Electric Motor for Animated Store Display

Sep 22, 2017 6 Replies

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J.B. Wood 8 years ago

Hello, all, and perhaps a question for the "seniors" in the ng:

Back in the 1950s-1960s era one often encountered countertop (or larger) cardboard product displays that were animated by a simple back-and-forth battery-powered motor consisting of one or two permanent magnets, a coil, and make-break contacts. This type of motor was also used in a wig-wag target, photoelectric shooting gallery toy I had. Is there a name for this type of motor? Googling on "reciprocating dc motors" doesn't provide any hits for this type (getting the right key search words - always an issue). Thanks for your time and comment. Sincerely,

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Tzortzakakis Dimitrios 8 years ago

???? 22/9/2017 9:14 ??, ? J.B. Wood ??????:

maybe an early stepper motor?I wonder, are these series wound, or shunt?I 'd think series as they have more torque...Not compound, of course, that would be too complicated.

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gfretwell 8 years ago

This thing is more like a very low frequency buzzer. The normal position has the contact closed and the coil swings it away breaking the contact, it swings back, and repeats the cycle.

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J.B. Wood 8 years ago

Hello, and thanks for the responses thus far. I wish I had a photo of the motor. Gotta do some patent searches. IIRC most of these displays were advertising cigarettes, sun tan products, lip balm, sunglasses, candy and gosh knows what else. Sincerely,

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J.B. Wood 8 years ago

Hello, once again, and I found a patent for exactly what I remember seeing as a kid mounted on the back of one of those displays: US

2598954. A similar device is also described in US patent 3069575. Sincerely,

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Dean Hoffman 8 years ago

Anything here?

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J.B. Wood 8 years ago

Those motors are more motion-capable than the simple pendulum action that I remembered. If you Google for U.S. patent 2598954 and examine the drawing, this is the type that I remember being used on most of those cardboard displays decades ago. Cheap to produce and the merchant probably threw the whole display away at the end of the ad campaign. (I wonder what they would be worth now.) Sincerely,

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