cut off to the proper length, which should be in the neighborhood of 1
1/2inches.
Only the rankest kind of an amateur mechanic would attempt to
drive such nails directly into the spool which is made of hard wood.
Splitting would immediately result. Here the amateur builder must
first drill some small holes just under the size of the nails used and
these holes must be not only in line but they must also be equidistant.
This amounts to 90° for those mathematically able to estimate such
things in such terms. Builders should also take care to drive the nails
in for the same distance. This keeps the motor armature in balance and
contributes to smooth operation.
Now it will be necessary to drive four small contactor pins into
one end of the spool or armature. These are located by the use of a
compass as illustrated in the drawing and these, like the roofing nails,
are located 90° apart. They are, however, so arranged as to be placed
midway between the roofing nails. Once more, the builder is warned
to drill small holes in the end of the spool before the pins, which may
be small finishing nails cut off, are driven in place. These should be
left projecting about 1/4 inch.
The next operation should require some soldering but a
substitute method may be employed if the builder does not have the
necessary materials available or if he lacks the necessary skill. The

52
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

four pins in the end of the spool must be connected together

electrically. Should the builder be able to solder, he simply winds a
small piece of copper wire around each pin and sets a tiny drop of
solder in place over it. If this cannot be done, then the builder may
wind the wire around the pins, using several turns for each one, and
pinch the wire in place with pliers.
As the builder will note from the drawing, these four pins are
also electrically connected to the bearing through the medium of the
shaft. Thus, the copper wire connecting the pins, is also connected to
the shaft and this in turn contacts the metal strip bearing which has a
direct connection with the battery used to drive the motor.

Fig. 22. The construction plan for the motor “roofing nail” motor
Before this connection between the pins and the shaft can be
established, it will be necessary to set the shaft in place. The shaft
itself may be a large finishing nail with the head cut off and each end
filed to a sharp point for use on the pivot bearings illustrated. The
electrical connection from the four pins may be soldered or simply
squeezed around the shaft.

53
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Some care must be taken in putting the shaft in place. Here, too,
a certain minimum degree of accuracy is called for if a smooth-
running motor is to be had. Inasmuch as the hole running through the
center of the spool is much larger than the nail, this must be plugged
with a piece of wood and drilled so that the nail may be forced
through the hole. Should the builder have a power drill in his cellar
workshop, this task should be a very simple one. If not, and a hand
drill is used, some caution will be needed and some difficulty may be
encountered. In any event, we struggle to achieve as much accuracy as
possible.
Making the electromagnet is simple enough. A 3-inch carriage
bolt is used as the core and this may be bought for about three cents at
any hardware store. Adhesive tape is wound in place over the bolt
before the wire is wound. The latter may be any size between No. 18
and No. 22, the smaller the wire, the more (in feet) being required.
The bearings may be cut from used tin cans. The dimples or
depressions in which the sharpened ends of the shaft revolve are made
by the use of a sharp- pointed nail. Some care must be used to see to it
that they are both placed at the same height. Both are held in place on
the baseboard of the motor with a small wood screw. Care should also
be taken to see that the bearings are in perfect line. Otherwise, the
shaft will not revolve without a wobble and the motor will fail to
reach its maximum speed.

Fig. 23. The “roofing nail” motor complete and ready for business

54
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

The little spring contact member mounted at the end of the

baseboard makes electrical contact with each of the four pins as they
whizz by. If the motor is to run at high speed, this contact must be
very light and the builder will probably have to spend five or ten
minutes patiently in making this adjustment. Once this adjustment is
made, it will remain set for some time.
Owing to the heavier armature, this little motor should be
operated by a battery of two dry cells. To start the motor, the armature
is turned until one of the four pins mounted on the end of the spool is
in direct contact with the spring member on the end of the baseboard.
The electric current is then switched on. Should the motor fail to
respond, it may be given some assistance. Failure may mean that the
battery is too weak, or that the armature is not able to revolve freely
enough.

