Great-Wheel Lathe

identity

• Name: Great-wheel lathe; the great wheel; the great lathe; wheel-driven lathe. The person at the wheel is described here as the assistant turning the wheel. (review fix 9: the consulted sources establish the role, not an occupational label. Stuart King uses "wheel turner" as modern explanatory prose, and the phrase historically names other occupations too, so it is not used here as a period term. "Wheel boy" remains unverified.) Continental names (Großrad-Drehbank, tour à roue) are plausible descriptive compounds, not verified in a primary source.
• Family / category: Turning machinery — the continuous-rotation, externally driven branch of the lathe family. It sits beside, not in a line with, the reciprocating branch (bow / strap / pump / pole) and the one-person continuous branch (treadle-flywheel lathe) [GW2][GW6].
• Etymology: "Lathe" entered English in the early 14th c., probably via Old Norse, root sense "framework / supporting stand" [GW3]; "turn" descends from Latin tornare / Greek tornos [GW4]. "Great wheel" is a plain descriptive compound; Moxon, in the Turning part of Mechanick Exercises (1680; collected 1683), treats the wheel as already familiar and illustrates it in Plate 14 [GW1][GW-Christies].
• One line: A turning lathe whose work spins continuously in one direction, driven by a large wheel that — in its documented two-person form — an assistant turns and controls for speed while the turner cuts.

✦ how NOT to use it

This is the thinnest part of the period record: no historical text lists the great wheel's dangers. What follows is modern risk analysis, grounded in Yale EHS lathe guidance [GW31] and labelled as such, applied to the machine's documented configuration. Period sources are cited where they support a point.

not-for (jobs it should never do)

• IF the work is fine, delicate, small-diameter finishing, THEN the documented masters chose reciprocating motion instead: Holtzapffel records Felibien (1690) and Plumier (1701) preferring the pole or spring bow for delicate work [GW2][GW13]. Exception: specific great-wheel machines set up for ornamental work (de Caus's oval lathe) [GW2].
• Solo work. In its documented form it is a two-person machine; without a coordinated assistant, use a machine built for one operator [GW1][GW6].
• Work that requires rapid stopping. The wheel's inertia keeps it turning after cranking stops [GW2][GW11].
• Confined layouts. The wheel, crank and a long rope at several feet's distance need clear floor space around every moving part (modern risk analysis).

dangerous (misuse that injures the user)

• Treating any part of the rotation as a safe moment. (review fix 1, the holding finding.) Rotating work, a moving rope and a turning wheel are hazards in either direction and at any speed. Do not shift grip, reach in, inspect, measure or attempt to clear a catch while anything is moving; use the stop procedure in correct use [GW31].
• Coordination failure between turner and assistant. The wheel keeps turning unless the assistant stops driving, and then coasts. Agree signals before starting; the assistant watches the turner, not the wheel; the turner does not act on an assumed stop (modern risk analysis; configuration-specific) [GW31].
• Entanglement and nip points. Rotating lathes can entangle hair, clothing, jewellery and gloves and pull a person in [GW31]. The great wheel adds configuration-specific points: the long rope or belt along its whole run, the rope's entry onto wheel and pulley (in-running nip points), the wheel rim and spokes, and the crank. Tie back hair, no loose sleeves or jewellery, and keep people — including onlookers — clear of the rope's path (configuration hazards: modern risk analysis). There is no expectation that a caught item will release.
• Catches and ejected work. A catch under continuous drive can lever the tool and throw work or parts [GW31]. Keep the rest close and secure, check workholding and centres before driving, stand out of the line of ejection, and stop the machine fully before dealing with a catch.

damaging (misuse that ruins the work or the tool)

• Wrong speed for the diameter. "Works of small diameter require driving faster than those of large" — hence stepped pulleys [GW2]. A large blank run too fast risks coming apart (modern lathe guidance on speed and ejection [GW31]); small work run too slow tears.
• A slipping drive rope. "As the drive cord stretches, it gets less 'bite' on the mandrel and thus slips easier" [GW21]. A slipping rope changes speed mid-cut; stop and re-tension.
• Uneven cranking beyond what the wheel's inertia can smooth surges or slows the spindle and chatters the cut [GW11].

