Treadle lathe, made by Joseph Whitworth & Co., Manchester, c. 1880.

Lathe no. 626 is a precision screw-cutting lathe dating from about 1880. It is powered by a foot-treadle. This lathe has ‘change gears’ which enables it to cut a variety of different screw-threads. Whitworth’s name was closely linked with screw-threads. He introduced a set of measurements for them that were adopted as the national standard.