George Birch & Co. of Manchester, England, made, from the late 1800s  and into the early years of the 20th century, a range of smaller machine tools including lathes, shapers, vertical slotters and a range of quite ordinary lathes and backgeared and plain horizontal milling machines. Although the majority of Birch machines might have been relatively prosaic - and sold primarily for use in ordinary shops - they also made a number of beautifully constructed and complex lathes for ornamental turning.
The Birch shaper was of high-quality construction and must have been expensive - the one shown below is believed to be one of only two survivors. Of unusual design. the shaper was built almost, but not quite, along the lines of a travelling-head shaper.
Drive, by the expected flat belt running over a 3-step cone pulley, would have come, in an small workshop, from a wall or ceiling-mounted countershaft or, in a factory, from overhead line shafting. The shaft carrying the 3-step pulley was fitted, at one end, with a flywheel and, at the other, with a small gear that meshed with a larger one to which the arm that drove the ram was attached. The ram stroke was only five inches and, being driven directly, could only be adjusted by positioning the drive arm in a T-slot cut into the side face of the ram - hence, it lacked any form of Whitworth quick-return mechanism to accelerate the return, non-cutting stroke. 
The large gear was carried on a shaft, the other end of which was fitted with a T-slot across its diameter that allowed an arm - connected to a pair table-drive Clement-type ratchets beneath it - to alter the stroke rate.
Made in the form of an overhung, open-faced box with four T-slots on the top and 12 square holes piercing each side face, the table was held to the vertical elevating 'knee' on two T-slots that allowed it to be detached - but not, unfortunately, rotated..
One unusual feature was that beneath the ram on the shaper's front face - and intended to hold round jobs - was a rotating socket fitted with a keyway.
If you have a Birch machine tool and would like to contribute photographs or technical details, the writer would be very interested to hear from you..