Alexander Bonner Latta

Latta was born on a farm just outside the city limits of Chillicothe, Ohio, on July 11, 1821.[1] He was the youngest of six children and went by the nickname "Moses". When he was five years old, his father, John Latta, was killed in an accident. This left his mother, Rebecca Latta, a penniless widow. Latta soon started his schooling and attended a country school in Ohio until he was thirteen years old,[2] when he was forced to quit school to help support his mother and brothers. Latta's first jobs were at David Bradford Woolen Mills, for seventy-five cents per week; at a shipyard, three years later, starting at three dollars per week, later raised to nine dollars; at Samuel Cummings' brass foundry, three years later; and at William Bylad's machine shop, around 1840,[2][3] Latta having become an experienced mechanic.[4] In the early 1840s, his mother moved the family to Cincinnati to take advantage of better financial opportunities there to get skilled jobs for her sons.[1]

Latta's lathe and planing machine

In 1841, Latta met Anthony Harkness, the owner of a foundry and machine shop in Cincinnati, while on a business trip to Washington, D. C. Latta demonstrated his mechanical ability to Harkness and explained his invention for a machine that would make parts for steamboat paddle wheels. He made such an impression on Harkness that he was offered a job as superintendent of Harkness's foundry.[4] His first assignment was that of designing a huge lathe and planing machine for Harkness.[5] The inventor George Escol Sellers believed the planing machine was a mechanical masterpiece.[6]

Latta first became a foreman at the Harkness machine shop and later became an engineer. In 1845, he directed the construction of the first railroad locomotive built west of the Alleghany Mountains,[7] and served as the locomotive's engineer when it made its trial run, from Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio and back.[8] In 1846, Latta designed an unusual train locomotive for the Boston and Maine Railroad. The locomotive had an additional set of cylinders, under the water tank, which utilized the residual energy of steam exhaust sent back through specially designed pipes from the primary cylinders.[9]

Uncle Joe Ross

Citizen's Gift

Latta's greatest inventions were those related to steam-powered fire engines. Beginning in March 1852, he designed and manufactured the world's first practical steam fire engine, which could be drawn by both men and horses and could be used by city fire departments as part of their standard fire-fighting equipment.[10][11][12][13][14] The fire engine was named Uncle Joe Ross after Joseph Ross, the city councilman who promoted it,[15] and was put into full service at the Cincinnati fire department on January 1, 1853.[12][16][17]

In April 1853, the Cincinnati volunteer fire department was reorganized around the use of Latta's steam fire engine, and became the first paid company of firemen.[18] The city then ordered two more of Latta's steam fire engines for $9,500 each, and they were built and delivered by the end of the year. The new fire engines were named Citizen's Gift and A. B. Latta.[15] The Citizens' Gift was named for the citizens of Cincinnati, whose donations paid for the fire engine.[16][19] In 1855, Boston was next to adopt Latta's steam fire engine. Their's was the first fire department in the United States to change entirely from hand operated to steam powered fire engines.[18] Boston was followed by New York City, and then other cities.[15][20]

Cincinnati's Uncle Joe Ross fire engine was demonstrated to a committee of men from Chicago on December 5, 1855. People were concerned about the extreme high pressure the engine developed and warned the operating engineer. At the point of maximum pressure a hose burst. Finally, the engineer turned off the engine, but just as the engine stopped it exploded.[21] This was the first steam fire engine explosion.[22] It killed the operating engineer and injured several people.[22]

A self-propelled steam-engine patent was granted to Latta in 1855.[7] The steam engine rode on three steel wheels arranged as a tricycle's. The front wheel was for steering and the back wheels not only propelled the machine down the streets, but powered the pumps that pushed the water through hoses onto the flames. The boiler consisted of two square chambers, one within the other. The space between them contained water that was heated to steam by the inner-chamber firebox.[9]

6-hp steam engine

Latta's street-railway locomotive

In 1846, Latta formed the Buckeye Works company with his brothers Edmundson and Finlay.[1] Between 1847 and his death, Latta received patents for several improvements to steam locomotives and fire engines.[9] He had built 30 steam locomotive engines by 1860.[23]

Latta's last design was for a "steam dummy" for the street railway in the city of Cincinnati. It consisted of a 6-horsepower portable engine, of his design, that was built into a street railway car. It was tested in March 1860.[1]

Latta retired in 1862 and died in Ludlow, Kentucky, in 1865.[7]

Latta married Elizabeth Ann Pawson on October 21, 1847. They had two children who grew to adulthood, G. Taylor and Luella M. Latta.[2]

Latta invented a series of improvements to railroad applications, but only a few of his patented inventions were actually used in the industry.[24] He received a gold medal for fire engine improvements at the Ohio Mechanics' Institute Fair in 1854.[25]

• Jones, Adolphus Eberhardt (1881). In Memoriam: Cincinnati, 1881. A.E. Jones.
• Kane, Joseph Nathan (1997). Famous First Facts. H.W. Wilson Company. # 4102 – The first fire engine that was practical was the Uncle Joe Ross, invented by Alexander Bonner Latta and manufactured by Latta, Shawk and Company in 1852 in Cincinnati, OH, in the shops of John H. McGowan. It took nine months to build, cost $10,000, and was tested on January 1, 1853, the date it went into service. It weighed 5 tons, was drawn by four horses and its own power, and had a square firebox, like that of a locomotive boiler, with a furnace open at the top, upon which the chimney was placed. It ran on three wheels, the front one revolving in the center of the car. It threw from one to six streams of water. In a single stream 1.75 inches in diameter, it threw water a distance of 240 feet.
• King, William T. (1896). American Steam Fire-engine. Pinkham Press. p. 13.
• Malone, Dumas (1934). Dictionary of American Biography: Larned-MacCracken. C. Scribner's sons.
• Marquis, A. N. (1967). Marquis Who was who. The A. N. Marquis Company.
• McGraw-Hill (1889). American Machinist. McGraw-Hill.
• McGraw-Hill (1890). American Machinist. McGraw-Hill. I refer to the American Inventor, an illustrated monthly paper published in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the number for July, 1887, on the first page, is a very good woodcut representation of the engine built by Shawk & Latta. The superscription to this engraving is: "The first practical steam fire engine, the ' Uncle Joe Ross,' A. B. Latta's patent, Cincinnati, O., 1852."
• Rhode, Robert T. (2008). Steam Tractor Encyclopedia. MBI Publishing Company LLC. ISBN 978-0-7603-3473-7.
• Tenkotte, Paul A. (13 January 2015). Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-5996-6.
• White, John H. (1965). Cincinnati locomotive builders, 1845–1868. Smithsonian Institution.
• Wilson, James Grant (1887). Cyclopædia of American Biography. D. Appleton. p. 628.

• Alexander Bonner Latta at Find a Grave