Garvin were an American firm, based in Spring and Varick Streets in the heart of the shipping district of New York City. The company offered a very wide range of products amongst which were millers in plain, horizontal, vertical, manufacturing, duplex and hand-operated types; smaller types of planers and profilers; "screw machines" (capstan lathes), a variety of spiral-gear and worm-milling attachments, spring-coiling machines, rotary tables, index centres of many kinds, tool and cutter grinders, die slotting machines, dividing heads, countershafts (including an ingenious slow-speed spiral-geared model), support bracketing, single and gang drill presses, headstocks, compound slide rests, capstan tooling  - and a range of screwcutting and plain-turning lathes.
The manufacture of Universal Milling Machines was a Garvin speciality  for many years and the firm produced a wide range of standard and built-to-order designs.
The No. 2 and larger  sizes were fitted with a patented "Direct, Constant and Positive" feed where the slower rates of feed to the table were driven from the end of the milling spindle, and the faster feeds taken from the belt-drive countershaft; instantaneous changes to the feed rate being made by simply moving levers three levers. The gears in the table-drive box were hardened and run in an oil bath - the makers claiming that tests had shown as much 30 per cent of the motor power was consumed in driving the feed on heavy work whereas, with the Garvin system, this loss was largely overcome leaving more power for the cutter to remove metal - more details are given at the bottom of the page.
On the Nos. 1 and  2  machines, the table power feed drive cones were made  interchangeable - which tripled the feed rate and doubled the number of feeds available to a total of 24 feeds. The table feed screws were increased in size during 1905, adding greatly to their torsional  strength  and durability. 
The knees of all models were made as stiff as possible, being closed on their top and sides - and so did not need sliding cover plates to protect the telescoping vertical-feed screws and the multi-thread, worm-and-gear knee elevating mechanism. The extra stiff knee also made a better support for any arbor support braces it might have been required to carry. These improvements were then carried over to the cheaper range of plain millers also sold by the company..

An important feature of the Garvin millers was the provision of a wide range of table feeds. The feeds could be selected from either a drive taken from the miller spindle, or from the belt-drive countershaft with each being clutched into engagement by a selection of levers.
A single shaft on the side of the machine carried a chain sprocket, driven from the spindle, and a flat-belt pulley, driven from the countershaft. A lever (B) was used to select which of the two drove the shaft.
With one of the drives selected a second lever (A) was used to engage one of two gears on the outside of a gearbox attached to the shaft. Inside the gearbox were two cones, each of five hardened gears running in an oil bath. One cone of gears was loose on the shaft and by means of a lever (C) a tool-steel spring key could be made to engage with a keyway - without waiting for keyways  to come into line - and drive the pair of gears. Five changes of speed were available within the box, doubled by the two external gears to ten. With the belt drive engaged instead of the chain, a further ten speeds were provided, giving 20 in all.
An index plate on the top of the gear  box showed the rates of feed obtained in turns of the spindle per inch, or in inches per minute, by the different settings of the levers. A safety shear pin was provided to protect the mechanism against careless handling..
Plain Millers 11,12 & 13   Plain Millers 131/2, 14 & 14A   Plain Millers 15 & 16A     

The arbor-support braces could be attached either to the yolk - or the end of the overarm.