In roughly the 1870s or '80s, Mahlon S. Drake made a small wood lathe. Drake was an inventor, with at least a dozen patents to his name. Many of his patents were related to millinery (hat making).

Information Sources

• Thanks to Art Shaw for bringing this lathe to our attention in a post on owwm.org.
• From Industries of New Jersey: Essex County including city of Newark, by Richard Edwards, 1882:

  M. S. Drake, Manufacturer of Light Machinery and Patented Inventions of Every Description, No. 15 Ailing Street.—The manufacture of every class of light machinery for all uses to which it can be put has made a marked advance in the industries of Newark, and among the oldest and leading machinists and manufacturers so engaged is M. S. Drake, whose extensive premises are located at No. 15 Alling Street. Mr. Drake has been established for the past fifteen years in the manufacture of light machinery and patented inventions of every description and makes a specialty of "Drake's Adjustable Ingot" (which is made of fine gray iron, the best for the purpose). It is adjustable and makes five different widths in the one ingot—no clamps or screws to use. He is also the manufacturer of McFarland's Patent Paint Burner for removing paint, the Drake Orange Clipper, the Family Scale and Climax Parcel Carrier, all useful and valuable inventions, illustrative of his genius and skill. The factory is a brick building of 17x40 feet in extent, and fitted with all the necessary appliances and machinery for the business, which is operated by steam power of sufficient force for all purposes required. An extensive trade is done, extending over the Western and Southern States, the machinery turned out by Mr. Drake being too well and favorably known to need any further praise. Mr. Drake is a native of the city of Newark and one of the best practical machinists in the business.

• History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Volume 1, by William H. Shaw, 1884, mentions M. S. Drake in passing as a maker of "electrical machines".