beginner-trap (mistakes that look fine until they aren't)

• Assuming tooling transfers between lathes. (review fix 2, replacing the deleted breakage claim.) Use turning tools, rests, workholding and speeds appropriate to the specific lathe, work diameter, material and operation. Do not assume pole-lathe or powered-lathe tooling is interchangeable with a great wheel without competent, machine-specific assessment.
• Cutting into the drive cord (direct-to-work setup). When the cord runs on the workpiece it sits near the cutting path [GW21]; cutting it lets it whip (consequence: modern risk analysis). Plan tool paths around it and stop before re-rigging.
• Expecting motor-like starts and stops. The wheel must be told to stop and must coast down [GW2][GW11].

lineage-misuse (treating it like its ancestor or its descendant)

• Treating it like the Pole Lathe. The pole lathe reverses on every stroke; the great wheel runs one way continuously [GW1][GW7]. Neither gives a safe interval: on either machine, stop completely before inspection, measurement, clearing or adjustment [GW31].
• Treating it like a powered lathe. Its speed depends on a person's cadence and attention, varies with load and slip, and cannot be cut instantly [GW2][GW11]. Holtzapffel notes that dividing attention between power and cutting "leads to errors and accidents to the work" [GW2].

correct use

(Brief — turning operation belongs to Reed; this is the design envelope.)

• What it is good at: continuous, one-direction, sustained turning. The tool need not leave the work except to examine it — and examining means stopping (see below) [GW1]. It commands heavier work than the pole and treadle [GW1]; the speed ratio gives higher surface speed than a hand-reciprocated drive [GW2].
• Materials & products (documented): heavy hardwood (elm hubs, table legs, lignum-vitae bowls) and metal (pewter, bell metal, goldsmith's work) [GW5][GW6][GW18].
• Stopping, inspecting, adjusting — one procedure (review fix 1). Agree the stop signal before starting. To inspect, measure, clear a catch or adjust anything: withdraw the tool, call the stop, the assistant stops driving, and wait until the wheel, crank, rope and work have all stopped completely. Only then inspect, measure, clear or adjust. No direction of rotation, no slowing, and no pause in cranking is an inspection interval. (Modern risk analysis grounded in Yale EHS lathe guidance on rotating work, catches, entanglement, nip points and ejected work [GW31].)
• Starting: inspect wheel, crank, rope/belt, centres or chuck, rest and workpiece before driving; start slowly and bring speed up only once the work runs true, per Yale's low-initial-speed guidance [GW31].

✦ matching (the reviewer's schema notes)

• Strong matches: wheel hubs and other large turned work; demonstrations or reconstructions of continuous human-powered turning; settings with adequate space and a coordinated assistant.
• Conditional matches: metal finishing, ornamental turning, bowls, plates and furniture parts — only when the specific machine, tooling, workholding, speed range and operator competence support them.
• Not a match: solo work; confined layouts; work requiring rapid stopping; users without training in lathe work and two-person coordination; any setup lacking a sound wheel, crank, rope/belt, centres or chuck, rest and workpiece inspection.
• Alternatives are operation-specific: pole/spring lathe for reciprocating human-powered work; treadle-flywheel lathe for solo continuous work; modern powered lathe for controlled powered turning. They are not universally interchangeable.

anatomy

Named parts and what each does. [GW1][GW2][GW6][GW18]

