Made in Frankfurt, Germany, around 1905-1910 and badged as a Lorch, Schmidt & Co. ,this early example of a Lorch precision bench lathe was owned by a British Company, Cable & Wireless of London, who used it in their Durban,  South-African subsidiary. At first its use was confined to skilled toolmakers, employed to maintain telegraph and radio receiving equipment. However, maintenance of telecommunications equipment was to be taken over by the Dutch company, P.T.T. and, from that point on, the lathe fell into the hands of unskilled personnel. Even so, it survived many years of abuse until, in 1957, Mr. Jan. P. van Bommel from the Netherlands, who was working as a telecommunications technician, received permission to remove the lathe and start restoration. In 1961, packed in specially-made wooden cases, he took it back to Holland with him (together with his Myford ML7) -though unfortunately the original treadle drive and flywheel system was too heavy to be included.  The lathe was then rebuilt to its original specification (with the exception of a V-belt pulley on the headstock and the neat installation of a Myford countershaft to make it useable) with  many missing and broken parts having to be recreated or restored. Finally, to finish off a superb piece of work, a wooden stand, complete with collet and accessory storage, was constructed to hold it.
Fortunately, a good number of the maker's accessories had survived intact including the standard screw-feed vertical slide together with the less-common geared-type Vertical Milling Attachment No. 7 to mount on that slide. This attachment accepted 8 mm collets and was offered in four versions in vertical and horizontal forms under Part Numbers 7, 71/2, 7a and 7b.
In May, 2006,  Mr. Jan. P. van Bommel died at the age of 84 and the lathe is now in the sympathetic hands of Helmut Sala..