Chapter VIII: Manufacturing Industries (birmingham and District.) (3)

=Needles and Fish Hooks.=--[J. M. WOODWARD.]--(B. 197). The pointing of needles is now done exclusively by machinery. The new machines introduced into the trade within the last 25 years, are the machines for cutting, *pointing, *skimming, stamping, eyeing, *point handing, *tempering, scouring, *handing, *counting, heading and tailing, blueing, *burnishing, *finishing, assorting, and sticking. The machines marked with * produce not only cheaper, but better quality of work. Electro-gilding has taken the place of the old ether gilding. As regards machinery used in the production of sewing machine needles, the chief novelty is the “grooving” machine, which is taking the place of the old stamping process. From special enquiries made I conclude that in the needle district the weekly productions of all kinds of needles and goods akin to needles, cannot be less than 50,000,000 in number. _Pins._ In addition to pins in ordinary use, steel and glass headed pins are made at Redditch, the weekly production of all kinds of pins being about two tons. An attempt is being made to adapt the machines for the production of two pins at a time instead of one. _Fish hooks and fishing tackle_ are now made almost entirely by machinery. Artificial fly making is altogether done by hand; feathers of various birds are used for “sea flies.” Spinning baits are shaped much like the bowl of a spoon, and are electro-plated so as to cause a glittering appearance when in motion. Swivels in connection with these baits form a branch industry, and machinery for the dressing and turning of these has of late been introduced.

The manufacture of fishing rods is now an important branch. Among the new aids to production are the turning machine and the machine for splitting bamboo canes for the manufacture of “split cane” rods. These curious and costly articles first came from America, and the making of them by hand requires the greatest patience as well as the highest skill in joining, every part of the rod, from the butt to the thinnest member, having to be split lengthwise into six pieces, each wedge-like in section, and then glued together again with the greatest care and exactness. Reel making has been introduced of late years. One manufactory turns out about 50 dozen rods, 7,000 floats, 13,000 flies, 4,000,000 fish-hooks, and 5,000 swivels per week. Electro-tinning is now used for small sea-hooks. The weekly production of fish-hooks is approximately 20,000,000.

=Nickel, Cobalt and German Silver.=--[ALFRED S. JOHNSTONE.]--(B. 673.) Many of the original sources of nickel have become exhausted. It is now found plentifully in Norway (in magnetic pyrites, containing about 4 or 5 per cent.) Hungary still supplies ore. The South African supply of ore, (an arsenide of over 25 per cent cobalt) has fallen off. South America and her desert of Atacama was a great source of nickel or cobalt, some of its hydrated arseniates reaching as much as 25% in the ores of nickel, and 17% in the ores of cobalt. The sole mine in Connecticut has been worked for many years. Sweden has yielded nickel from the Klefra and other mines. Germany supplies nickel from the Mansfeld mines. About 1874 nickel was discovered in the Island of New Caledonia, and large quantities of the ore were shipped to this country and to France. There appears now to be a constant supply from this source. The ore is a double silicate of nickel and magnesia, averaging 7 to 10% nickel. Later still nickel and cobalt have been discovered in Nevada. Passing over the history[57] of the production of nickel, which is already, to some extent, described in “Birmingham and Midland Hardware District,” it should be mentioned that nickel, though brittle under the hammer, has been successfully rendered malleable by treatment in which manganese is employed. The process of rendering nickel malleable is due to Messrs. Wiggin & Co., who patented the process in 1880. About the same time Dr. Fleitman, in Germany, succeeded also in rendering nickel malleable by using magnesium instead of manganese. The nickel thus produced may be rolled into plates and drawn into wire, or be stamped, beaten or raised into any article of common use, and it may be welded to itself or to iron. It is less malleable when it contains carbon than when pure. Besides its application for the production of German silver, nickel is largely used as anodes for nickel plating, and for coinage in many countries. Its oxide is used in the Potteries for giving a soft brown tint to china and earthenware, and it is also employed for the production of nickel salts for plating. The German Government in 1873 adopted nickel alloy for coinage, and the exceptional demand advanced the price from 4/- to 16/- per lb. At the present time, owing to the extensive supplies from all parts of the world, and the keen competition in the trade, nickel is reduced to 2/- per lb.