• The great wheel: a large wheel, often several feet in diameter (review fix 12; exact dimensions are given only for sourced objects — Science Museum 1949-347's is 6 ft 6 in, on a stand 8 ft from the lathe [GW18]). Wood with spokes "very like the wheel of a carriage," on its own stand, usually some distance from the lathe [GW2][GW6]. Drive and energy buffer: its inertia "equalizes the results of the varying muscular effort," smoothing fluctuations; it has no spring return and needs its lost energy replenished continuously [GW11]. (Historical sources call it the "great wheel" or "driving wheel"; "flywheel" is modern analysis.)
• Crank handle(s): "one, and sometimes two Iron handles" depending on the weight of the work [GW1][GW6].
• Cord / rope / belt: leather, hemp or cotton, from the wheel to a pulley on the mandrel or, in the simplest form, directly to the workpiece, in which case the turner must cut around the cord [GW2][GW21]. Often crossed in a figure-eight for wrap and direction, with the wheel tilted slightly "to prevent the band chafing"; the stand is sometimes pulled along the floor to tension the band [GW2].
• Speed ratio: "the velocities being inversely as the diameters… the groove on the wheel being six times the diameter of that on the pulley, the latter will move with six times the rapidity" [GW2]. Pulley ratio sets the no-load kinematic ratio; actual spindle speed also depends on cranking cadence, slip, cutting load, wheel inertia and work diameter. The 6× figure is illustrative, not a standard.
• Headstock and mandrel: a great wheel can drive a live (revolving) mandrel carrying a pulley and chuck nose, a dead-centre arrangement, or the work directly; no one arrangement defines all great-wheel lathes [GW2].
• Bed, poppets, tailstock, tool rest: the standard lathe frame. The Science Museum lathe: "a headstock, a tailstock, a tool rest and a bed slide mounted on a bench," driven by "an assistant who turned a crank handle attached to a flywheel 6 ft 6 inches in diameter mounted in a stand 8 ft away… a pulley is bolted to the flywheel and drives by means of a rope the pulley on the lathe mandrel" [GW18].

variations (living + historical)

• Wheelwright's great wheel — wheel on a separate stand, rope to the mandrel pulley, for heavy work such as elm hubs; documented in use to 1949 [GW6][GW18].
• Pewterer's / metalworker's great wheel — the 1568 pewterer; bell founders and goldsmiths [GW5][GW9][GW15].
• Dual-groove wheel — two diameters for two speeds (Encyclopédie méthodique) [GW17].
• Geared variants — rare; two wheelwright's examples noted by King (France, Romania) [GW6].
• Direct-to-work vs. mandrel-driven [GW2][GW21].
• Wall-mounted drive wheel (Plumier 1701) — raised or lowered by a wooden screw to tension the belt, with a spring-bow kept for fine work [GW13][GW16].
• Great-wheel-driven oval-turning lathe — de Caus (1624), "set in motion by a wooden wheel on a detached stand" [GW2].

trades (where it appears, with trade-specific notes)

• Metalworking: pewterers, bell founders, goldsmiths — the earliest checked evidence [GW5][GW9][GW15][GW17].
• Wheelwrighting: elm hubs and heavy parts; the Barley lathe used to 1949 [GW6][GW18][GW28].
• Heavy woodturning and furniture parts: table legs, large bowls; the Dominy shop's two-operator lathe [GW6][GW-Winterthur].
• Ornamental / ivory / hardwood turning: Plumier, Peter the Great, Holtzapffel's clientele [GW16][GW19][GW24]; largely migrated to the treadle-flywheel lathe.
• Adjacent (same wheel principle): cutler's grinding wheels, potter's hand-flywheels [GW2][GW14].

lineage

(review fix 4: modelled as overlapping branches. "Continuous-rotation branch" and "functional successor / parallel solution" are used in place of "direct descendant" unless a source proves transmission.)

