LAT 



LAT 



for soap, is twelve barrels ; of corn or 

 rape-seed, ten quarters ; of gun-powder, 

 twenty-four barrels ; of red herrings, 

 twenty cades ; of hides, twelve dozen ; 

 of leather, twenty dickers; of pitch and 

 tar, fourteen barrels ; of wool, twelve 

 sacks; of stock-fish, one thousand; of 

 flax or feathers, 1700$. 



LATH, in building, a long, thin, and 

 narrow slip of wood, nailed to the rafters 

 of a roof or ceiling, in order to sustain the 

 covering. These are distinguished into 

 three kinds, according to the different 

 kinds of wood of which they are made, 

 viz. heart of oak, sap-laths, and deal- 

 laths ; of which the two last are used for 

 ceilings and partitions, and the first for 

 tiling only. Laths are also distinguished, 

 according to their length, into five feet, 

 four feet, and three feet laths, though the 

 statute allows but of two lengths, those 

 of five, and those of three feet, each of 

 which ought to be an inch and a half in 

 breadth, and half an inch in thickness, 

 but they are commonly less. 



LATHS, of cleaving. The lath-cleavers 

 having cut their timbers into lengths, 

 they cleave each piece with wedges, into 

 eight, twelve, or sixteen, according to the 

 size of their timber ; these pieces are call- 

 ed bolts ; this is done by the felt-grain, 

 which is that grain which is seen to run 

 round in rings at the end of a piece of 

 a tree. Thus they are cut out for the 

 breadth of the laths, and this work is call- 

 ed felting. Afterwards they cleave the 

 laths into their proper thicknesses with 

 their chit, by the quarter-grain, which is 

 that which runs in a straight line towards 

 the pith. See GRAIX. 



LATHE, in turning, is an engine used 

 in turning wood, ivory, and other mate- 

 rials. 



The lathe we are about to describe is 

 made of iron, in the best manner. See 

 Plate LATHE. Fig. 1, is an elevation of 

 the whole machine frontwise; fig. 2, an 

 elevation sideways ; fig. 3, an elevation of 

 the lathe only on a larger scale ; in fig. 4, 

 are two elevations of an apparatus to 

 be attached to the lathe for drilling 

 holes ; fig. 5, is an elevation of the rest ; 

 and fig. 6, a face elevation of one of the 

 puppets. 



The frame of the lathe is of wood, and 

 consists of two ground cells, a b, two up- 

 rights, dd t morticed into them, and cross 

 pieces, cj\ at top, connecting them toge- 

 ther ; upon the uppermost of these pieces 

 the bench sustaining the lathe is fixed ; g 

 is another bench, supported by iron 



VOL. IV. 



brackets, to receive a vice or other tools., 

 at the option of the workmen ; between 

 the two uprights, d d, the axis of the 

 great foot wheel turns ; it is pointed at the 

 ends and turns in small conical holes in 

 pieces of hard steel let into the uprights, 

 d d ; one of these holes is in the end of a 

 screw, by turning which, the axis can be 

 tightened up so as to turn very freely 

 without any shake ; the axis is made of 

 wrought iron, and the points at the end 

 are of hard steel welded together ; it is 

 bent in the middle to form a crank; and 

 h is the connecting rod, by which it is 

 moved from a treadle, *'; the treadle is a 

 piece of board, i, seen endways, in fig. 2, 

 screwed to an axle, k t at one end, on which 

 it turns, and at the other end is broader, 

 to receive the workman's foot; in the 

 middle a staple is fixed, and the connect- 

 ing rod, h, hooked to it; A is the great 

 wheel of cast iron, and of considerable 

 weight in the rim, wedged fast on the 

 axis, and turns round with it; it is by the 

 momentum of this wheel that it continues 

 to turn, while the crank and treadle are 

 rising, and consequently when the work, 

 man exerts no power upon them. When 

 the crank has passed the vertical posi- 

 tion, and begins to descend, he presses 

 his foot upon the treadle, to give the 

 wheel a sufficient impetus, to continue its 

 motion until it arrives at the same position 

 again. 



We now come to describe the upper 

 part of the machine, or lathe, the wheel 

 and treadle being only the first mover, it 

 is shewn on a larger scale in fig. 3, and it 

 is to this figure we shall refer in describ- 

 ing it; B B is a strong triangular iron 

 bar, firmly supported by its ends, on two 

 short pillars screwed at their lower ends 

 to the bench; this bar is perfectly straight 

 and the sides flat ; D B are two iron 

 standards, called puppets, fitted upon the 

 triangular bar, D, and fixed at any place 

 by screws; they are both alike, and 

 one of them is shewn endways in fig. 6; 

 it has an opening made in it at the bot- 

 tom, the inside of which is filed extreme- 

 ly true, to fit upon the upper angle of 

 the bar B B, through each of the branch- 

 es, formed by the opening in the bottom 

 mortices, are cut, as is well seen in fig. 3 ; 

 these receive the end of a short piece of 

 iron, m, having a screw tapped into it ; 

 it is by screwing this screw tight up 

 against the underside of the bar, that the 

 puppet is fastened upon it; a small piece 

 of iron plate is put between the end of 

 the screw and the underside of the bar. 

 K 



