Not the most efficient of motors...

[ybanrab]

I found this link to the oddest of electrical motors.

http://www.redremote.co.uk/electricstuff/bbmotor.html

Not that we'll be flying using one of these any time soon, but I thought it was worth posting as a curiosity.

Barny

[e-sailpilot86]

I don't quite get it yet, but it's pretty cool nonetheless! I thought I'd seen the least efficient of motors when I saw an electric motor that worked like a piston engine. Two electromagnets, above and below the piston, and a magnet in the center, although it doesn't matter, it could be iron. And, you got the flywheel spinning, the electromagnets would pull and push the magnet piston up and down turning a crankshaft, voila! Electric motor. :D

[BMatthews]

I don't quite get it yet, but it's pretty cool nonetheless! ....


In a way this is a heat engine that is using the same principal as the Stirling engine. But in this case the fuel for the heat source is the power from the battery and the medium that does the expansion from the heat is the ball bearings themselves. The races can then be considered as the "expansion chambers".

All in all an odd and extremely inefficient way to spin a shaft... :D