Announced in 1921 at £2 : 10s : 0d for the basic version, the little Wade CAV lathe was made by C.A.V. Small Tools Ltd. of Portland Road, Hove, Sussex, England until the late 1930s. The machine was offered in a variety of forms - short and long-bed versions (with 12" and 18" between centres respectively) and as either a simple plain-turning type or fully equipped with backgear and screwcutting. Most were badged with the maker's name but some carried a Selson label and were sold through that organisation's London-based company who also imported (and often re-branded) a variety of continental European machines.
Made from a single drawn-steel tube of 1.75" diameter and 0.1875" wall thickness ground over its entire length to within 0.001", the bed of the CAV was held at each end in what were described as, "pressure die-cast, tough copper-aluminium alloy castings". A slot, running along the underside of the bed, acted as an alignment guide for the saddle and tailstock.
White metal was employed for the headstock bearings (split on one side and adjustable over a small range for taking up wear) whilst the spindle was bored hollow - and unusual luxury on this class of lathe. Very early machine (of which few appear to have survived) had oil holes in the headstock caps, and four narrow flat-belt pulleys; later machines were fitted with tiny, hinged-cap oilers, handles on the various hand-wheels and 3-step "V" headstock pulleys designed to take a small-diameter round leather-rope of the type frequently found driving sewing machines. The small diameter of the headstock spindle meant that there was no room to machine a taper in the nose to accept a centre, instead, a screw-on boss was used (a device frequently used on light, amateur lathes as far back as the 1800s) that had sufficient diameter to carry a short No. 1 Morse taper centre and, at the same time, act as a simple form of drive plate for between-centres work.
Of the two models listed, the "No. 1" was plain-turning with its split headstock bearing clamping screws to the rear, whilst the "No. 2", with three direct speeds and three geared speeds, was equipped with both a 5:1 reduction steel backgear and screwcutting. The headstock on this lathe was almost twice as long and much more substantially constructed than the one fitted to the plain lathe - and had the bearing-clamp screws to the front.
Formed - most unusually - from a square-section steel bar threaded on its end to accept accessories, the tailstock spindle was locked by a slot in the aluminium casting closed down by a set-screw.,
The cross-slide feed was fitted with an ordinary Whit-form right-hand thread resulting in a "cack-handed" approach when applying a cut - turning the wheel clockwise resulted in the tool being retracted, an awkward arrangement with great potential to wreck jobs, until one eventually became used to it. The toolpost was a simple "clog-heel" type, made in either aluminium or bronze - through the latter, being expensive, is rare and must have been abandoned early in the machine's life.
Thirteen changewheels (80t, 70t, 63t, 60t, 55t, 52t, 50t, 42t, 40t, 38t, 35t, 32t and one of 30t the headstock spindle), were included in the basic set and these were able, in combination with a 12 t.p.i leadscrew, to generate threads between 6 and 70 t.p.i. The gears were made from steel, heat treated and ran on gunmetal bearings - as did a neatly-engineered dog clutch, fitted to the end of the leadscrew and enclosed within the headstock casting.
Exported to Canada and the USA the lathe was offered in the latter country by the Gerold Company of 120 Liberty Street, New York who offered the full range of accessories including an American "Whiton" 3 jaw ring-scroll chuck of 2.5" diameter (an item also fitted to English-market versions) ,a 3" diameter 4-jaw chuck, two simple "bell" and "ring" chucks, an offset centre for taper turning, a travelling steady, various wood-turning centres, a faceplate with adjustable dogs to convert it into a large 4-jaw  chuck, three hand T-rests of different lengths, a tailstock chuck mounted on its own square barrel, a tailstock drilling pad and, to "special order" (and hence very rare), a compound slide rest and milling slide - neither of which the author has ever seen on English-market Models.
In the last years of production a heavier and more rigid headstock was introduced (illustrated below) with a distinctive "flat face"; this is a very rare machine and only a few examples have ever come to light.
Well thought-out and decently made the detail engineering of the headstock and changewheel drive to the leadscrew through a dog-clutch was quite exceptional for so inexpensive a product. In reality, however, the design was a triumph of hope over practicality as any attempt to turn more resilient materials, or take large cuts,  quickly showed up the machine's inherent weakness - a lack of rigidity. However, it did provided the impecunious amateur with an opportunity to buy a new lathe on which to learn the essentials of turning and screwcutting..