Waymoth’s Wood Turning Lathe

This company has a confusing history. In 1856, Augustine D. Waymoth received a patent for a variety lathe, which he manufactured under the A. D. Waymoth name. In the early 1870s Waymoth sold his patent rights to Wilder & Brown (possibly as a result of financial failure due to the economic crisis of the time). By 1875 the partnership had ended, and the result seems to have been James H. Brown manufacturing the Waymoth lathe under his name, and Charles W. Wilder manufacturing under his name, and Waymoth resuming production under his name. It seems that all three companies began producing the "Waymoth Variety Lathe", although Wilder quickly began introducing and patenting improvements to Waymoth's original design. Waymoth responded with a series of his own improvements (see the Patents section). By the late 1870s, Wilder's version of the Waymoth lathe was being sold by the Novelty Turning Co., which continued in business for over 30 years.

Augustine's son, Charles H. Waymoth, began as a woodturner under his own name, and he manufactured a version of his father's lathe; he was active by 1869. He joined his father's firm in 1875, and, both with his father and independently, made additional improvements to the lathe. The business survived well into the 1920s and probably into the '30s.

The Waymoth Variety Lathes are semi-automatic lathes designed for turning small objects like buttons. The lathes rough-cut a cylinder in one step, shape the finished object in another step, and cut off the finished piece and reset the machinery in the final step. Besides Waymoth, Wilder, and Brown, other companies in the area also made versions of Waymoth's lathe: Rollstone Machine Works, C. H. Cowdrey Co., Baxter D. Whitney, Goodspeed & Wyman, and Goodspeed Machine Co.

Information Sources

• Inland Massachusetts Illustrated by Elstner Publishing Co., 1891, has the following writeup.

  Manufacturers of Variety Wood-Turning Lathes—Newton Place, Fitchburg, MA.

  The Waymoth self-centering and self-adjusting variety wood-turning lathe is so well-known to and its advantages so well appreciated by woodworkers in this and other countries as to render a technical description of the machine as a whole unnecessary. It is not out of place, however, to call attention to recent important improvements, among them an arrangement whereby all side motion occasioned by the continual wear of tail-stock and middle-piece may be taken up, thus enabling the operator to keep his lathe firm as the slides wear. The accompanying cut illustrates this. The new patent rougher bed permits the use of a nine-inch instead of a two-inch knife, as hitherto; the swing head is operated by a rack and gear, which supplant the stud and crank, doing away with the troublesome dead center. The lathe is so constructed that all wear can be readily taken up and any mechanic can run it. The new patent rougher knife holder and adjustable front tool-holder are entirely satisfactory and guaranteed to save from $75 to $100 a year in the time and labor of setting tools as compared with the old style. These lathes, which practically have no rivals, were awarded gold medals by the American Institute fair, at the New Orleans Cotton Centennial Exposition, by the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition of 1880, and highest premiums wherever exhibited. They are sold at remarkably low figures. Mr. A. D. Waymoth began the building of lathes in Fitchburg as long ago as 1857, not one turning lathe having been made here prior to that time; not only being the pioneer here, but the first to manufacture lathes of this class in the world. In 1875 he admitted his son, Charles H., to a co-partnership under the present style of A. D. Waymoth & Co. The shops on Newton place are 40 x 10O feet in area, fitted up with steam power, planers, engine lathes, upright and horizontal drills and all necessary appurtenances, and gives employment to six superior mechanics, who turn out 100 lathes per annum, valued at $175 to $200 each and shipped all over the United States, a few being exported, for the most part to Germany. All required information is supplied on application. They have already manufactured and sold over 3500 of these lathes.

• There are multiple Waymoth patents for variety lathes, spanning the 1850s through to the 1890s. Machines matching the design in the first patent were manufactured by A. D. Waymoth himself, but then about 1873 the rights went to Wilder & Brown, and then to James H. Brown; Waymoth may have gotten into financial difficulty as a result of the depression of that era. Machines according to the later patents seem only to have been made by A. D. Waymoth & Co.
• Article in 1859 Scientific American.
• Ad in 1869 directory for C. H. Waymoth & Co., "manufacturers of field, parlor and table croquet, ... also, manufacturers of A. D. Waymoth's New Patent Self-Centering and Self-Adjusting Wood Turning Lathe..."
• Ad in 1878 Worcester County Directory from C. H. Waymoth & Co., identical to the above-mentioned 1869 ad.
• Worcester County Directory for 1878-79, published by Briggs & Co.:
  • Listed under "lathe manufacturers": C. H. Waymoth & Co. (A. D. Waymoth's new patent self-centring and self-adjusting)
  • Under "machinists and machinery manufacturers": C. H. Waymoth & Co. (new Waymoth lathe)
  • Under "wood working machinery": C. H. Waymoth & Co.
• The 1879 Fitchburg Directory lists C. H. Waymoth & Co.
• The City of Fitchburg website has an article on "The Waymoth Lathe Company".
• An 1885 Manufacturer & Builder article itemizes the claims of Waymoth's patent of that year.
• An ad in the May 1889 issue of The Wood-Worker features their "variety wood-turning lathe", of which they were "sole manufacturer".
• An ad in the January 1901 issue of The Wood-Worker shows Waymoth's variety lathe.
• An ad in a 1920 issue of The Wood-Worker shows Waymoth's variety lathe.
• An ad in the August 1923 issue of Wood Turning.
• The 1938-39 edition of Marconi's International Register lists as "manufacturers of Wood Turning Lathes — Automatic, Combination & Variety".