• Overlapping branches of the lathe family:
  • Bow / strap lathe (reciprocating): the cord pulled back and forth, the work reversing every stroke [GW5]. Assistant-driven strap lathes (the Egyptian two-person type) were already two-person machines, so a second person is old in turning, not an invention of the great wheel [GW5].
  • Pole / spring lathe (reciprocating, one person): foot-driven, cuts on one direction of the cycle. It ran in parallel with the great wheel for centuries; Holtzapffel records Felibien (1690) and Plumier (1701) preferring reciprocating motion for delicate work [GW2][GW13]. Cross-ref Pole Lathe.
  • Great-wheel lathe (continuous, externally driven): this entry.
  • Treadle-flywheel lathe (continuous, one person): a crank and flywheel carry one person's treadling into continuous rotation. Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus drawing (c.1480–1500) is a drawing / design / precedent, not proof of construction, adoption or direct descent; it predates the 1568 printed great-wheel anchor, which is one reason the branches cannot be read as a ladder [GW10].
  • Water-driven and later powered lathes: water (a Nuremberg Council record of 1590 is cited by King), then steam and electric motors [GW7][GW12].
• Early textual root of assistant drive: Theophilus, On Divers Arts (c.1100) describes a hand-cranked lathe for bell cores and a pewterer's lathe "pulled by a boy," both in metalwork [GW8].
• Contemporaries on the same wheel principle: the grindstone / cutler's wheel, the potter's hand-flywheel, and the spinning "great wheel" share the large-wheel drive but do different jobs; the overlap is the drive, not a lineage [GW2][GW14]. Cross-ref Spinning Wheel, Potter's Wheel.

history

The checked early evidence for continuous wheel drive is strongest in metalworking. Theophilus (c.1100) describes assistant-driven lathes in bell-founding and pewter work [GW8]. The Jost Amman / Hartmann Schopper woodcut of 1568 shows a pewterer at a lathe driven by a detached wheel cranked by a second person; Holtzapffel calls it the earliest representation of the driving wheel known to him (review fix 10: his survey's statement, not proof of absolute world priority) [GW2][GW9][GW15]. Thomas Rettie's search of the iconographic record found "very little evidence" that wood turners used continuous-rotation lathes before 1600, though metalworkers clearly did [GW5]. review fix 5: that is a limited search finding. This run did not establish when, or by what route, continuous wheel drive entered woodworking; later museum and shop evidence securely anchors great-wheel use in woodworking and wheelwrighting [GW18][GW-Winterthur].

What continuity changes. Moxon states the advantage over the pole in one sentence: "with the Wheel the Work runs always the same way; so that the Tool need never be off it, unless it be to examine the work as it is doing"; heavy work "such as the Pole and Tread will not Command" becomes practical [GW1]. Continuous rotation supports sustained cutting and, later, guided screw-cutting systems; specific screw-cutting mechanisms also require controlled synchronization of tool and work, and Besson's 1578 machine book already shows a weight-driven screw-cutting lathe (review fix 7) [GW-Besson-LoC][GW-Besson-SI].

What it costs, and why (review fix 8). A reciprocating pole lathe gets its return stroke from a spring. A great wheel has no return to store: it turns one way, and its inertia carries rotation through fluctuations in the assistant's cranking, while the assistant must keep replenishing the energy that cutting and friction dissipate [GW2][GW11]. So in its documented form the great wheel spends a second person to buy continuous rotation. The treadle-flywheel lathe offers continuous rotation to one person, but it is a parallel solution with its own trade-offs, not the end of a sequence [GW10][GW11].

The documented canon. Moxon (Turning part 1680, collected 1683; Plate 14) [GW1][GW-Christies]; Plumier, L'Art de tourner en perfection (Lyon, 1701), the earliest known work devoted exclusively to turning — not the first publication to depict or discuss a lathe — which mounts the drive wheel in a wall frame yet keeps a spring-bow for fine work [GW13][GW16][GW-Plumier-erara]; Diderot's Encyclopédie (1751–72), great wheels for goldsmiths and bead-turners [GW17]; Holtzapffel (1843–97) [GW2]. The trade great wheel gave way to mechanical power (the Barley wheelwright's lathe ran until 1949 [GW18]); the Holtzapffel firm closed 1927–28 [GW19][GW20].

