old (20s30s) 25ft George W Fifield metal lathe

Is anyone familiar with this machine?

If memory serves, Geo. W. Fifield was a tool maker of the Lowell, MA area. His range of production spanned from the early 1870s to perhaps 1900 - although the name might have lived on beyond this.

His machines usually embody the cone pulley, curvy legs, box tailstock, and loose change gears of the mid 19th century on. Many still exist and are in service in northern Massachusetts, southern Cow Hampshire area, although they're not optimal for use with modern tooling.

I might expect to see a rise & fall toolrest on a Fifield lathe, although the regular more modern carriage/apron would have survived better. You might see a compound on a later Fifield product.

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Joe

TheWayIRoll:

Welcome to PM ! Please post pictures of this George Fifield lathe.

Are you about to move a 25-foot lathe?

JRR

There was a fire in the factory in 1901 and they decided to call it quits instead of rebuilding. Note that they built an addition in 1900 that "contained two of the largest planers in the United States." See May & August entries:

Labor and industrial chronology of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts - Horace Greeley Wadlin, Charles Felton Pidgin, Massachusetts. Bureau of Statistics of Labor - Google Books