the opening of the hne, not the least of which was the chronic short- 

 age of motive power. In November 1846 only two engines were 

 in operating condition, forcing the road to turn away many shippers. i''' 



The demand for new locomotives was so great that most eastern 

 builders were refusing orders. These facts were undoubtedly 

 brought to Harkness' attention by his associate Strader, with the 

 obvious suggestion that locomotives be built in Harkness' shop. 

 By this time, 1845, Harkness was deeply involved in building steam- 

 boat engines and boilers; his shop was well equipped for this type 

 of work, so the building of locomotive engines presented no par- 

 ticular difficulties. 



The designer of Harkness' earliest locomotives was Alexander 

 Bonner Latta (i 821 -1865), who was born in Ross County, near 

 Chillicothe, Ohio. When his family moved to Cincinnati, he 

 apprenticed in the foundry and shipbuilding trade in that city. 

 In 1 841 he went to Washington, D.C., pursuant to a patent matter, 

 and while there met Harkness, who had come east to secure a planing 

 machine for iron. Young Latta impressed the older mechanic so 

 much that he was hired to superintend the Harkness foundry. 

 At first he succeeded brilliantly. He built a giant lathe with a 

 7i-foot swing and 35-foot ways, and an equally immense planing 

 machine which weighed an estimated 30 tons and was capable of 

 handling work measuring 6 feet wide, 5 feet high, and 24 feet long.^'^ 

 G. E. Sellers said the planing machine was ". . .a masterpiece of 

 mechanism . . . large enough to face, fo[u]r side pipes of the largest 

 size steamboat cylinders then constructed, also valve faces of blowing 

 cylinders, for iron furnaces. . . ."^^ 



It is small wonder, then, that Harkness confidently assigned Latta 

 the task of building his first locomotive. At this, however, he was 

 not successful. Edwin Price, who as a boy in the late 1840's was 

 employed by Latta at his Buckeye Works, recalled Latta's attempt 

 at locomotive building: 



He built two only. They were his own Idea and Invention. He would 

 not copy. The first was nine months in building, the second one about 

 six. The[y] cost about twice the amount of Money Harkness received 



^^ Cincinnati Daily Commercial, November 16, 1846. 



^~ Cincinnati Daily Gazette, February 5, 1859. 



^^ American Machinist (December 19, 1889), vol. 12, p. 2. 



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