This tells you that the motor is a so called "AC motor" or "induction motor". Same thing.
These are big motors for machines. They run quietly. Are often totally sealed and are very reliable. They are different from the motors in your electric drill or vacuum cleaner which are noisy, very fast and have carbon brushes which wear out.
Yours is designed to run off domestic mains electricity and does not need an industrial "three phase" supply.
The RPM number tells us that it is a "4 pole" version of such a motor, which has less speed but more torque than the other common "2 pole" version.
Single phase AC motors contain devices called capacitors. These are an electrical component that looks like a plastic or alloy can, the size of a jar of spices. There are again a few different variations in the way these capacitors are used in the motor. Deema is recommending that you ask for a motor described as "capacitor start + capacitor run". Sound advice. This will have two capacitors in it of different ratings. One is used to boost torque and help the (big, heavy) motor get started. A switch inside the motor then changes over to a different value capacitor once the motor is running.
Your motor is old. It may well be designed in imperial dimensions. Modern motors are designed in a range of very standard metric dimensions so your challenge will be to find a metric motor to fit your machine. Fortunately, the power of a motor is related to it's size. Bigger = more powerful. Modern motors will be slightly more powerful than an old one of similar size most likely as this technology has been refined slowly over time so finding one of the right specifications (above) that is as close a match as possible in size is the way to go.
The physical size of motors is standardised by a body called the IEC, and a number called the "frame size" is used to indicate several physical dimensions. It works in a similar principle to shirt collar sizes - as the collar size goes up so does the chest measurement, arm length, body length etc.
Frame size actually represents the height to the centre of the spindle when the motor is mounted using it's feet. In mm.
As frame size increases, the spindles get thicker, the motors get fatter and longer, the size and spacing of the mounting holes in the feet get larger.
You need a table of IEC frame sizes (just google for one) to look up.
Lastly the spindle will be metric, not imperial, so the easy way is to change the pulley along with the motor, and that means learning about the sizes and shapes of V belts so that you can get a pulley that works with the other end of your machine.
There is a certain level of complexity in all this. I've simplified a lot. You'll need to understand all the stuff above and some more if you want to replace your motor yourself. Your first question should be, if I know nothing at all about any of this, how can I do the electrical work safely ?
