Looking mechanically little changed from a 1938 South Bend 9-inch, the first Blomqvist clone nevertheless had some important differences including a roller bearing headstock spindle, a very deep, well braced bed casting with integral feet, a neat, built-in electrical switch,, larger zeroing micrometer dials with knurled-ring locking that acted against the face of the dial, four-spoke carriage and tailstock handwheels and a tailstock with an integral locking lever--instead of the loose spanner of the original. Early beds have been found in two forms: one with the bracing webs arranged at right-angles and the other diagonally; several bed lengths were also offered giving 600, 800, 1000 or 1500 mm between centres with the extra length obtained by simply cantilevering a section out beyond the tailstock-end foot.
Although later versions of the lathe were offered with a screwcutting gearbox and power cross feed, so far no early versions have been discovered to that specification. Very early (flat-belt) countershafts followed the original South Bend style - albeit of rather heavier construction - in being a self-contained unit mounted remotely behind the headstock. A later type 4-speed V-belt type was mounted on a bracket attached to the bed, making the unit self-contained - and with a further advantage in having its top section removable to ease changes of belt (though of course you still had to dismantle the headstock…). Interestingly, the original South Bend method of a 2-step V-pulley on the motor with its belt running over flat pulleys was retained for the motor-to-countershaft drive (this was a system that allowed a quick change to be made between the high and low speed ranges and did away with the need for a separate motor-to-countershaft belt-tensioning device). See the full article here