Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/664

628 with his father, and was admitted to the bar in 1860. He was elected to the Maryland legislature in 1867, served till 1872, and was speaker in 1870-'2. In 1860 he was appointed judge-advocate- general, and assisted in reorganizing the Maryland militia under the act of 1868, of which he was the author. In 1875 he was elected mayor of Balti- more, serving three terms till 1881, and in 1883 he was again elected to this office, serving till 1885. During his term of office the supply of water by natural flow from Gunpowder river through a tun- nel of seven miles inland in solid rock was com- gleted. — Benjamin Henry's son, Charles Hazle- urst, civil engineer, b. in Baltimore, 25 Dec, 1833, was educated at the College of St. Mary in that city. He entered the service of the Balti- more and Ohio railroad company, and was also in the Confederate service. After the civil war he returned to Baltimore and adopted bridge-building as his specialty. His most remarkable works of this description, however, were in Peru, about a dozen in all ; among them the Arequipa viaduct, which was 1,300 feet long and 65 feet high, and the Agua de Verrugas bridge, 575 feet long and 263 feet high. This structure was built across one of the deepest gorges in the Andes, and was, when erect- ed, the loftiest structure of its kind in the world. It was framed in the United States, taken apart, and shipped to Peru, where it was erected in ninety days. Latrobe wrote an exhaustive report to the Baltimore authorities upon sewerage, which was reprinted and largely circulated.

LATROBE, Charles Joseph, traveller, b. in England, 20 March, 1801; d. 4 Dec, 1875. He travelled in the United States and Mexico in 1832, and accompanied Irving in his tour, described in the " Crayon Miscellanv." He was the author of " Visit to South Africa in 1815-16" (New York, 1818); " The Alpenstock, or Sketches of Swiss Scenery and Manners in 1825-'6" (London, 1829; 2d ed., 1839); " The Pedestrian, or Rambles in the Tyrol in 1830 " (1832) ; " The Rambler in North America in 1832-'3 " (2 vols., New York, 1835 ; London, 1836) ; and " The Rambler in Mexico " (New York and London, 1836), which was highly commended by William H. Prescott and other critics.

LATTA, Alexander Bonner, inventor, b. in Ross county, Ohio, 11 June, 1821 ; d. in Ludlow, Ky., 28 April, 1865. At an early age he worked in a cotton-factory, and subsequently in the navy- yard in Washington, D. C. After becoming an expert mechanic he settled in Cincinnati, where he operated the first iron planing-machine that ever was used in that city. He became foreman of a ma- chine-shop, and constructed for the Little Miami railroad the first locomotive that was built west of the Alleghany mountains. He invented and patented a series of improvements in railway ap- pliances, a few of which he succeeded in intro- ducing. In 1852 he invented a steam fire-engine, which he constructed in nine months, and which was tried on 1 Jan.. 1853. In October, 1853, he con- structed a second, which contained several improve- ments and received a gold medal at the Ohio Mechanics' institute fair in 1854. He continued to build steam fire-engines until 1862, when he retired from active business. The boiler of Mr. Latta's engine was constructed of two square chambers, one within the other, the space between which chambers was the steam and water space of the boiler. The inner chamber, which was the fire-box, was filled by a series of horizontal layers of tubes arranged diagonally over each other, but forming one continuous coil. The water entered this coil at the lower end and passed upward into the annular space, where it was evaporated. Upon arriving at the scene of the fire, the rear of the en- gine was raised off the ground and supported by means of screws on the sides of the boiler, and the hind-wheels, thus clearing the ground, acted as fly-wheels. In 1863-'5 Mr. Latta introduced the manufacture of aerated bread into Cincinnati. He also made improvements in oil-well machinery.

LATTA, James, clergyman, b. in Ireland in 1732; d. in Lancaster county, Pa., 29 Jan., 1801. At an early age he emigrated to this country with his parents, who settled near Elkton, Md. He was graduated at the College of Philadelphia in 1757, and became tutor there, while he studied theology with Dr. Francis Alison. He was licensed by the presbytery of Philadelphia in 1758, ordained in 1759, and appointed to the destitute settlements of Virginia and Carolina. In 1761 he became pastor of a church in Deep Run, Bucks co., Pa., but he re- signed in 1770 to accept the charge of Chestnut Level, Lancaster co„ Pa. Here he established a school, which was acquiring celebrity when its progress was arrested by the Revolution. During the war he served as soldier and chaplain in the American army. He published several sermons and a pamphlet showing that the principal sub- jects of psalmody should be taken from the gospel.

LATTA, Samuel Arminius, clergyman, b. in Muskingum county, Ohio, 8 April, 1804; d. in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, 28 June, 1852. His father removed to Champaign county, near Urbana, Ohio, where his house was a resort for pioneer Methodist preach- ers. The son first studied medicine, was licensed, and practised for three years, during which time he read theology. He then became a local preacher in the Methodist church, and for several years practised both professions. In 1829 he joined the Ohio conference, and was appointed to the mission of St. Clair, Mich. In 1830 he was stationed at Cincinnati, and in 1831 he was travelling agent for the American colonization society. In 1837 he was agent for Augusta college, Ohio, and in 1840 re- tired from active work in the church, owing to impaired health. He then removed to Cincinnati, where he resumed his medical practice. The de- gree of M. D. was conferred on him by the Medical college of Ohio in 1846. He was the author of a small medical work and " The Chain of Sacred Wonders " (2 vols., Cincinnati, 1851-2).

LATTIMER, Henry, senator, b. in Newport, Del., 24 April, 1752; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 19 Dec, 1819. He studied medicine in Philadelphia and in Edinburgh, and on his return to this coun- try practised until 1777, when he was appointed, with Dr. James Tilton, surgeon of the flying hos- pital. After the war he resumed his practice, but abandoned it in 1794. He was a member of the state house of representatives, and was elected to congress from Delaware, as a Federalist, serving from 14 Feb., 1794, till 28 Feb., 1795, when he be- came U. S. senator, in place of George Read, and served until 3 March, 1801.

LATTIMORE, Samuel Allan, chemist, b. in Union county, Ind., 31 May, 1828. He was graduated at Indiana Asbury (now Depauw) university in 1850, and continued as tutor of languages in that institution for two years, becoming in 1852 professor of Greek. In 1860 he was elected professor of chemistry in Genesee college, and in 1867 was called to fill a similar chair in the University of Rochester, where he has since remained, and now (1887) is director of the Reynolds laboratory. Prof. Lattimore has also held the offices of chemist to the New York state board of health since 1881, and to the New York state dairy commission since 1886,