Home-made Toy Motors: A Practical Handbook Giving Detailed Instructions for Building Simple but Operative Electric Motors

An Electric Motor is a device for transforming electricity into mechanical power. A generator, or dynamo, is constructed in almost the same identical manner as a motor but its purpose is just the opposite. A dynamo transforms mechanical power into electricity. A dynamo produces electric current, but a motor consumes it. Some machines can be used either as a motor or dynamo—not all however.

Of course most experimenters have in all probability seen many electric motors, but it is more than likely that the exact operation is not thoroughly understood. Here is your chance to learn.

The little motors described in this book can each be made in two or three hours out of a few scraps of sheet iron, magnet wire and screws. The cost of the necessary materials is practically negligible.

One of the main advantages of these little motors is that they illustrate the actual principles that are used in the large motors, such as are employed everywhere for practicable power purposes.

The iron parts may be made out of sheet iron or the ordinary so-called "tin" used in cocoa cans, etc. Thin tin can be cut with an ordinary pair of shears. Sheet iron such as is used in making stovepipes, etc., is an excellent material to use in making these little motors. Sheet iron is usually heavier than tin and will have to be cut with a pair of "snips." Greater skill will also then be required in bending the parts. It is worth while noting however, that the extra difficulty involved in using the heavier material is worth the trouble because it makes possible a more powerful and efficient motor.

The first and easiest type of motor to make is the "Simplex."

The Principle on which an Electric Motor Operates is really very simple. If a current of electricity is passed through a copper wire, the wire will attract to itself iron filings, etc., as long as the current continues to flow. As soon as the current is shut off, the filings drop away because the magnetism immediately disappears with the cessation of the current.