Circa 1942 Hardinge Model TR lathe on the makers underdrive wooden stand. When equipped with lever-action slides the Model was known as the ESM - and could also be had with an open flat-belt drive headstock for drive from a remote countershaft.
In the early 1930s one Leigh R. Evans designed an underneath drive for the Cataract enclosed-head, plain-turning precision bench lathe, possibly the first new product by Hardinge Brothers company after moving to Elmira, NY. A patent to cover the design was submitted during 1934 and granted as No. 2,066,560, filed in 1937 and assigned to Hardinge Brothers.
Patent drawings show both a newly-designed desk-type bench in wood (illustrated above) as well as its long-established predecessor with maple top and splash back carried on steel pipe legs - this design being the subject of a 1908 patent, No. 928045.