Davenport moved to New York City and set up a workshop close to Wall Street. He made Ransom Cook his business partner. Cook maintained control of Davenport's shop in New York while Davenport himself traveled frequently back to his workshop in Vermont. He built many new versions of his motor. He was even able to build an electric-powered piano. Davenport worked on ways to try to use the motor for weaving silk, grain harvest, lathe and milling lumber, bark milling, sugar grinding, plowing, and printing. In 1840 Thomas Davenport built a more powerful motor to run a printing press. He used his press to publish a work entitled The Electro-Magnet and Mechanics Intelligencer. Unfortunately he was not able to make the motor profitable. The quality of batteries available at the time was poor and they provided inconsistent power. The cost of batteries also made his invention hard to sell. The steam engine proved to be more practical for industrial uses. Davenport's motor was used later on by innovators like Edison to develop more advanced inventions. When ran backwards Davenport's motor generated power, and was one of the earliest DC dynamos.
In 1849 the US Senate committed a large sum of money to build an electromagnetically propelled train from Washington D.C. to Baltimore. The effort was run by Charles Grafton Page. Page himself had experimented with electricity and magnetism since the 1830's and proceeded to design the train. Davenport remarked why should they spend so much when he had already created the motor necessary. The experiment run by Page failed. The 21K pound train full of passengers did reach 19 miles per hour, but the insulation on the windings burned through and batteries were damaged. The locomotive had to return to Washington in a damaged state.
He visualized the future as being full of large electric motors working for man. He returned home to Vermont broke and decided to write a book about the role of the electric motor in the future. He never finished his book. Unfortunately Davenport died young and broke. His impact by his inventions, and his visions for the future make him a significant part of the history of electricity.