Motor

Machine for utilizing one of the elementary forces, so that it may produce continuous motion and supply power for industrial purposes. There are, therefore, steam, gas, and caloric motors using the force of heat, wind and water motors utilizing the force of gravity, animal powers, and machinery driven by weights or springs, in which muscular or vital force is expended direct or after being stored, and the electromotors, which utilize the force of electric currents. The term prime-mover is synonymous with motor. Some writers restrict the term motor to the elementary force itself, but the other sense, here used, is the more usual.