# Manual of lathe operation & machinists tables ... Atlas press  copyright 1937



## Round in circles (Jan 28, 2015)

Perhaps someone can fill in any blanks  ( Robert D ?) i'm interested in finding out about the history/origins  of my Sphere lathe 

I started to show my 13 yr old daughter all of the MOLO was still extremely inportant even to day almost 80 years after the book was published .

 On flicking to the tables at the back on page 225 there are the liquid measures ... Now we ( she & I ) have been to hell and back trying to convert USA cookery recipes on the internet  in to British equivalents or better still to metric . 
 As I  explained about measurements we rarely hear of these day's  I saw the sentence " The US gallon contains  ..... blah blah bla etc. etc. . "

 It struck me that the tables are including  imperial liquid measures for the weight of a british gallon is 8 x 1.25 = 10 pounds whereas an American one I found by the rhyme of " a pints a pound the world around " this  means the US gallon is short measure at only 8 pounds , thought the MOLO book say's  8.345 pounds  when water is at it's maximum density . ( Our rhyme is a pint of pure water weights a pound and a quarter , at sea level ,at 60 oF .

 If anyone else has the 1937 edition ( price one dollar ) would you be kind enough to check your page 225 to see if both American & British liquid measurements are shown / offered .   

As I've read & reread the manual several times it seems that much of it has been especialy written for the British market as none of the words are spelt in the modern American way .
Example .....  " Colour "  in the MOLO is the British spelling  , where as Color is the US spelling. 

If I can prove that the MOLO is uniquely written for the UK market I can perhaps use that to find out a few other things . 



The company that handled the purchase sales of my machine in approx 1943 to 1944 was the Acorn machine tool company  1936 limited  of 612 , 614, 616  High road ,Chiswick , London W4 .  
I'm wondering if the fact that the date of the limited company registration is one year before the Atlas press co copyright can be used to dig deep in old records here in the UK to find any further info on the Sphere model I have which is very similar to a 10 inch throw , back gear lathe made by Atlas about 1942 . There appears to be a line of thought that the Sphere is a copy of the Atlas version but I keep fin ding all manner of different things ..so far the only things at I can find that are proveable American is most of The morse taper drills are of US origin made in Cincinnati and e the three Jacobs three jaw chucks ....  pin , 0 to 1/4" and 0 to 5/8 " or so  are also made in the  USA .

 Please don't go to lathes UK for I know the info that Tony the site owner has .
I'm trying to go a slightly different deeper route .


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## wa5cab (Jan 29, 2015)

Round (please sign posts - I have the world's second worst memory for names),

You will need to be a little more specific as to which "Copyright 1937" version you have.  For example, in the original or Version 1 (but we don't know how many printings it went through before Version 2/3 replaced it, so I won't say "First Edition"), Page 225 has tables for diameters of number and letter drills and allowance for machine fits.  Weights And Measures are on Pages 222 and 223.  In Downloads, you will find a .DOC file that explains how to ID them.  Versions that say "Copyright 1937" were printed up through 1954.  From 1955, they started showing an Edition Number.

Where was your copy printed?  The roughly 20 copies that I have or have had were all printed in the U.S.

I don't really know much about either the Acorn or Sphere variants.  My understanding is that they were license built.  But it doesn't seem to be clear whether all or just some of the parts were made in the U.S. and assembled in England.  Some parts were obviously made in England, as they don't show up on U.S. built lathes.

Robert D.


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## Round in circles (Jan 29, 2015)

That's interesting Robert thanks , I'll see if I can work it out using the doc. .


 The first  fly page immediately before the " CONTENTS "page at teh front of the book shows.
Copyright 1937
ATLAS PRESS COMPANY  
printed in USA.



 My  pages for 222 & 223 are powers ,roots & reciprocals  .Running from number 1 through to 100. .. nice to see they are on book match  pages so you can see them all in one go .

