I looked it up:
Brushless DC electric motor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It turns out my [850 watt] Fisher & Paykel washing machine motor is an outrunner. They're popular for homemade wind turbines. I want to put the generator at the bottom of a mast with a long thin driveshaft to the top. Low winds would wind up the shaft in torsion until some minimal gust would kick it over the initial start-up friction. It's a cogged motor, there's a little resistance at each step.
e*clipse -- Maybe it's just me, but I didn't see that at all.