An electric engine wasa precourser to the modern electric motor. Instead of a rotating electromagnet, an electricx ening used reciprocating magnets, which were attracted and repelled by switched electromagnets.
Needless to say, these machines were inefficient and unreliable.
I can’t find anything on them via Google…all I remmeber is seeing some old books mentioning them.
Anybody know more about these machines?
Well, there’s this site. Packed full of really odd engineering.
While they aren’t as efficient as a modern electric motor, they actually aren’t that bad from an efficiency point of view, and their reliability isn’t bad either. They are dirt simple, so there isn’t that much in them that can wear out. Exactly how you construct it (how big of wire you use for the coil windings, how big you make the electrical contact that switches the coil on and off, etc) makes a huge difference in their reliability, but there’s no reason they can’t be as reliable as a modern electric motor.
This video shows the basic idea behind it:
The coil of wire acts as an electromagnet pulling the plunger towards it. Then the electromagnet switches off and inertia pulls the plunger back out. What isn’t so obvious in this video is that the switch to turn the coil on and off is attached to the wheel. The switch part isn’t any less reliable than the slip rings on an electric motor and the coil of wire is just a coil of wire, like the coils in an electric motor. Cheap, simple, and reliable. Friction and weight in all of the extra mechanical bits to convert the push-pull motion into a rotating motion cut down on the efficiency a bit.
I found this, which is pretty cool too.
Searching for “solenoid engine” will give you a lot of results. There are all kinds of interesting versions on youtube.
Yeah, the phrase ‘electric engine’ is kind of an oxymoron. An internal combustion power unit (as in what’s in cars) can be routinely called both an ‘engine’ and a ‘motor’, but an electric prime mover is always called a ‘motor’, never an ‘engine’.
Oh great - there’s the rest of today gone, looking at that site!
(Seriously though, thanks - what a fascinating collection of info)
Thanks for the links-as i said, I hadn’t any luck using “electric engine”. Great links!
F**king Lucas electric fuel pumps use a slug of iron yanked back and forth by electromagnets controlled by switches; sort of a linear version of your “electric engine”. They work fine. Sometimes. 
I think they’re generally called reciprocating motors rather than electric engines. I’ve seen very simple ones that operate on the walking beam principle…really neat, although I’m not sure what practical application it might have. Walking beams aside, reciprocating motors are used in some things…some types of pumps as mentioned above, vibrating tools like power chisels and sanders, probably a few other things.
SS