This was posted on another message board I occasionally post to and no one there had any idea, so I figured that the folks here might have some idea. You can see a picture of it here. Anyone know?
Just an educated guess: Could it be a watchmakers lathe driven by a small vertical stream engine? This one is similar, and was used to drive a variety of such tools (link)
BTW ‘Hitchcock’ could identify one of several iron and casting companies at the turn of the century. Unfortunately the W.F. initials don’t seem to identify a particular one.