A long-established and successful French Company - their first lathes and milling machines being manufactured cira 1873 - Huron was first named after its founder Pierre Philippe Huré, as Etablissemets P.Huré  and then, from 1967, as Huré S.A.
Early Huron products included both conventional and unusual designs of vertical and horizontal milling machines, backgeared and screwcutting lathes, horizontal borers and gear-cutting machines. However, the first sight of what was to become the Huron trade mark, the revolutionary double-swivel milling head, was not until an industrial exhibition -  les Grandes Usines -  held in 1894. However, apart from the head, the rest of the miller was entirely conventional, being based on an established and quite ordinary horizontal type with flat-belt drive and backgear. In 1913 Pierre's son, Léon, became involved in the business and, by 1921, had developed his father's early double-swivel head machine into the far more versatile and now very familiar ram-head form. The first models of this type were constructed not by Huron themselves but, inexplicably, by the well-known Swiss company Oerlikon, in Zurich, during 1924 - perhaps internal politicking in the factory had caused some sort of rift between the generations and it was the son's only way of getting his design manufactured.
By the 1940s through to the 1950s a wide variety of the Type "K" was being offered, all incorporating the swivelling head and including general purpose, specialised and copying versions;  the Model Types included the "K", "KU", "KVC", KVCAO", "KVP", "KH", "KVR", "KUR", "KHR", "LR", 2-LUR", and "L".  By the 1960s a modified range of machines was in production, these being given the prefix "M" and "N" with identified versions being the: "N", "M", "NU", "MU", "MVC", "MVCAO", "MVP", "MVPCNP", "MVPCNC", "MVGVCNP", "MVGVCNC", "MH", "MVR", "MUR", "MUCNP", "MUCNC", "MHCNP", "MHCNC", "MHR", "LR", "2-LUR", "L", "P", "PU", "PUCNP", "PUCNC", "R" and "RU".
Capable of being adapted to an unusually wide range of machining operations the Huron type is still popular today, though the very mass of the machines mitigates against their use in smaller workshops.
The photographic essay about Huron is continued on Page 2, details of the M and N Type machines here and examples of the Huron millings machine at work here
Huron millers were also built under licence in Japan by the Roku-Roku company.
Si un lecteur peut aider avec des images d'extraits de catalogue sur les premiers fraiseuses Hure, l'écrivain serait ravi de vous entendre

Patented in 1880, this unusual Huron combination miller had separate horizontal and vertical milling units that shared a column able to be rotated so as to bring each into position over the table. The machine was built in four sizes, the smallest being man-driven by a pedal-operated flywheel.
Below, a surviving version of this model

Huron backgeared and screwcutting lathe from the late 1800s. The design was absolutely typical of the time--though this example appear to mount some sort of special fitting at the rear of the cross slide - possibly a parting-off toolpost or knurling attachment

Cartoon showing Huron's Chief Engineering taking inspiration for the double-swivel head from a workman installing a stove pipe

By 1913 Pierre's son, Léon, was involved in the business and, by 1921, had developed his father's miller into the far more versatile and now very familiar ram-head type. The first models were constructed not by Huron themselves but, inexplicably, by the well-known Swiss company Oerlikon in Zurich during 1924.
Able to be used as both a horizontal or vertical machine, it not only had a substantial ran head assembly but also a knee running on widely spaced ways and supported by an adjustable bar placed, to give maximum rigidity, at the very front.