Testy's name fits him... The word "Testy" is taken to mean someone who has a short fuse or bad temper. In this instance, we have someone who wants our help, asks a vague or general question, and blows up when he gets a humorous/general answer. We seem to enjoy poking fun at each other without any bruised feelings or worse.
I think of my early years as an engineer on powerplant construction project sites. For a time, I was assigned to a startup engineering group. Many of the engineers were men who'd started by enlisting in the US Navy, served on diesel, then nuke subs, and retired as Chief Petty Officers. Other engineers had been civilian employees on Admiral Rickover's prototype reactor plants. These guys were very sharp, extremely fast on their feet, and the best teachers. I soon learned that if I asked a question about the powerplant equipment, systems, etc, I could expect to get the standard answer: "You've got eyes in your head, haven't you ?" Meaning: figure it out for yourself and when you hit a real wall, then ask us... or: when you have figured it out, come discuss it with us. Any chance remark or comment could and would be turned around as a friendly jibe. I learned to be sparing in my questions and make damned sure I had studied, traced piping, reviewed drawings, and learned as much as I could before I dared ask the "engineering Gods". At other times, they turned the tables and would ask ME the questions in what amounted to "pop quizzes". Other times, they would take me on walks thru the plant after work, pointing to random things in no apparent sequence, asking what system a pipe was part of, what the cross connects to the line were, isolation valves, temperatures and pressures, and on it went. We'd walk thru endless areas of the plant with this sort of quizzing going on, and then I might be asked: "What's the last book you read ?" or "What books are you reading now ?". Or I might be blindsided with engineering or practical questions. It was a great schooling for not just my engineering career, but life in general. I learned to be judicious in asking questions, seeing how far I could get on my own to figure things out. This was many years before the internet, and if you wanted to research something, it meant going to the library, maybe writing for technical papers or catalogs, or finding some old timer who was thirsty enough to drink beer with you and impart wisdom while sitting or standing at the bar.
Now, we have the internet and the world and all manner of information comes to us if we avail ourselves of it. Instead of hiking to the library and using the card catalog or waiting for the mailman to deliver the mail with (hopefully) a reply to a letter to a company or engineer or perhaps bringing a technical paper or catalog, we can tap the keys at any hour of the day or night and get deluged with information. We can live in the woods or in a city, and as long as we have internet access, the world and more information that we might have found in the local public library comes to us.
A gentleman named Tony Griffiths has performed a wonderful and unbelievable service to our breed by starting and maintaining an on-line machine tool archive. How Mr. Griffiths managed to pull the information together for what must be several hundred manufacturers of machine tools, and then get it organized and put on the internet is something I marvel at, aside from being indebted to Mr. Griffiths.
Testy, the short-fused poster who wanted information about the lathe had only to access Mr. Griffith's 'Machine Tool Archive' and browse through the different manufacturers.
Posting an open-ended question and expecting us all to jump to it and give a dissertation as to the lathe's manufacture, use, restoration, maintenance or whatever it is the OP wanted to know (not that he specified it) evoked a response similar to what those somewhat salty engineers and retired CPO's handed me when I asked the (somewhat) obvious. My advice to the OP: suck it up, avail yourself of the internet (and consider visiting the "Machine Tool Archive" and look up "Oskar Ehrlich" ). When you hit a wall or have more specific questions, c'mon back.
BTW: Working in the powerplant that I did (and retired from), you HAD to have a very thick skin. If we were not greeting each other with friendly curses, we might feel unloved or that something was wrong. Our favorite expressions included: "F-k him if he can't take a joke.." or "F--k 'em all, just save six for pallbearers" (this latter usually used in reference to corporate management and engineering).
I looked at the lathe in the photo and agree with Kitno, it appears to be of German manufacture. Oscar Ehrlich ?