Colchester Lathe Video worth a watch

[Neale]

It was the old measuring devices and tools that struck me most.!! . . .Amazing

I particularly liked the shot of one of the girls sorting bearing rollers - having put it in the "fully electronic" measuring machine, a little torch bulb lit up over the correct bin to put it in! Just a series of bare bulbs that looked as if they were soldered to wires taped to the back of the bins.

My own lathe is a Smart and Brown that probably dates from about the same era. I've had a couple of covers off bits of it for adjustments and the complexity of the mechanical bits internally is horrendous. The knob on the saddle that switches between surfacing and sliding movement drives the internal clutches via a couple of pairs of bevel gears and a rack and pinion. I'm sure that they could have designed something a bit simpler to do the same job - but I must say that it is a real delight to use even if it is around 50 years old.