Mad Old Lathes

I'm putting up these pictures in response to a comment on Follansbee's blog about ambivalence in illustrations. They're from one of the Holtzappfel books on turning and history of the lathe. I don't actually own a copy and these are from bad photocopies.

I love staring at these and trying to work out what's going on - perhaps someone can tell me?

This guy looks like he's between a rock and a hard place.

Can't believe I managed to crop off the bow at the top