I believe that what you have is actually a White machine. Domestic became a subsidiary of White in 1924. It is sometimes called "Domestic Rotary 153" or simply "Domestic 153" I'm thinking that this model is from the 1940s through mid 1950s. I'm basing that on an ad from 1954 stating "Trade-In Allowance for your old treadle machine on a deluxe Domestic 153" and
http://hautegoatcashmere.blogspot.co...know-what.html
Because these machines are friction drive rather than having a belt, they frequently have a flat spot on the pulley from having set on the hand wheel for so many years. There are a lot of threads about that. My suggestion is to place something between the motor and the machine. There are a lot of suggestions as to what to use, such as wooden clothespin, wooden spoon, even a piece of folded fabric. You just want to keep the pulley from resting on the hand wheel when the machine is not in use.
I don't have this machine but do have a White that is similar. It will take 15x1 needles. The hand wheel turns the opposite direction from what you are probably used to. In other words the hand wheel turns clockwise as you are looking at it from that end. The tension is a little fiddly to get threaded correctly. The bobbin threading also takes some practice to get used to. Maybe
Directions for loading a White rotary bobbin (White Family Rotary, etc.) will help with the bobbin.
I took some pictures of the threading through the upper tension of my White and posted
Domestic Rotary 153
Hope this helps.
Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.