"Motors and Generators" (1961)

I love watching these old training and education videos, I seem to understand and learn more from them than anything produced in the last thirty years (warning: some of which is just generally wrong from what we've learned since). This is a great channel for all sorts of these. Excellent archival material.

This 1961 U.S. Army training film covers the basic physics behind the function of DC motors and generators. This is demonstrated through progressively more complex animations that discuss the basics, such as the generation of electromotive force, the necessity of adding armatures and commutators, the need to add brushes, and necessary adjustments that need to be made to the neutral plane to avoid sparking which can damage the generator. Generators and motors are at the basis of most machines from simple things like field telephones to missile engines, so an understanding of them is essential for all engineers.

Part II: AC motors can be found here