✦ human side

• The assistant — power and speed control. Moxon: the wheel "is turned about with one, and sometimes two Iron handles according to the weight of the work" [GW1]. Holtzapffel, quoting the Manuel du Tourneur: "one or two men being employed in turning the wheel according to the magnitude of the work" [GW2]. review fix 3: Winterthur's account of the Dominy shop says an apprentice used a series of pulleys to provide and control the wheel's speed — evidence of operational judgment [GW-Winterthur]. Rettie describes his reconstruction as operable by "an untrained assistant" [GW21], but a modern reconstruction does not show historical deskilling. The surviving sources establish that the assistant supplied power and, in documented shops, controlled speed; they do not establish the assistant's training, status, interchangeability, or the absence of learned skill and coordination.
• "Wheel boy" is unverified. The phrase is common in modern retellings but was not found in a primary source. "Boy" appears in Theophilus's c.1100 pewterer's lathe "pulled by a boy" — an assistant-driven lathe, not documented as a great wheel [GW8]. Apprentices plainly worked the wheel in at least one documented shop [GW-Winterthur]; a historical label for the role is not established.
• The unrecorded assistant. Accounts are written from the turner's side. No first-person account of the cranking work (hours, pay, fatigue, status, craft pride) surfaced [GW-gapB]. That gap is a limit of the archive; the entry does not infer from it what the work was worth.
• The noise. In the 1550s a suit was brought against "old Peverell" because the noise of his "tornyng whele" disturbed his neighbours (Chinnery, Oak Furniture, via Rettie; MEDIUM — secondary citation of a print source not directly accessed) [GW22].
• Two cultures. On one side, the wheelwright and heavy trades — elm hubs, table legs, lignum-vitae bowls, a two-person shop [GW6][GW18]. On the other, ornamental turning as a courtly and gentleman's art: Plumier under Louis XIV [GW16][GW23]; Peter the Great and his court turner Andrei Nartov [GW24][GW25]; the Holtzapffel firm (London, 1794–1928), 2,557 serially numbered lathes in its register [GW19][GW26]; the Rev. John Todd (1870): "I know of no instrument to be compared to the Lathe…" [GW27]. Caveat: the finest ornamental work largely moved to the one-person treadle-flywheel lathe; the great wheel is one continuous-rotation route into that world, not the bench most rose-engine work was done on.
• Living memory and revival. Science Museum Group 1949-347 was used by four generations at Barley, Herts, for elm waggon-wheel hubs until 1949 [GW18]. Colonial Williamsburg's wheelwright shop keeps a working great wheel [GW28]; the Society of Ornamental Turners (1948) and Ornamental Turners International carry the ornamental tradition [GW29][GW20].

✦ proof of existence

• Early textual reference (assistant-driven lathe, metalwork): Theophilus, On Divers Arts (c.1100), via Rettie (HIGH for the text; MEDIUM for its relation to the great wheel) [GW8].
• Earliest depiction identified by Holtzapffel: Jost Amman / Hartmann Schopper, Panoplia / Das Ständebuch, Frankfurt 1568 — a pewterer with an assistant cranking a detached wheel (HIGH as a primary image; the priority is Holtzapffel's) [GW2][GW9][GW15].
• Printed screw-cutting lathe before Plumier: Jacques Besson, Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum (1571–72 / 1578), weight-driven screw-cutting lathe (HIGH — Library of Congress, Smithsonian Libraries) [GW-Besson-LoC][GW-Besson-SI].
• English practical description: Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, Turning part 1680, collected 1683, Plate 14 (HIGH) [GW1][GW-Christies].
• Earliest known work devoted exclusively to turning: Charles Plumier, L'Art de tourner en perfection (Lyon, 1701) (HIGH — e-rara scan) [GW16][GW-Plumier-erara].
• 18th-c. encyclopedic record: Diderot & d'Alembert, Encyclopédie (1751–72) [GW17].
• Museum object — a strong dated and accessioned trade object: Science Museum Group 1949-347, early wheelwright's lathe, four generations at Barley, Herts, elm waggon-wheel hubs, used until 1949; wheel 6 ft 6 in, stand 8 ft from the lathe, rope to the mandrel pulley (HIGH — accession verified) [GW18].
• Shop record — two operators: Winterthur, Dominy Collections, lathe: a two-operator great-wheel lathe with the apprentice controlling speed through pulleys (HIGH — institutional) [GW-Winterthur].
• Ornamental tradition: Science Museum Group 1888-393, rose-engine lathe, Germany c.1740 (context, not a great wheel) [GW32].
• Living-history object: Colonial Williamsburg wheelwright shop (MEDIUM — no accession number) [GW28].
• Serial production record: the Holtzapffel register, Guildhall Library — 2,557 numbered lathes, 1794–1928 (via specialist sources) [GW19][GW26].
• Patents: no relevant patent was identified in this run; the mechanism predates modern patent systems (review fix 10) [GW-gap].

