Halifax Lathe
Marketed by the UK Atlas Agents the "Acorn Machine Tool Company 1936 Ltd." of 610 - 614 Chiswick High Road, London W.4, the British Halifax Model "524" 5-inch centre height by 24 inches between-centres lathe of the late 1940s and early 1950s was very recognisably based on the American Atlas "10-inch". Sold originally with a Halifax badge, it was renamed, probably in 1951, as the "Acorntools" to match the name already given by the company to their capstan version of the Atlas 10-inch. Like the similar "Sphere" model it was, in both Halifax and Acorntools guises, essentially identical to the original American machine and, allowing for the 1450 rpm English motor rather than the 1725 rpm American one, had the same speed range. While the headstock was of the Atlas 10F type, the all-V-belt countershaft differed from the two Atlas Vertical and Horizontal versions being a compromise between the two. The design means that the V-belt can sometimes rub - lightly -  against the backgear shaft; if a link drive belt is fitted, the best one to use is a PowerTwist in a "A" section, like this.
On many examples, the changewheel and headstock-belt covers were made in engineering plastic, though several machines have been found with covers in cast aluminium - these very likely to have been early examples. Another bold feature was the early use of the same plastic for the headstock and countershaft pulleys; this appears to have been an entirely successful idea for the author remembers examining, some years ago, a completely worm out Halifax where the pulleys were still in perfectly serviceable condition - although had a heavy object dropped on them no doubt they would have been less far less able to shrug it off than ones in cast-iron, aluminium or ZAMAK.
Details of where and how the Halifax/Acorntools was constructed are lost in time, but there is one small clue in a 1956 letter from Acorn to a Midlands distributor where they refer to an Atlas parts lists as containing: "….all spares which go into the manufacture of a Halifax Lathe". This statement would appear to lend some strength to the proposition that Halifax (and possibly Sphere) lathes were built from a mixture of UK-sourced parts and genuine Atlas spares; however, whether these parts were from existing stocks or specially imported is unresolved. A further puzzle is the use of those specially-made plastic changewheel guards and countershaft and headstock pulleys when metal originals would have been available cheaply from the USA. There was also a  price difference between the Halifax and Atlas machines: for an equal specification with 24-inch between-centres capacity (and including a motor), in 1949 the Atlas was £84 : 10s : 0d and the Halifax £74 :10s : 0d. - a useful saving of some 12% that may have been accounted for by import duties.
Some, if not all Halifax, Acorntool and Sphere lathes were fitted with a broader and longer cross slide that ran on wider ways, a feature that partially addressed one of the main weakness of the original Atlas design. With so many alterations and specially-constructed parts - including, on some machines, a hexagon nut of the spindle to aid changing spindle-nose fittings and a different, non-interchangeable changewheel bracket - the writer is now certain that these lathes were indeed constructed in the UK - though with some of the otherwise expensive-to-produce ZAMAK components imported. As a point of interest, on the broader cross slide, the wider section of the dovetail was 2.96" across (Atlas about  2.15") and the narrower 2.66" (Atlas 1.83"). The full width of the wider cross-slide casting was 4.21" - with the result that the circular boss carrying the top-slide swivel degree marks was set completely inside the edges, instead of reaching or even overlapping them as on the original design.
Acorn offered a complete range of Atlas, Halifax and Sphere parts and some of the 1955-prices make interesting reading (the average weekly wage during 1955 was just short of £11): a bare headstock casting was £7 : 10 : 0d with a spindle, amazingly, at exactly the same price; Timken bearings were £2 : 15 : 0d each and, while the very large "bull" gear on the spindle was £2 : 10 : 0d the smaller bronze gear was £3 : 12 : 6d.  For £23 : 5 :  9d. Acorn offered the owners of plain "babbit" bearing Atlas lathes a Timken taper roller bearing conversion kit; this included a new headstock casting, spindle, bearings (and assorted small parts) with the remainder of the items coming from the existing assembly. They could also supply a new, fully-machined headstock casting fitted with bronze-bearing for those whose babbit bearings were worn out.
Full details of the original Atlas 10-inch lathes can be found here and the standard very comprehensive handbook for the 10-inch Atlas covers the Sphere and Halifax lates as well.
If a reader can supply high-quality pictures of an original Halifax lathe, or has any sales literature, the author would be very interested to hear from you.