Founded in 1902 as Thomas Turner and Sons, in 1906 the Company re-branded as the Turner Motor Manufacturing Co. to manufacture motor cars and, in 1938, as Turner Manufacturing Co. Ltd. ( TMC ltd). Based at their Wulfruna Works in Moorfield Street, Wolverhampton, Turner built a vast range of Engineering-based products amongst which were: cars; machine tools; recovery winches; aircraft landing legs of the Oleo type (and their own designs); helicopter rotor heads for Westland; diesel engines; the amazing Byvan and Tryvan light delivery vehicles; "Yeoman of England" farm tractors; outboard engines for boats; generating sets; a tool & cutter grinder; truck gearboxes and hydraulic and pneumatic valves that evolved into complete cargo handling systems for the first Super Tankers.
Turner lathes were of entirely conventional design - both backgeared and screwing centre types and capstan versions for production work - with manufacture spanning World War 1 (1914-1918) to the end of World War 2 (1939-1945). In the latter conflict lathe production was moved to the Jowett Car factory in Idle, near Bradford where some 250 examples are believed to have been produced.
It's entirely possible - but not proven - that Turner made machine tools for branding by larger agents and distributors who had commissioned a range (possibly from more than one maker) to be marketed under a pseudonym- a long widespread and still current practice in machine-tool circles. Just visible on the headstock of one lathe is what appears to be the word "GALTONA" - and other machines also show evidence of a name being erased, rather clumsily, from the catalogue pictures.
Although the lathes would have been produced in the era stated, their appearance and features strongly suggest that they were based on rather older designs, though evidence of these very early types has yet to be found.
Largest of the known types made was the 6.5-inch centre height by 33 inches between centres Model K; this was a backgeared screwcutting machine and available with either a straight bed or with what the makers described as a "half-gap"; in other words, a detachable section that was, in effect, a piece removed from the end of ways instead of, as was common at the time, forming a full "bridge" piece that completely filled the cut away section. Unlike the company's less rugged lathes, the bed had the underside and top parallel for its full length thus giving a more rigid structure than the other models. The "K" was also fitted with an auxiliary flat-belt drive to the power shaft to allow the generation of especially fine feed rates.
If you have a "Turner" lathe or other machine tool the writer would be interested to hear from you.
The two fascinating web sites dealing with the Turner Company - and holding a wealth of well-illustrated information - are the Turner Company History and Turner Manufacturing.