Cobalt has scarcely any application; it is used as an anode in plating, and for some parts of scientific instruments. It does not whiten copper to the same extent that nickel does. The oxides of cobalt are of great value in the arts, not only for the production of the beautiful blue colours given to china, earthenware, and glass, but also as a basis of the blue pigment known as cobalt blue. The oxide of cobalt was in 1841 40/- per lb.; to-day it is about 8/- per lb. Latterly there is a tendency to replace brass and electro-plate by white alloys which have nickel for their basis. Spoons, forks, fittings for railway and ship fittings, bar fittings, and harness furniture have been largely manufactured from these metals. These alloys are known under various names, such as silveroid, argentoid, navoline, nickeline, aluminium metal, &c., but they are all varieties of German silver, containing in some cases small proportions of tin, lead, cadmium, and other metals.

=Papier Mâché Trade.=--[E. H. HODSON].--(B. 566). Within the last few years wood pulp imported from Sweden has been introduced as a substitute for paper pulp, and is used for small desks, work boxes, jewel cases, and many other articles, thus enabling Birmingham manufacturers to compete with Chinese and Japanese lacquered goods. A change too has taken place in the mode of ornamentation. Instead of employing artists at a high rate of wage, transfers are used which can be applied to the articles by boys and girls. German papier mâché is imported into this country duty free, but on the other hand, English papier mâché is subjected to heavy duties before it reaches the German and Continental Markets. It should be mentioned that there still continues a steady demand for small quantities of expensive articles made of papier mâché, though for the supply of the Million, the old papier mâché is replaced by the Swedish pulp above referred to.

=Pewter & Britannia Metal Trade.=--[W. PERKS.]--(B. 617). The two trades are distinct. Pewter consists of 95 parts tin, 4 parts copper, and 1 part antimony. The metal is cast in iron or brass moulds. Britannia metal is not cast, but rolled, stamped, swaged, or spun. Its composition is similar to pewter, but a little more antimony and copper and less tin. The staple articles in pewter are still ale and wine measures, tankard and drinking cups, the most saleable shapes are identical with those which Hogarth painted in the early part of the last century. There has been a revival of pewter for ink pots for Board School use and home use. In foreign markets a tea-pot known as the Dutch pattern is still sold of the same shape, style, and strength as it has been for the last 70 years. Makers have tried to introduce wrought metal pots instead of cast pewter, but the foreign traders do not care for them. The trade in beer engines and bar fittings has much increased within the last 20 years.

=Plate, Crown, and Sheet Glass.=--[HENRY CHANCE.]--(B. 147.) In the 1864 report it was mentioned that cast plate glass is manufactured at Smethwick (Plate Glass Company) crown, sheet, and rolled or rough plate glass at Smethwick (Messrs. Chance Brothers and Co.) and at Stourbridge (Stourbridge Glass Company.) Of these three manufacturing establishments, that of Messrs. Chance Brothers and Co. is the only one now in operation. Antique glass for decorative purposes and glass shades are manufactured at Oldbury by Messrs. W. E. Chance and Co. Crown glass is now almost extinct; Messrs. Chance however still make the very limited quantity required. The price of ordinary sheet glass has fallen from one shilling and twopence per foot in 1884 prior to the repeal of the duty, to three halfpence in 1886. Rolled plate glass is now made by most of the manufacturers of sheet glass, and by several firms who confine themselves to this branch of trade. The Siemens’ regenerative furnace has not only been successfully applied to furnaces containing pots, but by its aid Messrs. Siemens have been able to dispense with pots and employ large tanks made of clay, for the melting of glass. By this means the process of melting and working becomes continuous. The raw materials are introduced at one end of the tank furnace and arrive, after gradual transformation, at the other end, in the shape of melted glass.

