Made from late Victorian times until just before the second World War the "Relm" series of lathes was manufactured by the Relm Machine Co. Ltd. of 86, Acre lane, Brixton, London. At some point immediately after the First world War, in 1918, the firm's name changed to the "Cheltenham Works Co. Ltd." - but at the same address. The lathes were often to be found advertised as the RelMac in both technical and non-technical magazines with the most popular having a 4.25-inch centre height, either 15 or 24-inches between centres and available as a complete, working lathe or as a kit of parts, semi-finished, for home assembly. Variations on the basic model were all offered consisting of plain-turning, backgeared and backgeared-and-screwcutting versions. In 1913 the screwcutting (but not backgeared) 4.5-inch centre height gap-bed "Relmac" was advertised at £5 : 10s : 0d for bench mounting or at £8 : 10s : 0d with a self-contained stand and treadle assembly. The Relmac can always be recognised by its leadscrew which ran, like that on the early Drummond 3.5-inch, down the centre line of the bed.  It also had a number of interesting design quirks: like the contemporary Round-bed Drummond the cross slide was supported on a post carried in a extension to the saddle casting (the T-headed locking lever can be seen protruding from the side of the casting) -whilst the top slide was fixed rigidly to the T-slotted cross slide and could not be swivelled. Both slide feed-screws carried micrometer dials - an unusual luxury on any cheaper lathe at the time, though the tailstock could not be set over to turn tapers. A dog clutch was fitted to the centrally positioned-leadscrew drive - a device necessitated by the full nut carried under the saddle - but its operation appears to have depended upon a over-complex arrangement involving a lever, crank-rod and collet-closer type arrangement passing through the hub of the boss that carried the headstock-end of the leadscrew.
Also produced was a more advanced machine, the 4-inch "Super Relm" with the leadscrew down the front face of the bed. For an inexpensive lathe it was well built and finished and, with its production spanning the 1914-1918 "Great War" and continuing through the 1920s must have a good seller - certainly there are many survivors still in use today.
In 1923 the Cheltenham Works Co. Ltd. announced the new RelMinor, an inexpensive but remarkably robust small lathe with a 3-inch centre height, 12-inches between centres and a 10.5-inch swing in the gap. Although the option was offered of backgear and screwcutting the few surviving examples, like the one on this page, tend to be just simple, plain-turning types. During 1924 what was probably the company's last new model, the much smaller and lighter 2-inch centre height RelmBee, was introduced. However, competition in the model-engineering field was increasing with many makers, including Patrick, Portass, ETA, Ideal, Granville, Pools, Grayson, EXE, Randa,  Zyto and others all offering stiff competition. In addition the market leaders Drummond continued to develop and refine their small lathe and the Relm Machine Company, failing to respond, gradually vanished from the scene.
If you have a Relm lathe of any kind, or any literature about them, the writer would be pleased to hear from you.