Almost entirely divorced from the development of industrial-sized machine tools, the evolution of small, high-precision watchmakers' lathes took some interesting turns - including this type of dead-end "Swiss Universal" and "English Mandrel" (an interchangeable term).
Very few of these lathes carry a maker's name or mark, and when the writer visited a collector of these lathes in Zermatt, Switzerland, none of his collection of fifteen examples was marked by its maker. Hence, it was rather exciting to discover that the example shown below, and resident in the Netherlands, was identical to another example found in Switzerland and marked "ROB"; the O in the middle being inscribed inside with "&c", and the whole stuck through with an arrow pointing to the left.
The first of this type of lathe was introduced during the 1700s, possibly by the inventive watchmaker Vauscher, based in what was then the centre of the trade in the Swiss town of Fleurier. The example shown below is typical of its type, with its headstock and bed cut from one piece of a bronze alloy - both of rather short and slender proportions. Also a common feature of the English Mandrel, the spindle was supported in a single bearing at the front and against a hardened centre at the rear; this was a simple but effective arrangement, reflecting contemporary small-lathe practice for much of the 1800s, as typified, for example, by some versions of the Pfeil. To make the machine as compact as possible and free it from the complications of a separate, complex rope-driven countershaft, the lathe was often equipped with an integral drive system - probably the world's first - in which the spindle was turned by a hand-operated crank working through a step-up ratio, spiral-form gear. However, in every case, the drive gear was bolted on and could be removed if required, with provision for an alternative belt system often included (or able to be subsequently added by owners). However, some examples of a rather more complex design, with part-bronze, part-steel construction, have also been found, as shown below, with a neat, hand-powered round-rope drive. These varied in construction, with some being arranged to turn through 90 degrees to wrap around a pulley on the spindle centre line - the pulley then acting as a catchplate to turn the spindle through a drive dog. Yet other versions, with drive direct from a gear cut into the periphery of the hand-turned wheel meshing directly with a gear on the spindle and ones where the rim of the faceplate turned to accept a rope drive, also exist - though the latter would have required the use of a separate countershaft and its associated complications of drive and mounting.
Another of the lathe's significant features was the inclusion of a decent compound slide rest, which allowed the operator to precisely control the cutting tool. In many cases, these lathes had what appeared to be three slide rests, as in the later American Derbyshire lathes. However, on the Swiss lathes, this fitting was not a slide but a very clever means of adjusting the tool height. The action depended upon two pairs of opposing wedges that, when moved towards each other, lifted the tool and, when moved away, lowered it (it being necessary to slacken the top clamping screw first). The wedges were shifted by two round bars, pushed by a plate under a screw action, with their inside (hidden) section formed with wedge faces - each facing in opposite directions, of course. As was universal at the time, a hand T-rest was also provided, mounted on its own separate and adjustable bed rest.
Of a type sometimes referred to as a "mandrel", the "faceplate" was of a type that remains in production to this day for use on watch and clockmakers' lathes. Three radial slots each carried a split clamp with a fine-pitch screw (for precise adjustment), with the centre on some examples carrying what was to become known as a "pump centre" where a workpiece, with a true hole through it, could be exactly centred by using the pointed end of a spring-loaded rod.
Although on its introduction, the Swiss Universal had been an entirely novel concept (and for its intended purpose, a handy machine), some serious drawbacks were its relatively slow speed (a considerable handicap when working on small diameters), the inability to hold small workpieces on their outside diameter and a lack of rigidity in the bed. In all these respects, it was eventually rendered obsolete by several significant, closely overlapping developments instigated by a close-knit group of Americans. Starting in 1857 or 1858, the first improvement came with the invention by Charles S. Moseley of a small bar-bed lathe with a hollow headstock spindle that could accept "split chucks" (or "collets" as they are now known) - a machine that was the immediate forerunner of today's "Geneva" lathes. In 1862 came the introduction of the high-speed headstock with a hardened steel spindle running in glass-hard and lapped steel bearings (a vital development next incorporated in the larger "bench precision"* lathes by John Stark during the same year, a type that was to make miniature precision work of all kinds so much easier). In the early 1870s, Ballou, Whitcomb & Co. introduced the next significant advance: an improved version of a lathe originally built by A. Webster of the American Watch Company and later independently manufactured by two former employees, Kidder and Adams. By 1879, Weber and Whitcomb had combined to form the American Watch Tool Company, and by 1888-9, they were ready to market the final and definitive form of heavy-duty watchmakers' lathe - the 50 mm centre height Webster-Whitcomb, or "WW" as it was to become better known. With a spindle and bearings constructed from the very finest grades of hardened, ground and lapped steel (and able to run reliably at high speeds for years on end) draw-tube closed collets and a rigid, absolutely accurate bevelled-edge bed that ensured precise alignment of headstock, slide rest and tailstock. This seminal lathe finally answered all the needs of any craftsman engaged in watch and instrument manufacture or repair..