=Plated Wares.=--[ELKINGTON AND CO.]--(B. 477.) A great impetus has been given to the trade owing to the development of hotel life in London and all large towns, together with the equipments required for ocean-going steamers, in many cases special designs having reference to the building being required. On the other hand the taste of the public is now for simple and useful designs. The old form of stamping, in which the stamp was lifted by one or more workmen, has been superseded by the method described on page 172. A dish cover which formerly required hundreds of blows now requires only six, and instead of the old process of smoothing the surface with hammer and stake a “wheeling” machine is used, and the swage or shape lapped over instead of mounting with a wire, the time consumed being about one twentieth part of that required by the old process. Improvements in metals used enables the hollow bodies of coffee and tea services to be “spun” (see page 174) instead of being slowly raised into form by wooden mallets and steel hammers. Spinning oval bodies is now extensively practised, though at one time it was considered impossible to treat German silver in this way. This process (oval spinning) is used only when one or two articles of a particular shape are required. When great numbers are required stamping is the process adopted. Press work in shaping articles has considerably improved, and has replaced, to some considerable extent, the tedious process of chasing and embossing. Enamelling has been introduced, but owing to Japanese competition the trade is gradually falling off. The enamelling, known as cloisonné is performed as follows: The decoration, birds, flowers, &c., is traced on the surface of the object to be enamelled, very thin wire of any metal, but generally silver or copper, is then bent by hand to the various forms traced on the metal. This process requires the utmost care. The wire thus bent is then soldered down to the surface of the object, the different colours put in in the form of paste into the different divisions formed by the bent wire, and the whole is subjected to intense heat until the colours are completely fused. When cold the surface is rubbed down flat, and finally polished. In the champlevé process the spaces for the colours are cut out with a graver. The process of damascening largely carried on by Messrs. Elkington is described at (B. 545.) Soldering arrangements are much improved, the introduction of the patent blowpipe saves time, and the workman is able to solder, cleaner and produce a firmer jointing than with the old process. The sand blast is a new feature in the finishing department.

=Refrigeration.=--[S. PUPLETT.]--Mechanical refrigeration owes its development to the enterprise of Birmingham men. The imports of ice into the United Kingdom were in 1884 nearly 300,000 tons. Refrigerating machinery is supplying ice in competition with these importations. In addition, refrigerating machinery is used in brewing for the purpose of cooling wort quickly, in bacon curing, in working of butter and butterine, cocoa, and candles, in oil refining and tar distilling, and in telegraphic works for securing a low temperature when testing cables. Freezing machines have too been used in sinking and tunnelling, the water being prevented from running into the shaft owing to the hardening of the earth by freezing. The cost of imported ice may be taken as 20/- per ton, while machine ice can be made for 5/- per ton. The first commercial machine, patented by James Harrison, of Geelong, in 1856, was an ether machine, and made in London. Afterwards machines of this kind were made by Mr. Philips, of the Atlas Works, in Oozells Street, Birmingham. In 1861 Carré showed the advantages of ammonia over ether as a refrigerant, and since then Mort and Dicholle, of Sydney, and Stanley, of London, have patented various modifications of the Carré system. Pictet has devoted many years to the subject, and has identified himself with sulphurous acid as a refrigerant, and recently claims to have discovered a fluid termed _liquide Pictet_, SCO₄; in addition to these refrigerants, air, water, chloride of methyl, bisulphide of carbon, carbonic acid, and nitrous oxide have been used. The machines made in Birmingham by the Birmingham Refrigerating Company are ammonia machines. This form of machine consists of (1) a multitubular vessel called the refrigerator, containing liquid (anhydrous) ammonia--in this vessel vaporization takes place; (2) a vapour pump, by which the ammonia formed by evaporation is exhausted from the refrigerator, compressed, liquefied, and forced into (3) the condenser, consisting of a multitubular vessel surrounded by water; (4) a circulating pump for supplying the condenser with water; (5) ice tanks surrounded by a bath of a liquid of a low freezing point, such as a solution of chloride of calcium or of common salt; (6) a circulating pump for circulating the brine through the refrigerator and around the ice tanks; (7) the steam engine or other motor for driving the vapour and circulating pumps.

