Regarded when new as the finest quality, most accurate and reliable medium-sized toolroom lathe it was possible to buy, the early HLV had a narrower bed than the later HLV-H - and numerous detail differences. Today even the earliest examples of this classic lathe are, if in sound condition, highly sort after and command high prices. 
Using elements of design seen in earlier lathes it even incorporated the "trademark" twin levers on the face of the headstock first seen on the Cataract-branded precision plain-turning lathes of the 1930s. However the bed, with its wide, flat surface and V-edges was new - and a complete departure from its immediate predecessor, a machine that had used a split height bed with the tailstock running on a central bevel and the carriage on conventional ways at front and back.
All HLV and HLV-H models were fitted with a mechanical, expanding-and-contracting pulley variable-speed drive system - with the very earliest HLV type (as shown below) having the speed varied by a hand-turned dial on the face of the stand together with a distinctive, vertically disposed speed indicator. Later models were fitted with electrically driven pulleys, the operation being controlled by a push-button control box, with a speed indicator column, mounted above the headstock. The other essential HLV feature was also present on the early lathes: independent variable-speed drive to the carriage. The first examples manufactured had the speed dial off-set towards the top of the control box with later types having a central dial and the switches reposition to the corners of the black-faced panel..