55
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 8 LEARNING TO “DRIVE” ELECTRIC

HORSES
Electric horses, even the very smallest ones, are pretty wild and
we learn to place bits between their teeth if they are to be kept “on the
road.” Otherwise they might run away and do all sorts of damage.
When water flows through a pipe, a faucet placed at the end of
the pipe will regulate the flow. The flow of electricity may also be
regulated easily and conveniently by the use of simple homemade
gadgets, products of our own little workshops.
Most of us already know that electricity is started and stopped
with an electric switch. A glance at Fig. 24(A) will quickly
demonstrate the simple function of this device. A switch simply
removes a small section of the conducting path for electricity when it
is “open.” When the switch is “closed,” the electric circuit is
complete. Low voltage electricity, such as the kind we use to drive our
toy electric motors, can be stopped short in its track by the tiniest gap
in the circuit in which it travels.

Fig. 24. How the electric switch and rheostat are made

56
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

The young electrician will want to make himself a simple

switch. The little one illustrated in Fig. 24 and in the photograph can
be assembled with simple materials and by the use of ordinary
household tools. For it, we shall need a small block of wood serving
as the base, a few 1/4 -inch strips of thin sheet brass or tin, two 1/2
-inch wood screws, a one-inch (long) machine screw and bolt and half
a thread spool which will serve as the handle of the device. Two small
washers may or may not be used but they will help hold the metal
strips in place more securely if they are employed. They also help the
wood screws to serve as binding posts because one wire connection to
the switch is placed under each one of the screws.

Fig. 25. The electric switch, the “key” that “opens” and “closes” the
electric circuits
When the switch is used with any one of the toy motors
described, the young e1çtrician should see to it that the moveable strip
is firmly pushed under the stationary one when he wants to close the
circuit for the operation of the motor. Otherwise, a bad electrical
connection will be made and such connections always cause the loss
of a certain amount of electricity. Having so little to use, we cannot
afford this.
While such a switch is an excellent “bit” in the teeth of our
small electric horse, it has rather bad limitations. After all, it will only
start him and stop him. At times, we may wish to make him trot or
make him walk. Clearly, no switch will permit this. Something is
needed that will regulate the flow of electric current. It is good news
that this may be done quite easily.
Perhaps we know that electricity does not pass through all
things—glass and silk, for instance. Such things are called insulators.
Other things permit a small amount of current to pass. The metals are
good conductors, but there is a wide variation between them. Silver
and copper are best. Compared with them iron is poor and so is lead.

57
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Some metals have been mixed together to form alloys and these alloys
have what is known as “high resistance” to the passage of electric
current. The wire found in our electric toasters and heaters is made
from one of these special alloys. This wire has such a choking effect
on the current that great heat is produced when the current is forced
through it. It is called “resistance wire.” A small length of it may have
as much resistance to the passage of electricity as many hundreds or
thousands of feet of large copper wire.
Perhaps the young electrician will by now have grasped the
principle used in applying resistance wire to the control of electric
motors. Doubtless we simply connect a certain amount of this wire in
the circuit with the motor. Really, it is not quite so simple as that
because arrangements must also be made to vary the amount of the
resistance wire in the circuit. Otherwise, the motor would have only
one speed (slower) and the user would not have gained complete
control. A simple device is needed that will measure out and take in
this wire quickly so that more or less of it may be quickly placed in a
circuit and removed. One might think that a device designed for this
purpose would be expensive and complicated but this is not so.
The reader will agree after the examination of Fig. 24(B). Here
the student will find that the resistance wire is wound up in the form,
of a long spiral so that a larger amount of it may be placed within a
small space. Secondly, it is noted that a moveable metal point or arm
is so arranged as to have its end play over the wire spiral forming an
electrical contact with it. At the position A, only one half of the
resistance wire will be in the circuit. The lines show the path taken by
the current. That part of the resistance wire having no current passing
through it might just as well not be there. It amounts to a dead end.
When the lever of the device is moved to the position shown in Fig.
24(B), only a very small amount of the resistance will remain in the
circuit and a short advance from this position will eliminate all of it
and still further increase the speed of the motor.
But how much wire will be needed to control the speed of a
motor—any motor—? This depends on a number of things: the
voltage of the electric current, the number of amperes that must flow,
the size and length of the resistance wire and the metals in the alloy.