=Rope Making.=--[J. T. WRIGHT.]--(B. 578). Within the last few years a machine has been introduced by Mr. Good, an American, for treating fibres as imported, more particularly Manilla. By means of fluted rollers, and a system of bars fitted with strong steel pins which press upwards into the hemp, the fibres are dressed and straightened out, the operation is aided by a patented machine known as Wright and Laider’s Patent Sun and Planet Hacklebus. Finally, the hemp fibres are drawn off the pins and delivered in a compact and continuous sliver into a can placed in front to receive it. These slivers being in one length, are now passed on to the drawing frames to be accumulated together.

=Steel Pen Trade.=--[MAURICE POLLACK.]--(B. 634.)--There has been little improvement since 1865. Muffles heated by gas on the plan of Dr. Siemens, have been introduced for tempering and colouring, and ordinary gas is also used in connection with these processes, but these improvements are only used by one or two firms, and more as a matter of convenience than as a means of making pens of a better quality or lower price.

Many patents have been taken out since 1865 for new styles of pens, the most successful have been those which deal with the points; these have been turned up or turned down, thickened, or planished, all for the purpose of producing smooth points to glide freely over paper even with a rough surface. The fashion in paper and ink materially influences the style of pens. The J pens (so called because that letter was embossed upon one of the first and best known broad points) have been extensively used, and have influenced hand writing, especially that of ladies. Calligraphy as an art has fallen off in this country, and this has influenced pen manufacture. The most delicately made pens are manufactured for foreign use. There are, perhaps, not so many pen works now as there were in 1865, but the productive power has vastly increased. The present _weekly_ average of pens manufactured is about 160,000 grosses, requiring from 16 to 18 tons of steel, of which only 8 tons appears in the article, the rest being loss or waste. Pen steel is still produced in Sheffield, the best being made from Swedish iron. The number of girls and women employed is from 3,200 to 3,600, whilst the number of men employed as tool makers, rollers, engineers, stokers, &c., hardly exceeds 500. The increase in make since 1865, of quite 60 per cent. is mainly due to the export trade. No new pen manufactories have been established since 1865, except in the United States, where there are now four pen works, but of these, only one is of importance. In France, there are now only three pen manufactories, and the production is less than it was three years ago. In Germany there is only one, and its make though improved in quality is very inconsiderable in comparison with the large consumption of steel pens in Germany. An attempt has been made to establish works in Russia, where the duty on steel pens is high, but after existing one or two years, the manufactory was burnt down, and no attempt has been made to re-build it. The Customs duty on steel pens with the exception of Russia, are the United States, where it is 6d. per gross, is very moderate, and prevents the importation of low and middle class pens. The price obtained for steel pens depends more upon the reputation of the maker or of the mark than upon their intrinsic value, hence the difficulty of giving an average value of each gross of pens produced.[58]

=Stourbridge Fire Clay.=--[GEORGE KING HARRISON.]--(B. 133.) The district suffers from high railway rates. The quantity of clay raised per week now is about 3,500 tons, say 160,000 tons per annum. About 40 million bricks are made per annum.

=Salt.=--[J. H. HOLLYER.]--(B. 138.) At the Stoke Prior Works from 500 to 700 hands are employed. The salt manufactured is from 3,000 to 4,000 tons per week. The entire produce of salt in Worcestershire is about 250,000 tons per annum. The Brine pits are about 1,000 feet deep. “Butter salt” is largely exported from Droitwich to India and Australia. Round pans have been introduced since 1865. The aggregate traffic, that is, coal received and salt forwarded, of the Stoke Prior works is about 1,000 tons per day.