There is no other info other than copyright 1937 on the third page in ..however at the back of the book there is one final page after the index ( part 11 ) , the final part has a single sheet in section 12 printed on both sides  titled " Pages for your shop notes " the printed words  on the two pages gives 15 very useful tips for basic engineering 

This final sheet carries the following on the bottom RH corner of the final page

PRINTING & CELOX BINDING 
               BY 
IHRLING BROS.EVERARD CO.
KALAMAZOO3, MICHAGAN


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## wa5cab (Jan 30, 2015)

Round,

You probably have a Version 2 or 3, as Version 1, 4 and 5 (at least in all of the copies I've actually seen) don't have the "Price One Dollar In USA" printed on the Copyright Page.  Another clue to vintage is binding method.  The three original Version 1's I've seen have a full height wire binding, as do the two Version 2/3's.  Early Version 4's and 5"s have a wire binding that isn't full height, with two separate pieces.  I also saw a photo on eBay of one with a three piece wire binding but couldn't ID it from the ad.  The majority of Version 4's and 5's have full height plastic bindings.

Starting with the 16th edition in 1955, the copyright notice disappears and is replaced by an Edition number and a list of years printed, beginning with 1937.  That continued through the final edition in 1988.  

All editions have the 12 - NOTES tab and the two pages (one sheet) of tips, followed by several blank pages.  All but Version 2/3 have pages bound into Part 7, Threading.  2/3 had nothing bound in and originally came with a loose supplement covering either the Atlas 10F or the Craftsman 12" (usually lost).

There is no way in which to prove what year anything before the 16th edition was printed.  I've concluded from anecdotal evidence that Version 1 was probably printed in 1937 and 1938m Version 2.3 in 1939 and 1940 and Versions 4 and 5 from 1941 through 1954.  

In all of the copies that I have, color is spelled "color", not "colour".  Perhaps they did have copies printed specifically to send to Britain.  But you would think that they would have been marked in some way so that they wouldn't get mixed up on the warehouse shelf.

Robert D.


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## robinj66 (Jan 30, 2015)

R in C  -   I have the same version of the manual as you (same endorsements on the fly page and at the end of the manual).

My analysis is that it was definitely printed in "American" - on the Preface page there is mention of "labor", at p232 temperatures of steel are judged by "color" & the Foreword refers to Maudsley as "an Englishman" and the picture of the 1800 lathe is located in "London _England_") all of which would have been unlikely to have been included in a UK publication in the 1930's - 40's.

IMHO p225 contains figures for American liquid measures.  It also confirms that "The British imperial gallon...is equivalent to 10 lb of pure water at 62 F. To reduce British to US liquid gallons multiply by 1.2.  Conversely to convert US into British liquid gallons, divide by 1.2 or increase the number of gallons by 1/5"

Therefore nothing concrete but everything points to US measures being quoted.

HTH

Robin


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## Round in circles (Jan 30, 2015)

Thanks Robert .
Thanks Robin .

 I do apologise I seem to have lead both of you up the garden path with regards tothe spellings ...(I'm a wee bit dyslexic & stupid at times due to morphine and other prescribed meds playing games  in my head ).
When I read your posts a few minutes ago I opened the MOLO and checked page references , spellings & by some strange chance the fairies from the wood at the bottom of my garden have made the words American spellings 

I have to agree ..Yep the book is USA through and through .
Section 7 , threading is bound in with a white plastic clip .

 Robin where did you get your MOLO , do you have a Sphere lathe to go with it ?


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## robinj66 (Jan 31, 2015)

Hi David

No worries - it took me a couple of readings (and a trip to the car to get my glasses!:shush before I could make any sense of it.

My MOLO came to me with my Atlas TV36 lathe (10F) a couple of years ago [It has a serial number very close to that mentioned on the lathes.co.uk site so I estimate the year of manufacture to be around 1941] .  It has a black cover and is bound with a spiral binding. It has 12 index tabs including threading, attachments and woodturning. There are 4 blank pages at the back (Tab 12 "Notes") and they appear to be original to the manual.


Robin


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## Round in circles (Feb 1, 2015)

Thanks Robin ,


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