references

kind: book | article | blog | forum | museum | patent | encyclopedia | archaeological | named_maker

• [GW1] Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works, Turning part (1680), collected volume 1683, Plate 14 — primary (HIGH).
• [GW-Christies] Christie's bibliographic record for Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-933789 — places the Turning numbers and Plate 14 in the 1680 part; collected 1683 (reviewer-named).
• [GW2] Charles Holtzapffel, Turning and Mechanical Manipulation, Vols. I–V (1843–1897); vol. 4 scan, https://www.galleyrack.com/images/artifice/machine-shop/ornamental-turning/literature/holtzapffel/turningmechanica04holtuoft.pdf — primary (HIGH); his Schopper priority statement is evidence of his survey, not of absolute priority.
• [GW3] Online Etymology Dictionary, s.v. "lathe" (HIGH).
• [GW4] Online Etymology Dictionary, s.v. "turn" (HIGH).
• [GW5] Thomas Rettie, "Lathes Part 1: About Medieval and Renaissance Lathes," https://bloodandsawdust.com/Blood_and_Sawdust/Lathes_Part_1__About_Medieval_and_Renaissance_Lathes.html — practitioner/research blog (MEDIUM); a limited search finding, not proof of a metal-to-wood route.
• [GW6] Stuart King, "History of the Lathe: Part Two — Continuous Rotation," https://stuartking.co.uk/history-of-the-lathe-part-two-continuous-rotation/ — practitioner history (MEDIUM-HIGH); secondary, not a primary vocabulary source.
• [GW7] Joshua A. Klein, "The History of the Spring-pole Lathe," Mortise & Tenon Magazine (2021) (MEDIUM-HIGH).
• [GW8] Theophilus Presbyter, On Divers Arts (c.1100; Dover trans. Hawthorne & Smith, 1979), via [GW5] (HIGH for the text).
• [GW9] Jost Amman & Hartmann Schopper, Panoplia / Das Ständebuch, Frankfurt 1568 (Dover reprint ISBN 0-486-22886-X) (HIGH).
• [GW10] Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus (c.1480–1500), lathe drawing — drawing/design precedent, via [GW5][GW6] (MEDIUM-HIGH for the depiction).
• [GW11] J. J. Holtzapffel (1881), flywheel momentum passage, via [GW6] (HIGH).
• [GW12] Stuart King, "History of the Lathe: Part Three — Mechanical Power" (MEDIUM).
• [GW13] Holtzapffel [GW2] on Felibien (1690) and Plumier (1701) preferring reciprocating motion for fine work (HIGH).
• [GW14] "Handspinning Technology: A Brief History of Wheels," graysonosborne.com (2023) (MEDIUM; cross-reference only).
• [GW15] Holtzapffel [GW2]: "the earliest representation of the wheel… is met with in Schopper's work (1568)" (HIGH as his statement).
• [GW16] Charles Plumier, L'Art de tourner en perfection (Lyon, 1701) (HIGH).
• [GW-Plumier-erara] E-rara scan of Plumier 1701, https://www.e-rara.ch/ebs/content/structure/25678299 (reviewer-named).
• [GW-Besson-LoC] Library of Congress, Jacques Besson screw-cutting lathe, 1578, https://www.loc.gov/item/2006690455/ (reviewer-named).
• [GW-Besson-SI] Smithsonian Libraries, Besson, Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum, https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/theatruminstrum00bess (reviewer-named).
• [GW-Winterthur] Winterthur, Dominy Collections, "Lathe," https://dominycollections.winterthur.org/tools-of-the-trade/woodworking/lathe/ — two-operator great-wheel lathe; apprentice provides and controls speed through pulleys (reviewer-named; applied at the level of the reviewer's summary).
• [GW17] Diderot & d'Alembert, Encyclopédie (1751–72), lathe plates; Encyclopédie méthodique Vol. IV (HIGH for the plates).
• [GW18] Science Museum Group, "Early wheelwright's lathe (including loose parts)," Object 1949-347, https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co45515/early-wheelwrights-lathe-including-loose-parts (HIGH).
• [GW19] "The Holtzapffel Firm," ornamentalturning.net + OTI history (MEDIUM-HIGH).
• [GW20] Ornamental Turners International, "History" (MEDIUM).
• [GW21] Thomas Rettie, "Lathes Part 3: Building a 'Not So Great Wheel,'" bloodandsawdust.com (2009) — modern reconstruction (LOW–MEDIUM).
• [GW22] Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture, the British Tradition (1979), via [GW5] (MEDIUM; not directly accessed).
• [GW23] Plumier Foundation, "Turning in History," plumier.org (HIGH).
• [GW24] James E. Harris, "A Brief History of Ornamental Turning" (1996) (MEDIUM).
• [GW25] Andrei Nartov, Graces Guide + OTI history (MEDIUM).
• [GW26] "Victorian Era Toolmaker: The Holtzapffel Firm," ornamentalturning.net (MEDIUM-HIGH).
• [GW27] Rev. John Todd (1870), via ornamentalturning.net (MEDIUM).
• [GW28] Ed Crews, "Wheels and Riding Carts," Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2004–05) (MEDIUM).
• [GW29] The Society of Ornamental Turners (1948), the-sot.org (HIGH).
• [GW31] Yale Environmental Health & Safety, "Wood Turning Lathe," https://ehs.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/wood-turning-lathe.pdf — rotating/ejected work, catches, entanglement, nip points, vibration, dust, low initial speed; it does not support treating reverse motion as a safe interval (HIGH for the hazards).
• [GW32] Science Museum Group, rose-engine lathe (Germany c.1740), Object 1888-393 (HIGH; context).
• Removed: [GW30] (Wikipedia, "Pole lathe" / "Screw-cutting lathe") — its power-lathe breakage caution no longer carries to this entry (review fix 2), and the screw-cutting claim now rests on Besson (review fix 7).

