VAXen at home

[Rod Smallwood]

>From a UK point of view 'motor' as in motor-generator would be taken to
some form of internal combustion engine.
I have heard lots of references to 'motor-generators' but never an
'engine-generator'.

Devices used for AC to DC, DC to AC and voltage conversion using a
electric motor coupled to a generator would be referred to as 'rotary
convertors'.

Rod Smallwood
  

-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell
Sent: 18 October 2007 01:18
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: VAXen at home

> It may be European vs US usage, but in the US "motor" almost always 
> means electric motor in this and other contexts. So what you

That tends to be UK usage too. The thing under the bonnet (OK, hood) of
a car is called an 'engine' over here. 'Motor' for that would be very
uncommon.

To me, a 'motor generator' is just that. An electric motor driving an
electric generator, to be used to convert voltage/frequency, etc. A
'rotary converter' (or 'Dynamotor; if oyu go back far enough) is a
simialr thing with common field windings/frame/etc rather than 2
separate electrical machines with the shafts coupled.


> call a "motor-generator" would be here just plain called a "generator"

A 'generator' over here is either just the mechanical-to-electircal
energy converter or , as you said, a heat engine coupled to such a
machine. Certainly if you hired a 'generator' (as somebody suggested we
should do for a VCF-type event), you'd expect to get something with the
engine included.

I don't know how common these other term are across the Pond, but an
'alternator' is an AC-output geneterator, a 'Dynamo' (short for
'Dynamo-electric machine' is a generator, normally DC output, with a
wound field, and a 'Magneto' (short for 'Magneto-electric machine' is a
genatore with a permanent magnet field. Which means the common bicycle
dynamo (as it's normally called over here' is in fact a magneto....

-tony