Although a kit-form gearbox had been designed and marketed by L. H. Sparey (author of "The Amateur's lathe") in the late 1940s it was not until 1953 that Myford's first effort appeared. Lubricated by an oil-bath it was designed along long-established "Norton Quick-change" lines with a single-tumbler and a reversible gear on its left-hand face that allowed a quick change between fine feeds and threads. The early boxes were fitted with unhardened gears and (hidden under a rounded, aluminium cover) a pair of external gears on the right-hand face (from which the leadscrew drive was taken).