Beginning in the early 1950s some Leinen and Boley & Leinen watchmakers' lathes of the traditional WW pattern (a design originating from Webster Whitcombe in America during the late 1800s) were fitted with a much simpler design of headstock with the 3-step drive pulley overhung on the left-hand end of the spindle. In this respect they had copied the English Pultra company who had introduced such a type (the very modern-looking 17/50 and 17/70) in 1946. However, in a reversal of roles IME, an English maker of small precision lathes appears to have adapted aspects of Leinen designs in their second-generation Model 100 and Model 300 lathes introduced in the mid 1950s. Other changes were also afoot and, whilst some models remained largely unchanged the method of mounting the bed and driving the spindle was improved. For many decades a simple round foot, appropriately slotted to take the bed at its headstock end, had been used together with various kinds of effective but untidy remote countershafts and motors. The first improvement came with the use of a variable-speed motor hinged on a heavy, remote base and the second when the base was extended forwards to form a boss into which the bed mounting stem fitted. The next development saw more complete and integrated designs with the bed sitting in a full-length casting to give an entirely different and much more up-to-date appearance - a typical example being the popular WW82 and WW83 models. If Leinen had changed their long-established designs there was no loss of quality or cutting of corners and both the engineering and cosmetic standards were the same as it had always been - exemplary.
Many Leinen and Boley and Leinen lathes were either adapted or specially built for the optical trade, a typical example, with dial-test indicators for precise positioning of the slides, is shown here
Boley & Leinen Reform pictures continued here