An Adams Bros. Lathe That Followed Me Home from CRAFTS
Searching for the Adams Bros. history
by George Langford, Sc.D.

This lathe is only marked, "ADAMS BROS. PROV. R.I." on the leg castings.

The headstock is carried in plain bearings with an adustable cap at each end.  The end thrust is supported by a dead center, as the threaded bolt and nut at the extreme left do not rotate with the spindle.   The spindle nose thread is 15/16-14.  No mention of Adams Bros. is found in either Ken Cope's American Lathe Builders: 1810-1910, Astragal Press, 2001, or in The Directory of American Toolmakers, edited by the late Bob Nelson, Early American Industries Association, 1999.  And there are no entries for such a company in the extensive historical files compiled on the Providence History Online webpage.  Even among the many catalog illustrations in Cope's book none resembles this lathe. Recently there appeared on eBay a couple of sets of machine-tool legs marked like these, but intended to act as floor legs, not bench legs. The seller claimed they came from a jewelry factory in Providence, Rhode island.