... my wife and I collect such old things, restore them and when the space is over (have learned that the space of our house is not endless... what a shame^^), we will sell something again.
We currently have 4 of these old sewing machines, all (again) fully functional and absolutely original. From our point of view, building an engine on it is an atrocity...
These machines also fascinated me in my early childhood. And after I used my grandmother's sewing machine to sew through my finger, my grandmother was kind enough to teach me how to use it. I was the only first grader far and wide who could sew with a machine... I can still do it today ([look around carefully] ... better than my wife
).
It was the same with the electronics. "Steam radios" also fascinated me as a kid; the warm sound, the warmth, the glow... When my mother wanted to go shopping and there was nobody to look after me, she would simply put an old chassis in front of me, which captivated me long after she got home to disassemble it neatly without tools.
Nowadays, of course, I do it the other way around. At the moment there are probably around 50 tube radios, most of which have been fully restored (quite apart from the tape machines, turntables, gramophones, transmitters and other historical devices).
That was actually my path to electronics, but more in analog technology. Of course at some point also with computers (Z80, Ti994A, VC20, C64, Apple IIe, ...) and later on an IBM 8088-neat even a Fido hub under TELIX (pre-internet time).
But analog technology, especially audio and broadcast technology, is still at the top for me... When I'm gone, there will certainly be a glowing tube on my tombstone
BTW: If you've ever had an encounter with 800V anode voltage or something like that, then you definitely know that DC hurts a lot more than AC... Trust me