of the now standard machine tools will never be superseded, and will
for a long time to come remain subjects of alteration and attempted
improvement in every detail. The head stock of a lathe--the back gear
in particular--is about as hard a thing to improve as the link motion
of a locomotive. Some arrangement by which a single motion would
change from fast to slow, and a substitute for the flanges on the
pulleys, which are intended to keep the belt out of the gear, but
never do, might be improvements. If the flanges were cast on the head
stock itself, and stand still, rather than on the pulley, where they
keep turning, the belt would keep out from between the gear for a
certainty. One motion should fasten a foot stock, and as secure as it
is possible to secure it, and a single motion free it so it could be
moved from end to end of the bed. The reason any lathe takes more than
a single motion is because of elasticity in the parts, imperfection in
the planing, and from another cause, infinitely greater than the
others, the swinging of the hold-down bolts.

Should not the propelling powers of a lathe slide be as near the point
of greatest resistance as possible, as is the case in a Sellers lathe,
and the guiding ways as close to the greatest resistance and
propelling power as possible, and all other necessary guiding surfaces
made to run as free as possible?

A common expression to be found among the description of new lathes is
the one that says "the carriage has a long bearing on the ways." Long
is a relative word, and the only place I have seen any long slides
among the lathes in the market is in the advertisements. But if any
one has the courage to make a long one, they will need something
besides material to make a success of it. It needs only that the
guiding side that should be long, and that must be as rigid as