58
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 26. The electric current regulator or rheostat

The device just described is not nameless. It is called a rheostat
(re-o-stat). One may be assembled by an amateur electrician in a jiffy.
The wire may, during ordinary times, be purchased at the local five-
and-ten-cent store for as little as ten cents. It is called Nichrome wire
and is intended to supply renewals for electric toasters. Only one half
of the spiral purchased will be needed for the purpose.
Should the student be unable to obtain such wire, a 10-cent
spool of 22 or 24 iron wire may be had at any hardware store. This
may be tightly wound on a pencil until a spiral about three inches long
is formed.
The mechanical details of our rheostat will be made clear by an
examination of Fig. 24(B). Here it will be seen that another lever
similar to the one used on the switch is needed. Three 1/2-inch wood
screws and three small washers together with a thread spool and
another one-inch machine screw and bolt complete the list of
materials. Such a rheostat will permit the motor maker to adjust the
speed of his machines from a “run” to a “creep.”
There is still another form of rheostat that may be made by the
young motor builder. Perhaps we have heard that water is a good
conductor of electricity. Of course, that is only partially true.
Chemically pure water will hardly conduct electricity at all. When
common table salt or other mineral substances are added to water,
however, it becomes a better conductor of current but it does not by
any means rank among the best. Really it is not much better than iron.
This being so, the young electrician may assemble what is known as a
“water rheostat.” This simply involves a water tumbler partially filled

59
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

with water in which a tablespoonful of common salt has been

dissolved.

Fig. 27. The plan and assembly of the water rheostat

The form taken by the water rheostat is illustrated in the
drawing, Fig. 27. A small water glass is used and one connection to
the water is established by means of a small metal plate placed in the
bottom of the glass. A wire is connected to this and lead outside the
container. This wire must be rubber covered to prevent the passage of
current between it and the second or moveable metal plate or
electrode, as it should be called.

60
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 28. How electric motors are controlled with a rheostat and a
switch
Here the electrical resistance in the motor circuit is regulated
within wide limits by adjusting the distance between the piece of
metal at the bottom of the glass and the moveable piece of metal
mounted at the end of the metal rod. The small piece of spring brass
fixed to the top of the device and pressing against the rod is used to
keep the latter in any position.
Fig. 28 shows how a battery motor, switch and rheostat are
connected together for operation. The motor builder should make sure
that the switch is left in the “open” position when he completes his
work.

61
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 9 A REVERSER FOR “LITTLE

SPEEDY”
Chapter 8 told us how to control our tiny electric motors. There
was a rheostat to regulate speed and a switch with which to turn the
current on and off. Now we have another gadget to make; this time a
device that will make an electric motor “turn about” so to speak. By
its use the armature of the motor will stop and set about revolving in
the opposite direction. Unfortunately, this reverser cannot be used
with all of the motors described in this book. It will work with “Little
Speedy” and the improvised “Cork” motor described in Chapter 5, but
it is useless for the others.
The materials required for construction may be found about the
household and this might also be said of the tools. A coping saw, a
regular saw, a screw driver and a hammer are all that are needed. The
wood may be soft pine or, in fact, anything that is clean and handy
and that has a thickness of about 3/4 of an inch. The metal used comes
from that inexhaustible supply, the tin can. This may be cut to shape
with an old pair of scissors if tin snips are not to be had. Of course, the
tin should be taken from a fresh container and not from one that is
covered with rust.
The coping saw will be needed to cut the disc of wood upon
which the two metal or tin plate segments are mounted. Inasmuch as
the function or operation of the reverser will not suffer if the wood
disc is not truly circular, too much care does not need to be exercised
in cutting out this member. It is important, though, that all of the
dimensions be carefully followed. Otherwise, upon assembly, we shall
find that the four stationary contact members will not touch the
moving segments at the correct point and it is important that they
should.

62
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 29. The construction plans for the current reverser

The segments mounted on the circular piece are held in place
by the aid of small brads. Larger nails will in all likelihood split the
wood disc. It will not be necessary to drive the heads of these nails
below the surface because they are, as will be noted in Fig. 29, placed
in such a position as to avoid the stationary contact member when the
position of the disc is changed for reversal by means of the handle.
This handle may be cut from a piece of 1/4-inch dowel or a short lead
pencil may be used if the latter is not at hand. A bit of glue will be all
that is needed to hold the handle in place.
Some care should be taken in bending the stationary contacts td
shape. Good electrical contacts with the moving members or segments
are sought. Good contact means that as large a contacting surface as
possible should be established. Perhaps it will be necessary to bend
the edges of the stationary members slightly upward so that they will

63
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

not catch the edges of the moving segments as they are turned. A little
fussing with this adjustment will produce smooth operation. The wood
screw that serves as the shaft for the wood disc also needs careful
adjustment. It should not be too tight or too loose. The use of the
small washer between the head of the screw and the disc is also
necessary. The screw should be just tight enough to prevent shifting of
position once the reverser has been operated.

