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With all known Dalton patent numbers stamped on its tag, this model of Dalton must have been produced post 1922. With a 9 ½ inch swing, and a choice of beds 3, 4 and 4.5-feet long, it did not carry a Lot number and (other than the large Lot 1 combination machine) was first really professional-standard lathe to be built by Dalton. The first of the Company's products to have power cross feed - with the drive coming from a separate power shaft and a simple, push-pull plunger used to switch between sliding and surfacing directions - this was a ruggedly built lathe. Much in much the same class as a South Bend 9-inch lathe, though a little heavier, it had a larger diameter spindle, better bearings and much more certain and easier-to-use apron controls.
Although it had the appearance of a Dalton Lot 6 with the headstock and tailstock raised to give an increased swing, upon examination the Dalton 9-inch proves to have been an entirely new model with only a few minor parts carried over - for example, although the thread was the same, the spindles do not interchange.
To date, only six Dalton Model "Nines" have been found - with serial numbers ranging from 206 to 9024. The lathe could be had for bench mounting, equipped with simple floor legs, a cabinet plinth and leg - or, as a top-of-the-range model, on a heavy "semi-cabinet" stand in cast iron with drawers and shelves for tool and collet storage, each marked with cast-in lettering - this version being marked as the Nine-by-Four (9-inch swing with a 4-foot bed). If the shorter and longer versions were also stand mounted in this way with appropriate lettering e.g. Nine-by-Three is not known. Each plinth housed three black-painted, wooden shelves with the drawers made from a heavy gauge of galvanized steel sheet with their heavy cast faces riveted on. On one example found the storage drawers are marked "New York", as is the lathe's patent date and apron tags, with the motor and very heavy-duty switchgear both from General Electric.
The usual range of countershaft drive systems was offered including a typical Dalton "high" system of great weight and complexity as shown below - though this has been modified and the "silent chain" drive and gearbox replaced by ordinary V-belts.
Evidence exists that some examples of the 9-inch were used in defence plants in California during WW II, and it may be that most found their way to this sort of use. However, with no spare parts to keep them running once broken or worn beyond use, they were probably turned into scrap metal for the war effort.
If any reader has a Dalton 9-inch, or a special version on its stand like the Nine-by-Four or Nine-by-three, the writer would be pleased if you could make contact.
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