[3] In 1879, English physicist Walter Baily replaced the horseshoe magnets with four electromagnets and, by manually turning switches on and off, demonstrated a primitive induction motor.
[9] Ferraris, who did research about the theory and design of alternating-current machinery, built a working model for a classroom demonstration in 1885, but did not describe it publicly until 1888.
The rotor or armature consists of coils wound in slots, which are short circuited and in which the changing flux generated by the field poles induce a current.
The result of adding three 120-degree phased sine waves on the axis of the motor is a single rotating vector that always remains constant in magnitude.
This magnetomechanical attraction creates a force that will drive the rotor to follow the rotating magnetic field in a synchronous manner.
Three similar coils having mutual geometrical angles of 120 degrees will create the rotating magnetic field in this case.
These types of motors are not usually synchronous, but instead necessarily involve a degree of 'slip' in order that the current may be produced due to the relative movement of the field and the rotor.