text: A variant of the wound field DC motor is the universal motor. The name derives from the fact that it may use AC or DC supply current, although in practice they are nearly always used with AC supplies. The principle is that in a wound field DC motor the current in both the field and the armature (and hence the resultant magnetic fields) will alternate (reverse polarity) at the same time, and hence the mechanical force generated is always in the same direction. In practice, the motor must be specially designed to cope with the AC current (impedance must be taken into account, as must the pulsating force), and the resultant motor is generally less efficient than an equivalent pure DC motor. Operating at normal power line frequencies, the maximum output of universal motors is limited and motors exceeding one kilowatt are rare. But universal motors also form the basis of the traditional railway traction motor. In this application, to keep their electrical efficiency high, they were operated from very low frequency AC supplies, with 25 Hz and 16 2/3 hertz operation being common. Because they are universal motors, locomotives using this design were also commonly capable of operating from a third rail powered by DC.\n\nThe advantage of the universal motor is that AC supplies may be used on motors which have the typical characteristics of DC motors, specifically high starting torque and very compact design if high running speeds are used. The negative aspect is the maintenance and short life problems caused by the commutator. As a result such motors are usually used in AC devices such as food mixers and power tools which are used only intermittently. Continuous speed control of a universal motor running on AC is very easily accomplished using a thyristor circuit, while stepped speed control can be accomplished using multiple taps on the field coil. Household blenders that advertise many speeds frequently combine a field coil with several taps and a diode that can be inserted in series with the motor (causing the motor to run on half-wave DC with 0.707 of the RMS voltage of the AC power line).\n\nUnlike AC motors, universal motors can easily exceed one revolution per cycle of the mains current. This makes them useful for appliances such as blenders, vacuum cleaners, and hair dryers where high-speed operation is desired. Many vacuum cleaner and weed trimmer motors will exceed 10,000 RPM, Dremel and other similar miniature grinders will often exceed 30,000 RPM. A theoretical universal motor allowed to operate with no mechanical load will overspeed, which may damage it. In real life, though, various bearing frictions, armature "windage", and the load of any integrated cooling fan all act to prevent overspeed.\n\nWith the very low cost of semiconductor rectifiers, some applications that would have previously used a universal motor now use a pure DC motor, usually with a permanent magnet field. This is especially true if the semiconductor circuit is also used for variable-speed control.\n\nThe advantages of the universal motor and alternating-current distribution made installation of a low-frequency traction current distribution system economical for some railway installations. At low enough frequencies, the motor performance is approximately the same as if the motor were operating on DC. Frequencies as low as 162/3 hertz were employed.