=Swords and Matchets.=--[F. M. MOLE, JUN.]--(B. 649.) The conventional ideas as to the extent of the sword trade are very erroneous. Our army is small and only horse soldiers and officers carry swords. When once equipped one single sword forger will produce what is required. Hence the matchet trade is combined with sword manufacture. (The matchet is a large knife used in sugar cultivation in the West Indies and Central South America.) The extraordinary demand for swords at the time of the Crimean war, and the inability of English firms to supply it, gave the start to foreign competition. It is not generally known that the larger proportion of the officers’ swords sold in this country are either German swords imported complete or foreign blades mounted in London. There have been several spurts in the trade, but these died out, and at the present time Messrs. Robert Mole and Son, of Birmingham, are the only manufacturers who take Government contracts. An outline of the method of manufacture is given in (B. 649) and is similar to that of edge tools generally--(see p. 208). In ornamenting the hilts of swords fire or mercury gilding[59] is used. The “gripe” is of wood (walnut or beech), and covered with dog fish skin.

=Tin Plate Ware.=--[A. N. HOPKINS.]--(B. 638.) Fifty years ago workmen made a variety of articles with several pieces of tin plate soldered together. The introduction of machinery in the trade is reducing the number of skilled workmen. In 1835-6 Mr. Thomas Griffiths took out a patent for stamping and burnishing; shortly afterwards Mr. J. H. Hopkins commenced the manufacture of “Patent tea-pots.” Candlesticks and other articles made in the same way quickly followed, and stamping and burnishing opened up possibilities which till then had not been dreamed of in the trade. In 1840 what was thought a monster stamp was put down to stamp the top of an 18-inch imperial dish cover. Further improvements in stamping led to the trade being speedily one of the most important, both in this town and the neighbouring one of Wolverhampton. A little time later, tin plate workers turned their attention to the stamping of a few culinary articles, such as colanders, gravy strainers, &c., and of wash-hand basins. In the making of these sheet iron was used, and the articles when finished were tinned by the same process as that used by tin plate makers, and were then sold as “tinned wrought iron hollow ware,” and once more an increasing impetus was given to the trade. Milk pans and “prospecting” pans were made in this way, and the advance made just at this time by the Australian Colonies on the great discoveries of gold opened out a large field, where the goods have been bought in ever-increasing quantities, while shortly after, the Cape and South America as well as Canada became large customers for a similar class of goods. India too came into the market for brass and copper articles, while Egypt, especially about the time of the American Civil War, began to be a most important customer for the copper utensils hitherto manufactured only by the natives, but which the superior machinery the English manufacturer possessed, enabled him to produce much better and cheaper. Meanwhile the French Exhibition of 1855 had shown to our manufacturers specimens of stamping superior to anything they could produce, and one or two unsuccessful attempts were made by them to obtain a nearer inspection of the French method of stamping or more properly pressing. In one way and another it leaked out that the French makers employed a pressure plate and a gradual forcing process, instead of the sharp blow by which the English stamper pounded his material into the required shape. The late Mr. Clutton Salt purchased the patent right for this country, and in 1867 a machine was in operation at the works of the Birmingham Enamel Co., with which Mr. Salt was at that time connected, and Messrs. Griffiths and Browett took out a licence to use the patent. Improvements in stamping followed, keeping well abreast of the new process, and ultimately outstripping it, especially as regards size of vessel produced.

The French system of pressing was taken up in the United States, and as early as 1865 the works of Lalance and Geoschein, at Woodhaven, New York, were in active operation on this principle. In 1866 a Birmingham man, named W. Page, son of an old Birmingham worthy, travelled to New York, and erected improved machines on the French system in the factory of Messrs. Ketcham and Co. These machines economised material, and at the same time quickened production.

In 1872 Mr. Satchell Hopkins, of Birmingham, after communication with Mr. Page, put down a number of machines on Mr. Page’s principle, including one which is even now the largest and most powerful of its kind. A similar form of machine was adopted by other firms, and there soon followed an extraordinary development of the trade hitherto known as the “Stamped Tin Hollow-ware,” but now as the “Pressed Bright Tinned Hollow-ware” Trade.

