Ancient lathes were cut by hand or foot pedal, rotating the workpiece through a rope and holding a tool in hand. In 1797, British mechanical inventor Maudsley created a modern lathe with a lead screw drive tool holder, and in 1800 used an exchange gear to change the feed rate and the pitch of the thread being machined.
In 1817, another Englishman, Roberts, adopted a four-stage pulley and back wheel mechanism to change the spindle speed. In order to improve the degree of mechanized automation, in 1845, Fitch in the United States invented the turret lathe. In 1848, a return wheel lathe appeared in the United States, and in 1873, Spencer in the United States made a single-axis automatic lathe, and soon he made a three-axis automatic lathe.
At the beginning of the 20th century, lathes with gearboxes driven by separate motors appeared. After the First World War, due to the needs of the arms, automobile and other machinery industries, various efficient automatic lathes and specialized lathes developed rapidly.
In order to increase the productivity of small batch workpieces, at the end of the 40s, lathes with hydraulic profiling devices were promoted, and at the same time, multi-tool lathes were developed. In the mid-50s, program-controlled lathes with punch cards, latch plates and dials were developed. CNC technology began to be used in lathes in the 60s and developed rapidly after the 70s.