The ordinary galvanometer may be considered a form of motor. By properly opening and closing the circuit, the rotary motion of the needle can be kept up as long as current is supplied. Even an electric bell or telegraph sounder may be considered a motor, giving motion straight forward and back.
162. The Uses of Motors are many. It would be impossible to mention all the things that are done with the power from motors. A few illustrations will give an idea of the way motors are attached to machines.
Fig. 226 shows one form of motor, the parts being shown in Fig. 227.
Fig. 234.
Fig. 228 shows a fan motor run by a battery. They are generally run by the current from the street. Figs. 229-231 show other forms of fan motors. Fig. 232 shows an electric hat polisher. A church organ bellows is shown in Fig. 233, so arranged that it can be pumped by an electric motor. Fig. 234 shows a motor direct connected to a drill press.
163. Starting Boxes. If too much current were suddenly allowed to pass into the armature of a motor, the coils would be over-heated, and perhaps destroyed, before it attained its full speed. A rapidly revolving armature will take more current, without being overheated, than one not in motion. A motor at full speed acts like a dynamo, and generates a current which tends to flow from the machine in a direction opposite to that which produces the motion. It is evident, then, that when the armature is at rest, all the current turned on passes through it without meeting with this opposing current.
| Fig. 235. | Fig. 236. |
Fig. 235 shows a starting, stopping, and regulating box, inside of which are a number of German-silver resistance coils properly connected to contact-points at the top. By turning the knob, the field of the motor is immediately charged first through resistance, then direct, and then the current is put on the armature gradually through a series of coils, the amount of current depending upon the distance the switch is turned. Fig. 236 shows a cross section of the same.