Fig. 62 is a side view of such a motor with a portion of its armature core exposed. Fig. 63 is an end or edge view of the same. Fig. 64 is a central cross-section of the same, the armature being shown mainly in elevation.

Fig. 62.Fig. 63.Fig. 64.

Let A A designate two plates built up of thin sections or laminæ of soft iron insulated more or less from one another and held together by bolts a and secured to a base B. The inner faces of these plates contain recesses or grooves in which a coil or coils D are secured obliquely to the direction of the laminations. Within the coils D is a disc E, preferably composed of a spirally-wound iron wire or ribbon or a series of concentric rings and mounted on a shaft F, having bearings in the plates A A. Such a device when acted upon by an alternating current is capable of rotation and constitutes a motor, the operation of which may be explained in the following manner: A current or current-impulse traversing the coils D tends to magnetize the cores A A and E, all of which are within the influence of the field of the coils. The poles thus established would naturally lie in the same line at right angles to the coils D, but in the plates A they are deflected by reason of the direction of the laminations, and appear at or near the extremities of these plates. In the disc, however, where these conditions are not present, the poles or points of greatest attraction are on a line at right angles to the plane of the coils; hence there will be a torque established by this angular displacement of the poles or magnetic lines, which starts the disc in rotation, the magnetic lines of the armature and field tending toward a position of parallelism. This rotation is continued and maintained by the reversals of the current in coils D D, which change alternately the polarity of the field-cores A A. This rotary tendency or effect will be greatly increased by winding the disc with conductors G, closed upon themselves and having a radial direction, whereby the magnetic intensity of the poles of the disc will be greatly increased by the energizing effect of the currents induced in the coils G by the alternating currents in coils D.

The cores of the disc and field may or may not be of different magnetic susceptibility—that is to say, they may both be of the same kind of iron, so as to be magnetized at approximately the same instant by the coils D; or one may be of soft iron and the other of hard, in order that a certain time may elapse between the periods of their magnetization. In either case rotation will be produced; but unless the disc is provided with the closed energizing coils it is desirable that the above-described difference of magnetic susceptibility be utilized to assist in its rotation.

The cores of the field and armature may be made in various ways, as will be well understood, it being only requisite that the laminations in each be in such direction as to secure the necessary angular displacement of the points of greatest attraction. Moreover, since the disc may be considered as made up of an infinite number of radial arms, it is obvious that what is true of a disc holds for many other forms of armature.


CHAPTER XV.

Motors with Circuits of Different Resistance.