"EXER-KETCH ELECTRIC ENGINE" the Ultimate What-Is-It?

Now that is intriquing.

Did find an ad for it in a 1906 magazine, but wasn't able to make out the printing. Interesting company, though, involved in all sorts of stuff - iron car (hand powered ride on for kids), silver replating stuff, pocket watch and various other doo-dads to tie in with increasing sales through incentives. 

I might have to do a little more digging when I get the time.

https://books.google.com/books...er-ketch&f=false

Scary looking link - hope it works for you. Page 24 of a scanned Saturday Evening Post from 1906 shows a small ad for the thing plus some other Exer-Ketch products.

To follow is a rough Electro-Mechanical assessment:

     The interior appears large enough to accommodate one of the dry cells of the time. The metal strips on the one end appear to be the battery terminals. If that is indeed the case, then the power necessary would probably be 1.5 Volts DC.

     The coils are in series. One end of the series goes to one of the apparent battery terminals. The other end appears to connect to the metal frame.

     I would hypothesize that that strip assembly is a normally-made contact broken by the cam on the shaft once per revolution. The strip is connected to the other battery terminal and, with the big nut, if the nut is grounded to the frame, would complete the electrical circuit.

     The thing appears to function as a single-stroke engine. When energized, the coils start the cycle, bringing the crank down to the bottom cycle. About now, the cam on the on the shaft breaks the circuit, allowing the crank to continue back up to the starting position. At some point the switch returns to normal and the coils re-energize, continuing the cycle.

I'd suggest verifying the circuit and trying to put power to it.

Keep us posted,

It's a motorized mailbox.

Bob

Probably a Battery operated"steam engine" of that time. Live  stationary steam engines were popular and this may have been a cheaper alternative to one of these:

I am fairly certain that it is a motor. My brother had a simpler version years ago. The two electromagnetic coils attract a plate that pulls on the crank, turning the flywheel.
The bump in the middle of the shaft serves to make and break the circuit to the coils, turning them on and off at the appropriate time.
The contact underneath the bump is likely adjustable to fine tune the motor or even reverse it.
(My brothers was reversible).

neat piece.

Looks like the vintage 1.5 VDC round battery just slid in and the terminals were attached to the two brackets on the end.

Of you have a "D" cell battery just solder some leads on with alligator clips and attach the to the two terminal connections on the end and just spin the flywheel and see if shows some life. Looks like the nut/double nut on the top  near the cam on the crank may be some type of fine tuning.
I new someone years ago that had a model boat motor that worked the same way but only had one coil

It looks like a Solenoid motor of some sort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XCUK0fpBT4

Thanks for the comments guys. Also, thanks to TripLeo for the 1906 ads, I need to find them so I can read them. 

When I made my original post I purposely left out any thoughts I had as I didn't want to cloud the waters. But one of my first thoughts was the battery fitting inside the housing and connecting to the end terminals. But after that I was stumped  

I need to hook up some power to it and see if it works. 

Keep the info coming!

ARNO

I've found the patents - They're riveting! 

The link below is to a Google Drive folder.  Copy that into your browser & you should see them.  The hyperlink text "Exer-Ketch Patents" below the link should work by clicking on it.  

Let me know if there are any issues & I can PM them to you:

https://drive.google.com/open?...U1ZBTdDgtdk5ybzZ4Nk0

Exer-Ketch Patents

Wow, the patents are great! I'm glad you located them. I love them. I will try putting power to it soon. 

ARNO

Arno,

You may have discovered the original "warp" engine so please be careful when you power up as you may find yourself instantly transported to a different time and dimension.

Bob