My Collection of Electric Engines

[Don1966]

This is a transfer from the old site and I do hope you enjoy it.

The main reason I got started into Model Engine Machining was these engines that
I have collected. They come in Kit form and have up to 200 Pieces. They are
amazing beautiful replicates of the orginal design with all effort to keeping
with the times. During the 30 years between 1830 and 1860 many attempts were
made to use electro-magnetism to produce engines that could be used instead of
steam and one group of experimeters converted the linear motions of their
inventions to rotary motion via linkages similar to those found in steam engines
of the time. the first electric motors consisted of machines with reciprocating
motion and although this first group came to a dead end, fascinating and
beautifully made examples survived in various museums around the world. These
early reciprocating engines were quickly followed by revolving armature designs
of which Paul Gustave Froment’s was the first in 1844. These were much more
efficient and a variety of different and increasingly sophisticated designs
emerged. These Engines are those that survived. I hope you enjoy my collection.

Regards Don
 
The Rocking Engine is an example of the early development of the
electromagnetic engine and attempts to capture the spirit of those exciting
times.

The Beam Engine. The pioneers of the time tried to mimic steam engine technology in their
efforts to use the newly discovered phenomenon of electricity.

Paul Gustave
Froment who, in 1844 found that by placing the armatures onto the constantly
revolving flywheel, much greater efficiency could be achieved over reciprocating
designs where components had to be constantly accelerated.

Following Paul
Gustave Froment’s discovery in 1844 of the revolving armature engine, a logical
development of the original design was to introduce a second bank of coils on
the opposite side of the flywheel and at an angle that achieved eight power
pulses per rotation when the wheel was fitted with four armatures.

This engine is from the Edwardian Era is a rotative engine based on designs by Harry Hawekotte and Henry Klausmann and introduced over one hundred years ago. This is the Old Model company's OMC-4 series two Rotative Engine.

 Another addition to the Edwardian Era is the OMC 7 called Eddy The Engine.

[ths]

Nice engines Don, are they from the UK? An interesting progressive development. What sort of voltage do they run on?

Hugh.

[Don1966]

Nice engines Don, are they from the UK? An interesting progressive development. What sort of voltage do they run on?

Hugh.

Hugh they are from the UK from the Old Model Company. The voltage is 4.5V there is a battery pack on the underside of the base.

[Jo]

Thanks for explaining the history of this type of engine. I had seen a few designs for this type but now that you have explained it I can appreciate them much more. 

Nice collection.

Jo

[Bluechip]

If you are interested in piccys of old ( some very ) leccy motors, quite a few here.

http://www.sparkmuseum.com/MOTORS.HTM

Lots of other old electric stuff, nav. bar on left of home page ..

Dave BC

[Don1966]

If you are interested in piccys of old ( some very ) leccy motors, quite a few here.

http://www.sparkmuseum.com/MOTORS.HTM

Lots of other old electric stuff, nav. bar on left of home page ..

Dave BC

Thanks Dave, but I am very familiar with the spark museum. I am also a collector of High Voltage items.

Don

[b.lindsey]

Missed this one earlier Don....lovely little engines. Looking at their website it seems you have 4 of the 5 offered. Any plans to add the 5th one?

Bill

[Jasonb]

Nice collection of engines.

The one thing that has always struck me as strange with these is that they go to the trouble of producing some nice parts and then for the ferrous parts on the flywheel they must have got a job lot of BZP plates that are used as keeps for magnetic catches

J

[Don1966]

Nice collection of engines.

The one thing that has always struck me as strange with these is that they go to the trouble of producing some nice parts and then for the ferrous parts on the flywheel they must have got a job lot of BZP plates that are used as keeps for magnetic catches

J

Thanks Jason, I do agree with you and if they present any problem latter on I will nickel plate them.

Missed this one earlier Don....lovely little engines. Looking at their website it seems you have 4 of the 5 offered. Any plans to add the 5th one?

Bill

 Yes Bill I will add the last engine to the collection and thanks for looking.
Dave House the owner, had contacted me about a kit he would add to the collection and to see if I was interested. The kit was to be an AC generator based on the invention by the French clock maker Hippolyte Pixii, who invented it in 1832. I have never recieved any more about it. So I presume he must of given up on it. I also wanted to add it to my collection.

Don

[PStechPaul]

I enjoyed looking at your collection of early electric motors. I have done a lot of work with electric motors and controllers, mostly three phase induction types, and more recently the switched reluctance motor. That is basically an electromagnetic motor, using the attraction between an energized electromagnet and a piece of iron. It is probably similar to some of the motors in your collection, and it was invented in the 1800s, but until recently the sensors and controls were not available to make it practical. I am working on a small model SRM, something like this:

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Yo craw daddy , I'm like Bill, this one slipped thru the minner net. These are nice. If you could, just pick one of 'em and give us something for a size reference. Were the parts already painted? And some of the best darned pics and presentation you have ever done .  How y'all say, I LIKE

Whiskey

[stevehuckss396]

These are very cool Don. Did you wind the coils? I started designing a solenoid engine years ago but never followed through with it. I have seen many of them over the years at shows but very few of the high quality of yours.

[Ramon Wilson]

This is a very nice collection Don, beautifully finished and presented. I have seen them somewhere before as models but not the fact that they were replicas of fullsize machines which came as a surprise - do you have any idea how big  they were in full size form.

If they run as well as they look it must be an impressive display - do you get that kind of 'old electric-kery aroma' when running 

Thanks for sharing them with us

Ramon

[Don1966]

Thanks Guys, but I am afraid I can not take credit for the engines, as I just assembled them from parts. They are from The Old Model Company.

Paul I am familiar with the SRM motor. I have been in the Electrical and Electronic field for 48 years. In my earlier years I rewound just about every type of motors and generators that were out there. Down to the early Servo motors, Amplidynes and the Ward Leonard systems. SCR control came to us in the late 70,s now we have the Variable Frequency Drives taking over the field.

Don

[Don1966]

This is a very nice collection Don, beautifully finished and presented. I have seen them somewhere before as models but not the fact that they were replicas of fullsize machines which came as a surprise - do you have any idea how big  they were in full size form.

If they run as well as they look it must be an impressive display - do you get that kind of 'old electric-kery aroma' when running 

Thanks for sharing them with us

Ramon
Hi Ramon,  we must have posted over each other. To answer you question these were just models and like I said in the thread, were of the first inventions of the era. These machines were not very efficient and died with time. You have to remember many years passed from when electricity was discovered to its use in motors and these are replicas of those first attempts and inventions.

Don