Antique Fan Motor Restoration

[Mohawk]

I thought I would share a recent project with the crew...

2 years back I was given a true basket case of a project... Apparenty, and as the story goes, a buddy was cleaning out their gradfathers bacement, sorting stuff into piles to get rid of... The "basket of parts" in question was next to hit the metal scrap but was rescued at the last moment. looks "interesting" he said. I'll give it to Matt, He likes this old mechanical / electrical stuff... I honestly didn't even know what it was untill I saw the mangled armature
( bent, and wire sticking out. Desolderd from the commutator bars ) .... Realized it was an antique motor.
The basket of parts has sat untill recently when I finially decided to "get into it".
Unfortunately a bunch of the original pics I took were lost to an old cell phone that got wiped in the tranfer to a new one..

Any how, The motor as the brass plate says is a Holtzer Cabot, Built in Boston.
Cast iron body and all solid brass do-dads, It's HEAVY....






Lots more pics but 10 is the limit....


Questions I have for the well travelled tinkering bunch I chat with here...


52 Volts AC and apparently 133hz ? Who had that and when ? Found an additional grainy copy of a broshure on the net with this fan dated 1897.
If this from 1897 it must be very early AC ?... When did DC to homes start to vanish ?

52v @133hz... Hummm .... ( once its repaired ) & ( Hinting at the outcome... LOL ) I'm gonna try it on my Variac @ 25 v @60 hz ....
Power factor / Impeadence / Current / Heating etc.

Note: No current to the brushes... It's a Repulsion motor, The brushes "short" the armature communtators
to interact with the field... Fancy....

What is the proceedure for setting brush position ?

Anyone have any info on this ?



I'll post the Progress / Resortation pics shortly !

M

 

[Vintage 700b]

Hi Matt,

That Holzer Cabot motor is really a find. I guess your friends are like mine, when they have something old, (especially if it doesn’t work) they give it to me. I’m sure you are aware of the “Battle of Currents” between Thomas Edison (for Direct Current) and George Westinghouse/Nikola Tesal (for Alternating current) being supplied to homes, businesses etc. because of the transfer over distances for this new power electricity. That was late 1880’s and by 1895 or so AC was accepted as the new standard.
The brush position is what determines the direction of rotation on a repulsion motor. The stator poles N/S are fixed, but positioning the brushes a perfect 90° to the stator poles then you get no voltage across the brushes and no armature current. Aligning the brushes directly, 0° in line with the stator poles will cancel any voltage and again the motor will not turn. That is the principle of “Repulsion”, they cancel each other at the 0° position. This is where it gets interesting. If you set your brushes at an angle greater than 0° and less than 90° then current will be produced and the direction of rotation is determined. I believe the angle of 45° gives maximum torque at this point, at least on initial breakaway, until loaded. Moving the brushes in the opposite direction produces exactly the same action, only with the opposite direction of rotation.
You are right on with your thinking of using a variac at approximately 25v to see how the motor reacts. The motor is rated 52v and 133hz, which was one of the earliest test parameters for early motors. It seems strange to us now, but a lot of components were built at one time utilizing the 52v, 133hz spec.
If you take 60 cycles per second, 60/133 = .451. Take .451 X 52 will yield approximately 23.5 volts, so that test should yields acceptable results with the variac.
Super neat project, please keep us updated. There can’t be many of those motors out there. Hats off to your friend for setting it aside for you.
Thanks for posting.

 

[Mohawk]

Thanks for the reply !

I've had a couple or 3 beers this afternoon so I'm gonna' have to re-ead your notes on repulsion and brush placement later !
I see we are on the same page for operation @60 hz ... Nice...

 

[Mohawk]

The motor was available as a fan or a basic a utility motor, 1/8 hp

$37.00 got you a choise of 52v or 104v (AC)
$3.00 as an option, got you the 12" brass bladed fan and the guard.

What is apparently common is if you do find one of these old rigs, its very typicall for the brass fan to be missing.
They got easilly pinched in brass drives for the war (s).

Mine was missing the fan.... So I got to thinking.... As I do from time to time.... That old dehumidifier in my inlaws scrap pile....
It's got an old 12" aluminum bladed fan on it ..... Score.
I polished up and it looks like crome.... Not brass, but I definately made the bling factor...


And now for the "mostly" completed project .....

 

[Vintage 700b]

Wow, that really cleaned up well, and you've saved a piece of history.
That looks amazing, the polished aluminum blade fits right in.
I do a lot of that type of work, never post on our Forum here, but your Holzer Cabot is at the top
of the "coolness" list. It really put a smile on my face when I saw it, and your "after" pictures are fantastic.
Think of how innovative this whole "electricity" thing was in 1895. I grew up in an old Victorian home that
had 1 electric light in the kitchen, and the rest of the house had gas lamps that pulled away from the walls
to light the way. Each room had one lamp with a shade that pulled out from the wall.
When the house was built (1880) the house was state of the art, with the gas fixtures.
We had no "city" water, but used the water from the cistern, rainwater collected from off the roof.
My father and I wired the entire house for 200 amp service eventually, and we also ran city water to the all
of the faucets in the house. Hated taking a bath when I was a kid before we ran the city water, because the water
from the cistern was yellow, and gritty. We had one toilet with a wooden tank and a pearl handled push button to
flush it. Seems crazy now, but I loved every minute of living in that house (except the baths ).
I can only imagine how it felt to go from having to light every light with a match, using the gas fixtures to this new
thing called "electricity". Then to have an electric fan.....in 1897.......wow !
$37.00 or $40.00 with the brass fan with guard was quite an investment in 1897...the average laborer made $1.50/ Day and skilled labor was up to about $4.00/ Day !!!!
Again thanks for sharing.

 

[Mohawk]

She's a runner !

 

[Vintage 700b]

Hi Matt,
That is really cool, well done!
Like I said before, there can't be to many of those out there.