Given the age of this creation,the era of crystal radio[1] as a power source would be my first leap-to conclusion, whilst not enough to get it spinning from a s

Given the age of this creation,the era of crystal radio[1] as a power source would be my first leap-to conclusion, whilst not enough to get it spinning from a standstill, enough to maintain motion once at speed from an initial hand-spin. How could you test this - place in a faraday cage. If that kept it running then my next thought would be some form of dry-pile battery[2], which is equally old enough technology wise and also proven to last many decades [3]. But certainly a fun puzzle to ponder. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_radio [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamboni_pile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamboni_pile [aka dr-pilebattery] [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Electric_Bell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Electric_Bell [example of dry-pile battery operating for decades]