Isn't 349 a galvanometer ? I can se how I'd like it to be a motor, but
what's acting as the commutator ?

Don's guess is correct, the coil is made from varnish coated magnet wire,
each of the two axles has had half of this insulating varnish scraped off,
making them function as primitive commutators. I tried Carl's idea of
scraping off all of the varnish and got the same results he did, it still
worked.

If anybody wants to make one, it works best with very thin wire.

Rob