difficulties in self - starting a permanent magnet motor are eliminated in a structure including a stator with a rotor journalled within the stator for rotation about an axis . the rotor includes a body of ferromagnetic material having a nominally cylindrical peripheral surface concentric with the axis . permanent magnets are located on the peripheral surface to define equally angularly spaced magnetic poles with alternating ones of the poles being of opposite polarity . a thin , hollow cylinder formed of a good electrically conducting material is disposed on the body to sandwich the magnets against the peripheral surface of the body and provides a situs for the generation of localized induced electrical current which generates magnetic fields that react with rotating magnetic fields in the stator to start the motor from a dead stop without the need for position sensors or controlled electronics .