It looks very reminiscent of a Drummond 5 inch, particularly the heavily T slotted cross-slide, see http://www.lathes.co.uk/drummond5inchphotoessay

The Yahoo group is now on:

**LINK**

Brian

I wonder if dating back to 1912 explains the double bed? It's about the time HSS forced lathe design to change. Before HSS lathe knives were made of ordinary Carbon Tool steel. Works well provided the temperature is kept very low, which is achieved by flood cooling or light cuts only.

Victorian lathes are quite spindly compared with 20th century lathes. Most small machines were built to take light cuts only and treadle powered.

I suggest the double bed is an early attempt to beef-up an existing lay-out to use HSS, which cuts about 5 times faster than carbon tool steel and puts much more stress on the machine. Later, the complicated double bed was discarded because it's cheaper to make a stubby conventional bed, reinforce it internally, and stiffen the legs.

Bed design is 'quite interesting'. Gaps, flat tops, prismatic forms, and two or four legged ways, are all either rubbish or wonderful depending on who is asked. Been lots of experimentation over the years.

I've seen claims carbon tool-steel is better for fine work than HSS because it takes a sharper edge. Not sure it's true, though it might be. I can imagine time-served Victorian turners rejecting HSS as newfangled rubbish!

Dave