They were stimulated to these efforts by the constant reproaches that were beginning to be heard on all sides that electricity was merely a "philosopher's plaything." One of the first to succeed in inventing something that approached a practical mechanical contrivance was Andrew Gordon, a Scotch Benedictine monk.

He invented an electric bell which would ring automatically, and a little "motor," if it may be so called.
And while neither of these inventions were of any practical importance in themselves, they were attempts in the right direction, and were the first ancestors of modern electric bells and motors, although the principle upon which they worked was entirely different from modern electrical machines.

The motor was simply a wheel with several protruding metal points around its rim.

These points were arranged to receive an electrical discharge from a frictional machine, the discharge causing the wheel to rotate.

There was very little force given to this rotation, however, not enough, in fact, to make it possible to more than barely turn the wheel itself.