Although many varieties of faster, automatic lathes were in contemporary use during the period 1900 to 1940 simple but high-precision  machines like the Cataract still found a place in workshops where there was need for "second-operation" machining,  short production runs of identical parts - or where an easily-handled lathe was need to carry special tooling made up by the resident "wizard" to get round some particularly thorny production problem.
This type of smaller capstan lathe has, incidentally, been the backbone of many a successful home business, run in the evening and at weekends, turning out (in the author's experience) a bewildering variety of parts for consumption by local businesses and educational institutes. 
The lever-action, double-tool cross slide and the turret head could both accepted the same tooling as used on the very popular and widely-used Brown & Sharpe Automatic Screw Machines.

Cataract "Enclosed Head Precision Hand Screw Machine" shown here with a lever-action collet closer, lever cross slide with twin tool posts and a six-station, self-indexing turret

6 station self-indexing turret head with adjustable stops.
This unit could be rested in the middle of a stroke, and the head turned by hand past any stations not fitted with tooling.

Automatic Collar Closer with adjustable closing tension
A common fitting on lathes equipped for repetition and production work - and ideal for feeding bar stock through the headstock