The Barnes twin-leadscrew lathe - a design used until the 1920s on many of the company's smaller machines - was an unusual creation, having several features which flew both in the face of accepted practice and common sense. The idea of using two leadscrews to provide a quick method of reversing the feed to the carriage was not a Barnes invention, but they were one of very few manufacturers to incorporate the idea into a modestly-priced lathe. The drive was very simple; a gear on the end of each (identical) leadscrew meshed together so as to cause each to revolve in the opposite direction. A block, fastened to the apron, contained two clasp nuts under the control of one lever; by simply moving the lever up and down the direction of travel of the carriage could be instantly started, stopped or reversed
The headstock, held to the edges of the bed by two "pusher-bolts" at the rear, was entirely conventional, holding cap-type bronze bearings and, typically for the time, an inadequately-proportioned spindle. The 3-speed cone pulley was of substantial size, as was the backgear - although the large spindle-mounted bull wheel instead of being solid to promote a little "flywheel effect", was hollowed out on its front face and provided with bracing ribs.
The saddle - cast in one piece with the apron - provides an interesting contrast with contemporary designs; the rear part, instead of being long enough to share with the front the job of providing a solid base from which the tool could do its work, was made very short, as through the designer considered the various forces would only resolve themselves on the front shear. However, having shifted his attention to the front he decided to let the saddle curve over the front top "way" of the bed and make it run not on that but on a cast-in "shelf" (against the lower edge of which the rack registered) and just the lower part of the bed's outer Vee.