Keywords: Le Cour synchronous motor (Rankin Kennedy, Electrical Installations, Vol III, 1903).jpg Le Cour synchronous motor also called a phonic wheel It consists of a toothed iron wheel with the teeth passing by the pole of an electromagnet left When an alternating current AC signal was applied to the electromagnet the wheel would turn at a precisely constant speed synchronized with the AC signal When turning at synchronous speed a tooth would approach the magnet pole just as the current through the electromagnet and therefore the magnetic flux passed through its maximum pulling on the tooth As the tooth left the pole the current would pass through zero This device was used to turn the hands of the first quartz clocks invented in 1927 Synchronous motors |