Love of lathes.

[Alan Douglas]

If the brushes are grounded to the frame, or cross-connected, with no mains connections, it's a repulsion motor. Those were popular here in the 1930s for household refrigeration compressors since they have high starting torque but low starting current (say 1.5 times full-load current). But they were expensive to make. Modern homes can handle the extra starting current of a split-phase or capacitor-start motor.