Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Bob, good pictures. Your motors maker is unknown to me. I can tell you that from the limited number of 1920’s early 1930s small American electric motors I have worked with that yours is high quality. The green cloth stranded wiring , soldered connections, nickel plated terminals are similar style to what Knapp used from about 1910 onwards, but that doesn’t really mean its a Knapp. The barreled brushes (maybe copper screen or sintered) and the tight black cloth wiring on the field coils shows quality. Your motors condition looks great so make sure you handle it carefully. The cloth wiring can fray, the solder joints can break in handling. For a water craft use, your motor is very clean and not rusted. I would say that was a fairly higher end expensive motor in its day. Both ends (the white metal) pieces are not that common and perhaps someone else can identify the motor from that characteristic. Finally, I have seen that style of rare motor used in large (36” +) Rum Runner style toy boats. Those boats were quite expensive toys in the 20’s until the pre-war 40’s. The builder of your boat knew what he was doing when he chose that motor for that ship.