It seems to me it is not really so much a lathe as a horizontal mill with a rotary table...

A lathe has a rotating workpiece and a stationary tool; a mill has a stationary* workpiece and a rotating tool

*Stationary in that it is not the movement of the piece across the cutting tool that shapes the material but the movement of the tool across the piece; kind of the difference between a lathe and shaper.

This may really be a quibble without distinction...it's definitely an interesting tool