844 ERASMUS DARWIN LEAVITT. 



wood, the construction previously used in Northern Michigan. Two 

 such wheels, built like bicycle wheels, had diameters of fifty and sixty 

 feet. 



Until ill health caused his retirement from business in 1904, Mr. 

 Leavitt continued to act as consulting mechanical engineer for the 

 Calumet and Hecla Mine. But his activities were by no means con- 

 fined to work for that company. 



He acted as consulting engineer for Henry R. Worthington; de- 

 veloped their high duty pumping engine for the Dickson Manufactur- 

 ing Co.; and assisted the Bethlehem Steel Co. in modernizing their 

 plant and in introducing hydraulic forging. 



He designed three huge pumping engines for the Boston sewage 

 department; and pumping engines for the following city water 

 works: Cambridge, Mass., New Bedford, Boston, and Louisville. 

 That for the last named city broke all previous records for economy in 

 consumption of steam. 



A pair of engines which he designed for the Washington Mills at 

 Lawrence, have been steadily at work since 1887. He designed the 

 equipment of the El Callao Mining Co. of Venezuela. The first 

 engines of the cable railway of the Brooklyn Bridge came from the 

 drawing boards of his remarkably efficient and well organized office 

 in Central Square, Cambridgeport. 



Mr. Leavitt's fame as a mechanical engineer was international, 

 and during his frequent visits abroad he established a wide circle of 

 professional friends. He was on intimate terms with the Krupps, 

 and was on board their yacht Rona at the opening of the Kiel Canal. 



A roomy old fashioned house on the slope of the hill on Harvard 

 Street, Cambridgeport, was Mr. Leavitt's home for many years. 

 There he delighted to entertain the prominent members of his profes- 

 sion, and many eminent European engineers enjoyed his hospitality. 

 He was an ardent church man, a man of broadly charitable instincts, 

 and widely known for the liberality of his gifts. 



He was distinguished for an exceptional command of English, 

 which was evident to a casual acquaintance. Although of a retiring 

 character, his affectionate disposition and inborn geniality endeared 

 him to all who were fortunate enough to penetrate his reserve. . 



Mr. Leavitt was one of the thirty founders of the American Society 

 of Mechanical Engineers, and served as its president in 1882-83. 

 He was a foreign member of several European engineering and scien- 

 tific societies, and for many years was on the visiting committees of 

 the Engineering Department, and of the Observatory of Harvard 



