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Definitely a non-standard feature. A relic of the lathe's probable first owner - the British Air Ministry. The ministry was in charge of aircraft production during the second world war and needed to import a mass of new machines to ramp up British arms production. To me it seems very odd that this plate was cast in lots of very solid heavy brass, which was then a strategic material whose usage was controlled "for the war effort". I guess an over enthusiastic civil servant wasn't officially told about this