FIRST ELECTRIC MOTOR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 119, 5 June 1937, Page 11

FIRST ELECTRIC MOTOR

On Fcbi'uary 23, 1837, Thomas Pavenport (1232-51) .secured. a/ patent for- an electric motor, the first of its kind taken out in the TJnited State's. Davenport was a blacksmith of Brandon, Vermont, who about 1833, with his friend Grange Smallcy, bcgan experimcating ■udth enagneto machincs, unawaro of what Henry had already accomplished. By December, 1-834, they had made a macliine having twelvo permancnt magnets and two electromagnets conuected through a form of commutator consisting of wires dipping into mdrcury cups to an electric battery. By May, 1835, he had substituted for th,e mercury cups insulatcd segmcnts on tho lower part of Ihe whccl shaft, whieh were rubbed by contaet springs made of flattened wire. Oft Heniy's advice Davenport sliow-

ed his machine to Alcxandre Bache and tc a group of oien at. the Franklin Institute, but, being short of money, sold it to the Kennsselaer Polytechnic Institute for 30 dollars. Encouraged by Professor Eaton, he made * new machine adapted for traction purposes, and this wus exhibited at Troy on Octobcr 14, 1935. He was joined by llansom Cook, and now models were built and' exhibited, and Davenpyt lodgcd a model and applied for a patent, but at the Patont Oifiec fire of December 15, 1836, both model and plans were dostroycd. Soon after this, .howevcr, he secured his patent of February 28, 1837, and his model is now preserved in tho Hational Museum at Wasliington. Tho in ventor, howcver, rcaped no rcward for his ingenuity, and died on July 6, 1831