December, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



magnetic properties. Well, tlois little elec- 

 tro-nia^niet covered with the coil of copper 

 wire before mentioned was just about long 

 enough to reach between tbei poles of my 

 big U magnet. I soon had a " spindle "" 

 put thru it at its middle, and then sup- 

 ported it so it oould revolve between the 

 poles of the big magnet. 



You will notice, perhaps, in tlie above 

 that I was making a rudimentaiy electric 

 motor; and thei motore of the present day 

 that drive our electric ears and great fac- 

 tories are simply my boyish experiments 

 carried further, on a much greater scale. 

 In order to make this electro-magiiet re- 

 volve between the poles of the U magnet, 

 the cui-rent had to be chang^ed or reversed 

 twice at every revolution. It may be inter- 

 esting for you to know how a boy out on a 

 fai-m, without tools or materials, manag^ed 

 to make so complicated a piece of mechan- 

 ism as what we then called a " pole-chang- 

 er." I was in the " chicken business," even 

 at that early age, and I pulled quills out of 

 the wing's of my biddies until I g'ot some of 

 just tlie right size to fit closely on the shaft 

 or spindle of my little armature, if that is 

 what it might be called. Then I slipped on 

 a larger quill and so on until I got up to 

 pretty near the size of a silver penholder. In 

 those days it was quite the fashion to have 

 silver penholders. From one of these I cut 

 off a piece of silver tubing perhaps half an 

 inch long. This was pushed closely over 

 the quills I have mentioned. Yon see the 

 quills were for insulation. Then the two 

 ends of the copper wire making the coil I 

 have mentioned were soldered to the silver 

 tube, one on one side and one on the other. 

 After this was done, from an old ivory comb 

 I cut a little circular stet or pair of washers 

 of ivoiy that I used to slip over the silver 

 tube, oue at one end and one at the other. 

 These i^'Ol•y washers were to insulate the 

 tube and keep it in place after I slit it 

 lengthwise on two sides with a small file 

 so as to make two halves not touching each 

 other anywhere. Then with a silver spring 

 pressing one on one side and one on the 

 other, my pole-changer was complete. 



At tills stage of my work I had gotten 

 where there were not so many failures. 

 When I fii-st attached my batteiy wires, 

 the little engine, as I called it, started off 

 with such a whirr that it soon attracted the 

 attention of the rest 'of the household. 

 With some clock-wheels I made a register so 

 as to ring a bell at every hundred revolu- 

 tions. With this cheap home-made battery 

 I think my machine (so far as I can recol- 

 lect), when in first-class order, would make 

 about a hundred revolutions in a second. 



Ijet us now go back a Little. Besides 



955 



chickens and electricity I had another hobby. 

 It was windmills. When somebody said 

 that away out west on the desert they made 

 windmills to pump water, I tried my hand 

 at a windmill. We lived on a hill a littk 

 north of Mogadore, where there was almost 

 always a good brisk wind. After I got my 

 mill all leady to try, the wind did not blow. 

 It did not blow on Friday nor Saturday; 

 but on Sunday morning there was a nice 

 brisk wind. I had got things all rigged 

 up to have the windmill run a little spin- 

 niiigwheel, such as tliey lused in those days 

 to spin flax. My good mother was always 

 in full sympathy with all my inventions, 

 and slie suspected what was coming with 

 the brisk wind Sunday morning; and while 

 I was getting dressed she said to me some- 

 thing like this: 



" Amos, if I were you I would not fuss 

 with that windmill, for today is Sunday, 

 and no doubt there will be a good wind to- 

 morrow, and then you can go to work with 

 a clear conscience." 



I cannot remember what reply I made; 

 but I went out and looked at the wind (no 

 joke, mind you), and then I looked at the 

 windmill all ready to have the cloth sails 



EUctr* Bar /Migntf s[y \jn 



Horse sItM Afun«t 



Alnr tprinj 



Pole CKanger. 



Compitt* Mtivr. 



THE LITTLE MOTOR THAT BOTH PUSHED AND PULLED. 



In order to understand the above, keep in mind 

 that "like poles repel and unlike ones attract." In 

 the picture, where the north and south poles are 

 opposite, the revolvine: magnet would be held quite 

 strongly by the attraction of the two opposite poles; 

 but when the pole-changer represented above recer.ses 

 the direction of the current the two north poles 

 would repel and also the two south poles; and the 

 revolving magnet would quickly swing half wav 

 around: but just as soon as it gets in place the 

 little pole-changer reverses the current again, and 

 therefore we have a constant " pushing and pulling " 

 as you will notice. No wonder my little machine 

 started up with a roar that set my boyish heart wild 

 with delight. 



The above explanation may help you to under- 

 stand the principle on which the electric motors 

 of the present day, that run great factories of many 

 horsepower, are constructed; and while I dictate 

 these words today. Oct. 16, our people are just in- 

 stalling a motor of 160 horse power that weighs 

 over four tons; and this great motor works exactly 

 on the principle I have tried to explain to you above. 



