Boye and Emmes, formerly the Schumacher and & Boye Company, were formed in 1899 (the Schumacher & Boye name was dropped in 1912) and were based at 2245 to 2251 Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Their lathes were typical of the medium to large capacity machines of the time, having belt driven cone headstocks fitted, in order to provide secure, slip-free low speeds, with a "double" backgear mechanism. Machines with swings of 18", 20", 24", 26", 30", 32", 36", 42", 48", Larger lathes in the range, again in line with contemporary design, used a triple-backgear assembly, able to brings speeds down to as low as 2 rpm.
On the lathes without a full screwcutting gearbox the designer incorporated a supplementary fine feed drive by belts, the cone drive for which can be seen protruding from the left-hand end of the headstock spindle, and the drive pulley attached to the reduction gearbox at the headstock end of the leadscrew. Besides the "direct-drive" belt feed to the power shaft, a slower positive feed could be arranged by engaging a gear on the leadscrew to one on the feed rod.
The headstock spindles were made from "the best hammered crucible steel" and ran in bronze bearings. An ordinary type of tumble reverse was fitted to the leadscrew drive and all but the largest lathes in the range were available with screwcutting by changewheels rather than a quick-change gearbox.