In another important branch of the trade, though there has not been so much scope for improvement, advance has not been wanting. The common and ugly japanned ware, in which stencil plates were largely used, has been superseded by “transfers,” and by an invention of Mr. Alfred Hopkins, the japanning of articles with backgrounds highly polished has been superseded by a dead, morocco-like surface, in low tones of pleasing appearance.

In iron plate working the only new mechanical appliance introduced since 1867 is a machine or series of machines for making buckets, by which the article is practically made in one operation. The low wages of workmen who make buckets, coupled with the low prices to which manufacturers have been driven by excessive competition, render the employment of these machines of doubtful advantage. Besides Birmingham, manufactories are established in Wolverhampton, London, Reading, Sheffield, and other towns.

_Treatment of Waste._--The following facts are supplied by Mr. T. J. Baker:--Sheet iron scrap and lathe turnings are worked up again into sheet iron. Copper clippings and turnings are remelted. Copper scale is resmelted, as also brass clippings and brass dust. Gold scrap of the japanning department is sent to the gold refiners, and the leaf metal scrap to the bronze powder manufacturers. Tin plate scrap, after the larger pieces have been sold to the button makers, are “stripped”--that is, the tin is removed by immersion in hydrochloric acid. The resulting tin salt is used by calico printers. The iron scrap, after removal of the tin, is used for precipitating copper by the wet process. Tin oxide, known as “drop tin,” formed on the surface of the metal in the tinning pot, is, after recovery of as much of the tin as possible, sent to the tin smelter. Galvanizing dross, an alloy of zinc and iron, which sinks to the bottom of the galvanizing bath, is removed by a perforated ladle, and refined by distilling off the zinc. Zinc ashes, that is cinders which have fallen on the molten metal and absorbed zinc, is also refined by distillation. Flux skimmings, or that which is skimmed off from the galvanizing bath, is an oxide and chloride of zinc. This is put in a vat; stirred with hot water, the oxide falls to the bottom of the vat, but the chloride dissolves. The clear solution is heated with gas liquor, when zinc precipitates as carbonate, and the chloride of ammonium, now in solution, is recovered by evaporation. The solid residues are worked up in paint mills into zinc white.

=Tools (Heavy Edge).=--[A. WINKLER WILLS.]--(B. 656.) In addition to edge tools proper, such as axes, adzes, hatchets, and other articles, the trade includes pickaxes, spades, shovels, forks, hoes, augers, trowels, shipscrapers, &c. The number of patterns regularly supplied by the manufacturers of Birmingham and the neighbourhood is estimated at several thousands, each nation and almost each district requiring special patterns of its own. The character of the soil, habit of people and other circumstances affect the form of tool though used for the same purpose. The enormous hoe, with a blade nearly a foot wide and of the same depth, which is in universal use in Guatemala, would be useless in Valparaiso, because the soil is light in one country and heavy in the other.

A Brazilian axe is made thus:--A piece of bar iron is taken and the middle part thinned out under a light steam hammer to the thickness required to form the edge of the tool. The blank is then doubled over upon itself and the bottom part welded together. A bar of hard cast steel is welded on to the bottom of the blank; the steel being then cut off from the bar to a width corresponding to that of the blank. The embryo axe, by means of a steam hammer, is forged under tools of suitable shape fixed in the head of the hammer, the final shape being given by hand tools. The tool is now ready for hardening and tempering--the steeled end of the axe is heated to a blood red in a slow furnace and is then plunged into cold water. It is now tempered by slowly heating till it assumes the required tint. The tool is now ready to be ground, polished on a succession of wooden wheels or bobs, dressed with emery of gradually increasing fineness, and then to have its upper part japanned black, blue, scarlet, or bronze-coloured, according to the taste of the consumer.

