Principle
A current-carrying conductor, when placed in a magnetic field, experiences a force. If the direction of the field and that of the current are mutually perpendicular then force acting on the conductor will be perpendicular to both and will be given by Fleming's left-hand rule. Due to this force the conductor begins to move.
Working
Current in the coil ABCD enters from the source battery through conducting brush X and flows back to the battery through brush Y. The current in arm AB of the coil flows from A to B. In arm CD it flows from C to D, that is, opposite to the direction of current through arm AB. We find that the force acting on arm AB pushes it downwards while the force acting on arm CD pushes it upwards. Thus the coil and the axle O, mounted free to turn about an axis, rotate anti-clockwise. At half rotation, Q makes contact with the brush X and P with brush Y. Therefore the current in the coil gets reversed and flows along the path DCBA. The reversal of current also reverses the direction of force acting on the two arms AB and CD. Thus the arm AB of the coil that was earlier pushed down is now pushed up and the arm CD previously pushed up is now pushed down. Therefore the coil and the axle rotate half a turn more in the same direction. The reversing of the current is repeated at each half rotation, giving rise to a continuous rotation of the coil and to the axle.
