Manufactured by Dignus Engineering of Orleans Road, Twickenham, Middlesex, the "DEC" screwcutting and gap-bed Dignus made a brief appearance in the early 1920s. Named after the Latin term for worthy, deserving and meritorious, in 1922 the company took a full-page advertisement in the 1922 Model Engineer Exhibition catalogue to list their Type A and Type B machines - both with a 3-inch centre height and with a  choice of either 9 inches or 19 inches between centres. Two other versions were also listed, the A.G. and B.G. these being fitted with a slow-speed backgear in the form of epicyclic reduction gears within the larger of the headstock cone pulleys.
Rather meanly, the headstock had only two speeds, though instead of what might have been an inadequate round-rope drive, good-sized flat pulleys were fitted allowing far heavier work to be undertaken. Just a single swivelling slide rest was fitted, mounted on a bar fitted into a socket on the front of the saddle and locked by a bolt at the front - the arrangement also allowing the to be adjusted vertically to set the tool height. The carriage was driven by a leadscrew that ran beneath the centre of the flat-topped, 90-degree edged bed and passed though a solid nut. What arrangements were made for a dog-clutch to disengage the drive is not known; it seems that one may not have been fitted so making screwcutting an awkward procedure.
It is thought that few examples of any type can have been sold - competition was stiff - and today only two examples are known, one coming to light during 2014 and another in 2024..