I picked this stationary motor up at a local flea market. It was a bit rusty but complete and ran. I spent the week restoring it and it looks great. I know Lionel made stationary motors as did American Flyer. This motor has no markings anywhere. I cannot find any information on it and was hoping someone could identify who made it.
Gandy
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What ever brand it is, you did a nice job restoring it. It looks great.
My guess is it is from an Erector Set. Had one too many years ago to remember clearly.
Judging from the style of the base (stamped sheet metal) I would venture that it was made by one of the toy steam engine companies, like Weeden, Bing, Fleischman, Tucher & Walther, Mamod, Wilesco, Cheddar, Krick, or Hermann Bohm.
Even though they made steam engines, many of them also made little generators that would create small amounts of juice when coupled to the flywheel with flexible belts. It looks like it might be a bit young for some of those manufacturers, judging from the construction of the insulating base and contacts.
Yours might be a generator (which can also be made to run as a motor). What voltage did you use to coax it into action? 3 volts? Is that a reversing lever at the bottom?
Art, it ran using a regular AC transformer like an American Flyer 8B. Yes it reverses with the lever. It also has a small pulley on the end of the armature shaft so it was supposed to be used to power something similar to Erector. There are no magnets anywhere so I don't think its a generator.
Gandy
AH HA! Finally found what I was looking for. I originally thought that it was too old to be Erector, but I was wrong. Erector goes back a lot farther than I though. 1914 to be exact. Gilbert produced a lot of different early motors, some of them are quite rare. They originally offered the motor singly, as number P58, and later offered a reversing base P59. At the end of the run in 1928 thru 1930 they offered the two as a unit under number P54. That is what I possibly have, or at least the two earlier pieces assembled together. I'm not sure how to date these motors. Mine has cotton covered wire, so I'll try to date that and see if I can nail it down farther.
Gandy
nice find
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