By the early 1920s Seneca Falls had introduced a line of geared-head lathes in 12, 14 and 16-inch sizes with a single, external flat-belt pulley to accept the drive - which could be from either a remote countershaft system, or from a single-speed AC or variable-speed DC motor mounted directly on top of the headstock.
The company claimed that the headstock gears, cut from high-grade steel blanks, ran so quietly that the lathe made no more noise than a cone driven lathe; a claim that was almost certainly not true even though, very unusually on a lathe of this class, an pump was fitted to force an oil supply to both bearings and gears. The whole system was of unusual design and had no sliding gears, instead the slower set of the eight speeds (the range went from 4 to 450 rpm) were engaged by two levers, operating a total of five "positive" clutches (presumably of a dog type) which must have locked each gear to its shaft when engaged. The high speed range was engaged by a separate friction clutch acting directly on the spindle.
The rest of the lathe (with the exception of the carriage stop, start and reverse control that was by an apron-mounted lever) was identical to other Seneca Falls lathes of the same size.
If any reader has one of these unusual machines, the author would be pleased to hear from you.