Founded by the former president of Whitcomb-Blaisdell Machine Tool Co. around 1910, the Worcester Lathe Company was based, along with many other machine-tool makers, in the state of Massachusetts . A range of regular engine-type machines was made, in both backgeared, flat-belt drive and geared-head versions, with production probably ceasing in the early 1920s.
Rather oddly, some examples have been found with ways comprising a pair of Vs and flats (the example on this page) while others had four Vs (the example in blue, below) - in each case, of course, the carriage running on one pair and the tailstock the other. While early models appear to have had changewheels for screwcutting with an auxiliary flat-belt drive to the leadscrew, most examples discovered have a simple screwcutting gearbox that gave just three rates of feed for each setting of the changewheels - selection being by a lever sliding horizontally in a slot marked "1", "2" and "3". While a rather poor reproduction of an early catalogue shows the two 12 and 14-inch standard and toolroom lathes with the simple 3-speed box, a late advertisement, from 1921, includes a picture of a lathe fitted with a full quick-change box.
Although remote ceiling and wall-mounted countershafts would have been offered, at least one late-model could be had with a drive system consisting of a motor carried on a plate between the legs of the headstock-end support, its clutch operated by a full-length bar strung above a line between the headstock and tailstock.
Two Worcester catalogues can be seen on this page