During 1930 the LeBlond Company faced, as did all manufacturing industry, the Great Depression and its accompanying slump in trade. In order to survive the company decided to widen its market and introduced, alongside it's long-established range of heavy engine lathes, a range of lighter, more-affordable models designed to appeal to the lower end of the market: better-off home-experimenters and model-makers, research departments, training schools, motor-repair garages, the self-employed and similar buyers. However, even with keen pricing and the backing of the respected LeBlond name, success could not be guaranteed for the new range, branded "Regal", entered a section of the industry already dominated by, amongst others, such well-established makers as South Bend, Dalton, Barnes and Seneca Falls. Thankfully for the shareholders, LeBlond's approach was well thought out: although the lathes would only weight from one-third to one half as much, they would all mirror the quality and desirability of their industrial equivalents. They would have the most up-to-date specification possible, be easy to operate, come equipped ready for use and be introduced as a complete range with 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18-inch swings (actual capacity was always slightly more) Headstocks would be all-geared (no alternative flat or V-belt drive versions would be offered) with lever-operated speed changes and the exclusive use of built-on, self-contained motor drives with power transmitted to the headstock input shaft by the use of the recently-introduced (circa 1930) V-belt. All would have a proper screwcutting gearbox, a separate feed-rod to drive the sliding and surfacing feeds (engaged by a fool-proof, snap-engagement system) and a robust carriage assembly whose design was not compromised by having to allow for a gap bed. As the sole concession to hard times the least expensive model, the superb and compact 10-inch could be had to special order with a set of changewheels instead of the standard-fit screwcutting gearbox and without the power sliding and surfacing apron. Very popular in the UK during WW2 (and with many examples still in use in the 21st century) production of the 10-inch was to end as early as 1945 - though other models, constantly developed and refined, continued into the 1980s..