Posted by David Sherman on Monday, February 05, 2001 at 0:21AM :
In Reply to: Re: engine or motor ? posted by Allen Patnode on Sunday, February 04, 2001 at 8:22PM :
Not only vacuum wiper MOTORS and all sorts of air MOTORS, but we have the Ford MOTOR company and General MOTORS which make gas engines rather than electric motors. We "go MOTORing" and use a "MOTOR boat" even though they are internal-combustion powered. The man who drives a train is an ENGINEer while the man who drives a streetcar is a MOTORman, maybe because the streetcar is electric. They both might belong to the teamsters union although neither drives a team these days. I would say MOTOR is a narrower term because MOTORS always make something move (even if it's just the plunger in the washing machine), whereas an ENGINE, especially in the old days, could be any machine. Eli Whitney's cotton 'GIN, is just short for "ENGINE", Charles Babbage's "analytical ENGINE" was a mechanical computer, and "seige ENGINEs" attacked castles. So a MOTOR must cause motion, but an ENGINE is simply an INGENEOUS machine perhaps invented by an ENGINEer. Now even the software boys are getting in on the term, describing hardworking hidden pieces of code as "engines", such as the nauseatingly named "rendering ENGINE". So long as we all understand each other. Now I must go rewind the field of my electric engine...
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