images speced for Forge (no image is built here — Forge owns that)

• Branches, not a ladder — pole/spring (reciprocating, solo), assistant-driven strap, great wheel (continuous, two-person), treadle-flywheel (continuous, solo), water/powered, drawn as overlapping bands on a timeline, with Leonardo's drawing marked as a design precedent.
• Two-person working plate — the turner at the tool; the assistant at the wheel controlling speed; the rope's run and nip points marked; the agreed stop signal shown.
• Anatomy callout — wheel, crank, rope (figure-eight, wheel tilted), mandrel pulley, and the live-mandrel / dead-centre / direct-drive variants.
• Two cultures — the wheelwright's hub lathe (Science Museum 1949-347) and the ornamental lathe.

The reviewer's corrections (12)

• BLOCKER — Exact claim: “the pole lathe's reciprocating motion gives a ‘rest stroke’ ... in which the skilled turn …
• BLOCKER — Exact claim: “using a pole lathe chisel on a power lathe risks serious injury ... the blade is likely t …
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “The role required no skill”; the wheel turner was “pure muscle, interchangeable.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “The continuous-rotation descendant of the Pole Lathe”; pole lathe → great wheel → treadle …
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “it entered WOODWORKING through METAL” and “that is where it first lived.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: Moxon “(1678)” throughout the summary, history, and etymology sections.
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “Continuous one-way rotation is the precondition for screw-cutting and deep boring.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “The great wheel cannot store its own return — so ... it needs a constant external input.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “wheel turner” is “the documented period term” in Moxon/Holtzapffel.
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “earliest clear printed depiction,” “first machine in the corpus,” “corpus's cleanest date …
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: Current direct-child file structure.
• MINOR — Exact claim: “large wheel (6–8 ft)” as a general identity-level specification.