Mr Messerer did not invent a new form of watchmakers' lathe, but instead proposed a system whereby a pair of ordinary 'turns' - as used for decades by watchmakers and also referred to a 'steel turns' - could be upgraded to carry a belt-drive pulley and spindle complete with a draw-in collet assembly. His was not the only design to incorporate this idea of a conversion, the Swiss Faure Frères catalogue of 1860 reproduced in T.R. Crom's Horological and Other Shop Tools shows seven similar examples, the catalogue from Le Chateau des Monts another three and the American Bottum catalogue from 1952 yet another.. However, none of these had a hollow-spindle and collet arrangement and relied upon the traditional wax-chuck method of holding work..
By 1888, Charles S. Moseley's game-changing production (1857/8) of the hollow-spindle lathe with its drawn-in collet (called originally a 'chuck' or 'split chuck') had found widespread acclaim and employment (the lathe was first sold in 1859 and reported to have resembled what is now known as a "Geneva" type with its round bed and generally light build. Although it must have been of great importance to him, it appears that Moseley never patented his first hollow-spindle lathe and collet assembly of 1857/1858 despite, later, having eleven  patents to his name. However, now we have the answer for, in researching the subject, the writer came across a patent that described precisely the ideas incorporated in Moseley's lathe. It was taken out by George W. Daniels and a Mr A.Fuller, both residents in the watchmaking and precision engineering centre of Waltham. The patent was granted on October 19th, 1858, and though the application date is not stated, it could have been up to one year before. If we include the time necessary from the idea's inception to the development of prototypes, experiments with different materials and the possibility of pre-production examples being made in the early months of 1858, this matching of dates appears significant. Did Moseley take up a licience to use the patent - or buy it outright? If so, the latter must be the more likely as it appears to have been used exclusively by him until its expiry 20 years later.
Turning to Mr. S. Messerer, all that he proclaimed in his patent was the idea of a Moseley-like headstock spindle and pulley (e), secured to the bed (a) of a pair of turns on a post (b) that could be slid on and off as required. The solid, drawn-in bar with a thread on its end that secured the collet (x) was bored in the handle end (j) with a recess that engaged the point of the slide-in-and-out centre bar (A) of the turns' solidly fixed tailstock (b¹).
Messerer's - some 31 years later - seems to be the first to do this. However, one year earlier, in 1888,a  Horace Moseley of Elgin did patent an adjustable length stop to be used in association with a draw-jn collet, and in this, he refers to established and "usual" parts as though these would, by then, have been in almost everyday use.
Amusingly, the patent by Messerer contains a comment in regard to preventing the collet from turning when tightened or loosened - or not bothering: "The chuck may be longitudinally grooved, as at I Figs.3, and 6, or otherwise constructed to prevent it turning pivotally within the spindle, the latter being provided with setscrew l1 to engage the said chuck. Said setscrew l1 and grove may however be dispensed with."