When I was about 10 years old, I was given an electric motor kit for Christmas. I had to wind a length of insulated copper wire on the rotor, put together the commutator, and install a small U magnet. I enjoyed the construction experience and with some parental assistance figured out how it worked. Ever since then, I have been curious about these simple artifacts of technology, and this article discusses some of them that I have met in my scientific travels. The small electric motor is a simple piece of technology that is based on mechanics, electricity, and magnetism and is a good mechanism for drawing students into physics.

1.
This Page-type motor is in the 1916 catalog of the L. E. Knott Apparatus Co. of Boston on p. 395.
2.
Thomas B. Greenslade
Jr
., “
The Rosse telescope
,”
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493
495
(
1998
).
3.
Daniel Davis
Jr
.,
A Manual of Magnetism
(
Daniel Davis Jr
.,
Boston
,
1851
), p.
216
.
4.
Stanislaw
Bednarek
, “
Showing forces in the terrestrial magnetic field
,”
Phys. Teach.
37
,
383
384
(
1999
).
5.
Thomas B. Greenslade
Jr
., “
The St. Louis motor
,”
Phys. Teach.
49
,
424
425
(
2011
).
6.
S. A.
Douglass
, “
The St. Louis laboratory motor
,”
Sch. Sci. Math.
9
,
678
681
(
1909
).
7.
Franklin
Miller
Jr.
and
John A.
Johnson
, “
A motor is a generator and vice versa
,”
Phys. Teach.
14
,
133
(
1976
).
8.
Thomas B.
Greenslade
Jr.
, “
Small direct-current electric motors
,”
eRittenhouse
27
,
53
63
(
2016
).
9.
Thomas B.
Greenslade
Jr.
, “
Devices to demonstrate electromagnetic rotation
,”
Phys. Teach.
34
,
412
416
(
1996
).
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