Fig. 30. The reversing switch for “Little Speedy”

Small washers must also be used under the small wood screws
holding the stationary contacts in place. These serve in holding the
connecting wires. The method of mounting the reverser for Little
Speedy is optional. If the builder wishes, he may simply lay the device
flat on the table. Mounting in the manner shown in the photograph
does permit one-handed operation of the device whereas the other
method would require that one hand be used to hold the reverser while
the handle is turned with the other.

64
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Fig. 31. How the current reverser is connected to the motor and
battery
Small motors operated with current from one or two dry cells
require good electrical connections because of the low voltage of the
power source. Little motors of the type described in this book can
easily become inoperative because of dirty or loose connections. The
connections should be kept as short as possible and tightly clamped
or, better, soldered.
When connected as shown in Fig. 31, the operation of the
reverser switch is very simple. When it is desired to reverse the motor
the handle is simply pushed in either direction as far as it will go.

65
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Chapter 10 MOTORS IN THE WORKADAY

WORLD
Unless we stop to think about it, few of us realize how much
our daily life here in America depends upon the electric motor.
Millions of them are in constant use, some of them so small that we
could cup them in the palm of our hand, others so enormous that
40,000 straining horses would be needed to match their power. Indeed
the tiny motors driving our electric clocks are so small that they may
be balanced on the end of our thumb. The big fellows that drive our
battleships could not be squeezed into our living rooms. Yet fifty years
ago very few motors were in use even in our highly advanced country.
The steam engine was still supreme and was indeed the power master
of the whole world. It had been in the ascendancy since Watt had
perfected it back in the latter part of the eighteenth century. But
history shows that the steam engine suddenly met a competitive
producer of power that was clean, silent and efficient.
Back in the early days, when ‘Watt’s first hissing monsters were
installed in the textile mills of England, power was distributed through
the use of pulleys and ropes. Crude wooden gears were used when it
was necessary to turn corners and most of the power generated by the
early engines was lost before it reached the machines that were driven
by it. As time went on, these methods of steam power distribution
were improved upon and steam engines were perfected but still steam
power had many limitations.
It was not, however, until the year I 890 that the electric motor,
perfected after sixty years of experiment, was able to challenge the
steam engine. That it should challenge it and eventually replace it was
patent because the electric motor was a much more practical device.
There was no trouble making electricity turn corners. Here was silent
power that needed no pipes, no pulleys, no belts nor ropes.
Really the electric motor was able to displace the steam engine
long before 1890 but it had to await the perfection of electric
generating equipment. After all, powerful electric motors intended for
day-to-day use in the workaday world could not be operated from
electric batteries. The batteries were far too expensive and they were
impractical. The electric motor had to await the development of its
sister device, the dynamo or generator which was capable of changing
mechanical energy (as from a steam engine or water wheel) directly

66
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

into electric energy. ‘Without dynamos and generators the Electric

Age, as we know it today, would not have arrived.
Soon after the perfection of large dynamos, certain alert
manufacturers in the United States installed them in their steam power
houses. The steam engines, instead of driving long belts leading to the
factory, were hitched to the dynamos and electric power from the
dynamos was carried to motors located near the machinery to be run.
The great central power stations had not yet been built but it was not
long before enormous steam-electric and hydroelectric generating
stations began to dot America and millions of horsepower began to
flow over the copper threads hung high on poles. The great
hydroelectric station at Niagara Falls, completed in I 895, supplied
power to operate the street cars in Syracuse, i 8o miles away. That was
something that Watt’s steam could not have done.
Electricity turned out to be a fluid, easily-managed power. Not
only could it turn corners and somersaults, but it could be controlled
by the flick of a finger and it left no dust, no dirt. Little wonder they
began to call it “white coal.”
Long before the use of electric power in factories became
general, the electric street car made its appearance. Old Dobbin, prim’
mover of the early street transports, was gradually replaced by a
relatively small iron-encased package of power placed underneath the
street cars near the wheels. The electricity needed to operate the
“electric horses” was conveyed through the steel rails and a large
bronze wire strung over the rails and contacted by what was known as
the trolley.
The appearance of even the earliest electric motors,
cumbersome, uncertain affairs that they were, inspired inventors. Not
a few of them dreamed of powerful, silent electric locomotives
streaking across the countrysides in place of the puffing, noisy steam
engines. They dreamed, too, of electric street cars to replace the horse
cars so widely used between the years of 1870 and 1890.
Thomas Davenport, the inventor of a practical motor mentioned
in Chapter i, was one of the first inventors to dream of electric
railways. Poor and without large financial support, Davenport had to
be satisfied with the construction of a model electric line operated by
power from primary batteries. His idea was sound enough but this was
in 1834, many years before the larger and more practical dynamos
appeared.

