Speed reducing control system for a polyphase electric motor

A variable speed 3-phase a-c motor is connected to a 3-phase source of alternating voltage via a plurality of controllable solid state electric valves which are so arranged and controlled that motor speed can be reduced by skipping selected cycles of the source voltage. For half speed operation 12 valves are arranged to interconnect the source and motor phases, and over two consecutive periods of the source voltage six separate, uniformly spaced "firing windows" are selected during which the conducting states of different pairs of these valves are initiated in a predetermined pattern that results, in each phase of the motor, in a double-pulse current waveform having one-half the fundamental frequency of the source voltage.