Designed personally by Mr. Franklin Hardinge - and in production for the first time during WW1(1914 -1918) - the fabulous Hardinge 9" x 28" "Cataract Quick Change Swing Precision Lathe" was a new departure for the company. Built in very limited numbers - it is though that only three-hundred or so were sold - today some fifteen to twenty still exist. The specification was excellent with, amongst other delights, an enormously deep and wide bed; a carriage with immensely long wings and  a 21/32-inch diameter front headstock bearing carrying a massive, well-supported, hardened and ground 1.25" bore spindle. The original spoked, cast-iron backgears were perhaps on the fragile side - they have been known to strip - but this was the lathe's only known weak point.  full screwcutting gearbox was fitted and drove a 1-inch diameter 6 t.p.i leadscrew with a separate powershaft for the standard-fit power sliding and surfacing feeds (both engaged by safety-overload friction clutches) with an automatic, precision-adjustable disengagement to the sliding feed. Extremely long saddle wings overlapped the front and back of the headstock by several inches - giving improved support to the cutting tool when brought up to the spindle nose. Taper turning (with fine-screw adjustment of the setting) was fitted as standard; the top slide could be swivelled through 360° (just one square-headed bolt required slackening first); twin-bolts clamped the tailstock in place and a useful swing-out rotating collet tray was fitted beneath the chip tray. To improve productivity and the finish on work, the operator was encourage to use the right feed rate - three changes being available for each setting of the gearbox; it was only being necessary to manipulate a single control lever, which worked through the gearbox input gears, it was not necessary to manipulate the full gearbox to alter the setting.
As standard the lathe's capacity was, considering the enormous depth, width and weight of the bed, very modest but, as its name implied ("Quick Change Swing"), it was possible to make better use of its strength  and order a set of raiser blocks for headstock, tailstock and toolpost that took the centre height from 4.5 to a more useful 7.5 inches. These blocks were missing from an example owned by the Author some years ago (date stamped 1917), a machine that had been standing  neglected for many years; although superficially in poor order, the quality shone through and with just a thorough cleaning, careful oiling and attention to the main adjustments it was successfully restored to active and accurate duty.