Electric Motor - Nelson, BC
Posted by: T0SHEA
N 49° 29.994 W 117° 16.756
11U E 479778 N 5483067
This motor is still on display at the old Nelson Museum Building on the corner of Anderson Avenue and Nelson Avenue.
Waymark Code: WMHK3W
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 07/17/2013
Views: 5
Though the museum has moved to new premises, this motor, and a few other artefacts, have remained here on outside display.
Patented in 1880 and 1881, this may be the oldest electric motor I've ever seen. Its design, too, is totally unlike anything I've ever seen. It has a large cylinder either side of the rotor, possibly with windings inside causing them to act as magnets for a two pole stator. In any event, it's different. The output shaft is pretty hefty, suggesting that it ran on really high voltage and put out a lot of torque.
Further thought leads me to believe that those cylinders could be a stack of magnets. As well, this thing could also act as a generator. In this area, as a generator it could have been driven by either water or steam and would most likely have been used in one of the local mines.