Thomas Davenport was an American blacksmith who invented the first DC electrical motor in 1834. Davenport mounted one magnet of the motor on a wheel while the other magnet was fixed to a stationary frame. The interaction between the two magnets caused the rotor to turn half a revolution. He learned that by reversing the wires to one of the magnets he could get the rotor to complete another half-turn. Davenport then devised what we now call a brush and commutator. The electricity source for the magnets was a galvanic battery of the type developed by Volta that used a bucket of a weak acid for an electrolyte. He patented a device for "Improvements in propelling machinery by magnetism and electromagnetism" in 1837, which was the first electric railway. Davenport later started a workshop in New York City and published a journal on electromagnetism (it was printed on a press that was powered by motors which he devised).