I 
II 
ii 
LAT 
corymbs, on a small peduncle, \Vhich has 
two scales at the base ; corolla white ; 
capsule yellow ; this shrub is called by the 
Caribs roiihahamon ; it is in flower and 
fruit during the months of October and 
November ; it is found on the banks of the 
river Sinemari, in Guiana, forty leagues from 
its mouth. 
LAST, in general, signifies the burden or 
load of a ship. 
It signifies also a certain measure of fish, 
corn, wool, leather, &c. A last of cod- 
fish, white herrings, meal, and ashes 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, 
170016. 
LATH, in building, a long, thin, and nar- 
row slip of wood, nailed to the rafters of a 
roof or ceiling, in order to sustain the co- 
vering. These are distinguished into three 
kinds, according to the diflerent 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 called 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 called 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. Sec Grain. 
LATHE, in turning, is an engine used in 
turning wood, ivory, and other materials. 
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 side- 
ways ; fig. 3, an elevation of the lathe only 
pn a larger scale ; in fig.- 4, are two eleva- 
LAT 
tions of an apparatus to be attached to the 
lathe for drilling holes ; fig. 5, is an eleva- 
tion 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 6, two up- 
rights, d d, morticed into them, and cross 
pieces, ef, 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 brackets, 
to receive a vice or other tools at the op- 
tion of the workmen ; between the two up- 
rights, 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, 
tlie 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 togetlier, it is 
bent in the middle to form a crank ; and h 
is the connecting rod by which it is moved 
from a treadle, i ; the treadle is a piece of 
board, i, seen endways, in fig. 2, screwed 
to an axle, k, 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 connecting 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 conse- 
quently when the workman exerts no 
power upon them. When the crank has 
passed the vertical position, and begins to 
descend, he presses his foot upon the trea- 
dle, 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 describing 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 E are two iron standards, called pup- 
pets, fitted upon the triangular bar, D, and 
fixed at any place by screws, they are both 
alike, and one of them is shewn emdways in 
fig. 6, it has an opening made in it at the 
bottom, the inside of which is filed ex- 
tremely true to fit upon the upper angle of 