67
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

Robert Davidson was another pioneer in the field of electric

traction and he was not far behind Davenport. It was in 1838 that he
came forward with a full- sized electric engine that was actually given
a test run on the Edinburgh-Glasgow R. R. A man named Thomas
Hall, of Boston, Massachusetts, also built a full-sized locomotive that
performed well considering the rather unreliable source of power.
Many other inventors and would-be inventors tried their skills
on the problem of electric traction but real progress was impossible
until about the year 1875 when the first large and practical dynamos
began to appear.
The first passengers ever to be carried about on a commercial
basis toured the grounds of the Berlin Exposition in the year 1879.
The machine and its cars were constructed by the great German
electrical firm of Siemens and Halsee. The large scale experiment was
so successful that the same company built a commercial road between
Lichterfeld and Berlin. This operated for many years and attained high
speed schedules. This was in 1881.
Thomas Edison constructed a crude electric locomotive at
Menlo Park, New Jersey, but the unimaginative railroad officials who
saw it said that electricity held no future in the railroad business.
Today we see sleek electric locomotives moving at high speed
across the country and the Diesel-electrics, too, have established
operating schedules that cannot be maintained by steam engines
because of the servicing and solid fuel (coal) problems.
The Diesel-electric carries powerful Diesel motors and these in
turn drive electric generators. They supply their current directly to
electric traction motors that operate the locomotives. Why not drive
the train directly with the Diesel motors? Well, electricity is a far more
flexible power; it is easier to handle and control and for these reasons
it is practical first to change the Diesel power into electric power.
For these reasons, our battleships are equipped with enormous
steam plants. The steam produced by the great boilers is used to drive
turbines and the turbines, in turn, drive great electric generators. These
supply thousands of horsepower of electric energy to gigantic electric
motors that drive the propellers through a series of gears.
The use of such power makes it possible to maneuver the ships
much more easily. It also makes it possible to employ the steam
turbine in place of the steam engine. The former is a much more

68
 A BOY AND A MOTOR

efficient machine but, unlike the steam engine, its direction of motion
cannot be reversed. Electric drive, however, makes reversal easy.
Perhaps one of the most interesting electric trains in the world
operates for the C.M. and St.P. railroad over the Rocky Mountains.
This is an enormous engine of 5,000 horsepower rating and carries
sixteen electric motors in all, one for each axle of the sixteen sets of
wheels. The peculiar thing about these motors is that the engineers
who designed them arranged matters so that the motors would also
serve as generators. When current was fed to them, they were ordinary
motors. On the other hand, they generated current, when they were
mechanically driven.
After reaching the peak of the Rockies, the road descends many
miles, and the locomotives, steam or electric, have to coast. When
coasting, then, why would it not be possible to permit the moving
locomotive to drive the motors, the motors then acting as generators?
That was a simple question and it was answered by the electrical
engineers of the General Electric Company who designed and built
this first “floating power house” as it has been called. Now, when
these great locomotives roll down either side of the Great Divide, the
motors are switched over to serve as generators and the generators, in
place of taking power from the line, pump it back to help locomotives
struggling up the opposite side. Not only that, but the generators
require power to turn them and they serve beautifully as brakes.
Fifty years ago, no American home could boast of an electric
motor. Now millions of homes have motors, some as many as 20 or
30. Countless millions of motors are used in transportation and
industry and even our great transport and military planes carry a
number of fractional horsepower motors aloft. It can be truly said that
a very large part of our “Electric Age” is supplied by the electric
motor.

69