After a long period of gestation, through various makes and models and numerous small improvements, the first Cowells lathe emerged as an almost exact copy of the popular Perris PL90. With a gap bed, backgear, screwcutting, a compound slide rest (with T-slotted cross slide), dog-clutch on the leadscrew and a built-on countershaft with V-belt drive the useful specification ensured its continued success.
Occasionally the lathe is found mounted on neat, under-drive stand intended for bench mounting - an example is shown towards the bottom of the page carrying a second badge with the model name "Norwich" - a Norwich photographic essay can be seen here. A further development was the Cowells 90 Model 10-200B, the first 90 to be mounted on its own cast-iron base table base..