The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-03-20

Small wonder that this is the ag,
OF electric power when human mind
seek daily Tor new applications OF tht
motor 70 rest the tired and worr
muscles Of human bodies. Industr,
otter industry has been electrified
machine after machine has been di
rect connected to the labor and tim,
saving electric motors, From ths
dainty little motor, small enough fol
a watch charm to the monster 600(
h. p. motor used in the steel mills a,
Gary, Ind, the powerful little engines
are made in every size and installed
wherever power is required, until to.
day nearly 100000 electrical horse.
power is used in this country alone.
So rapidly is the demand increasing
for electric motors throughout the in.
dustrial world that the great plants
Of the General Electric Company dur
ing the year Just closed averaged
nearly 5000 motors of all sizes each
month to Keep pace with the orders.
With all these motors scattered
broadcast over the land and used
daily by thousands very few people,
outside OF the practical electricians,
understand the working principles OF
the motor beyond the fact that it is
a device which does mechanical work
at the expense Of electrical energy
Now everyone knows that magnet
will attract the opposite pole OF an
other magnet and will exert all its
energy TO pull it around II is also
well-known that every magnet placed
in magnetic field tends to turn
around and set itself along the lines
of force. The compass is but a small
balanced magnet which, in setting it
self parallel with the earth's lines OF
magnet force, points north and south,
These facts were well-known by
scieatists at the time of the invention
of the electro-magnet by Faraday in
1926. which gave to the world mag
net which could be controlled About
this time number Of keen thinkers
realized that it would be possible to
construct an electric engine utilizing
this magnet phenomena. II was
found that il an eiectro-magnet was
suspended between the poles OF an
other magnet It would be pulled
around parallel to the lines OF mag
netic force OF the stationary magnet
and that by reversing the current in
the swinging magnet at the right time
the movement could be made con
The first to hit upon this happy
find was one Thomas Davenport,
poor, self educated blacksmith OF Yer
mont, who in 1884 constructed a
rotating electric motor Of to-day.
Between the years 1834-6O number
OF inventors perfected different types
OF electric motors. Jacob in 1884
placed motor to run boat; Henry,
Fromant, Farmer, Siemcns and
Others built motors Electric motors
we're employed to drive cars as early
as 1834-38 by both Davenport and
Davidson. With these first inventors
il was extremely difficult for them to
get away from the old steam engine
ideas and some Of the first types
worked and looked like the steam en-
gines OF that day. Many of these
early Electric engines" received their
power from reciprocating pistons at
tracted and repulsed by magnetic
coils. It is needless to say that they
were mere toys.
Davenport set the scientific world
agog with his electric motor. In
1852 Page succeeded in constructing
motor large enough to run a circu-
lar saw and a lathe. Davidson, in
l842, ran an electric carriage about
the streets Of Glasgow at four miles
an hour. A motor Of ten horse
power was built in l84o by Soren
Hjorth at Liverpool. Two import
ant steps were the invention OF the
shuttle armature by Siemens IN 1893
and the ring armature in 1904 by
pacinotti. The motor development
came after Gramme's dynamos IN
1871. An the FIRST attempts at motor
building came to naught because the
was too cumbersome and costly and
because the electrical engineers Of
those days did not clearly understand
the physical laws Of the energy with
which they were dealing.
The source Of power in the motor