The principal machinery employed consists of shears, “squeezers,” tilt and trip hammers, striking from 200 to 400 blows per minute, steam hammers, shearing and punching machines, stamps, rolls, and lastly, massive machines or presses of various construction, used for shaping the eyes of hoes, pickaxes, &c. The wood handles required for spades, shovels, &c., form a distinct branch of the trade. Hickory handles are almost exclusively used in the wedge axes so largely employed in India and the colonies; these handles are necessarily imported from the United States. Self-acting machines have during late years been introduced for the turning of ash handles for axes, hatchets, &c. The handles of spades, shovels, and forks are of ash sawn from planks, subsequently turned in lathes. To bend them, they are steamed and pressed into shape by powerful screws.

The only waste products are the scale or dross which falls from the heated iron, and the shearings or scraps cut off the tools. Both are sold to the ironmaster--the former for fettling his furnace, the latter to be worked up again into bar iron.

The number of persons employed in the trade in Birmingham and the district is probably 3,000 to 4,000.

The conditions of the manufacture have been greatly altered during the last seven years by the extensive introduction of machinery to replace manual labour; at the present time a much larger number of boys and youths are employed than was formerly the case. Their wages range from 8s. to 15s. per week according to age. Forgemen earn on an average £2. 10s. or £3. per week; foremen smiths about £2., and their strikers or underhands about £1. to £1. 5s, when in full work. Women are only employed in japanning, wrapping up and similar light work. The revolution which has taken place in the method of manufacture during recent years was largely accelerated by the tyrannical operations of the formerly powerful trades union of edge-tool makers, which, during the period of large demand which prevailed from 1872 to 1874, used every available means to limit production, and to make it impossible for the manufacturers to execute orders in reasonable time. As a consequence, the productive power of the trade has been so enormously increased that at present it is altogether disproportionate to the demand, and hence, in this as in almost every other branch of manufacture, unremunerative prices and reckless competition are unfortunately the order of the day.

=Umbrellas and Parasols.=--[WILLIAM HOLLAND.]--(B. 666). Since the previous article was written machinery has been extensively introduced, an umbrella rib being now made by automatic machinery in one operation instead of several. The square or round iron wire for the stretcher is also similarly converted into form nearly ready for japanning. In some cases, even the riveting or attaching the rib to the stretcher is done by machinery, but as yet the experiment remains to be proved good and economical. The number of hands employed has increased. Some hundreds of men, women, girls, and boys are employed. The materials have undergone a change, zinc and iron have displaced to a large extent brass and copper, and great competition has caused everything to be lightened and cheapened; but a reaction is taking place in this respect, and better and stronger goods are coming into use. The various parts of umbrellas and parasols are now gilt, bronzed, enamelled, silver and nickel-plated, instead of being simply japanned as was the case formerly. The patents which have been taken out in connection with umbrellas and parasols are numerous, and in many cases trivial. Over 800 patents were granted between 1867 and 1876, and since then the inventive ball has been rolling still more rapidly. It has been proposed to use a transparent material to enable one to see ahead when protecting the face with the umbrella. Another arranges for spinning the umbrella so as to drive off the rain, other proposals are to fold the umbrella so as to go inside a stick, to convert it when necessary into a railway carriage key, a corkscrew, or a pike, writing materials have been inserted in the handles, and a variety of contrivances proposed. One of the most curious of all these patents is one for fixing the umbrella to the hat somewhat after the fashion of the thatched Indians of whom one reads in books of travel.

=Watch Manufacture.=--[R. L. BRAGGE.]--The “watchmakers” of Birmingham of forty or fifty years ago were rather repairers than makers, though there was scarcely a part of the mechanism of a watch which they were not at times obliged to make. Of these watchmakers, S. Allport, of Bull Street, was considered to take the lead. There were also T. Warwick, in Colmore Row; Birley, in High Street, and others. At this time the highest class watches were made in London. Liverpool also had a reputation for goods of high quality. Coventry, however, enjoyed a larger industry than either of the other centres named. The first earnest and persistent effort to include watch manufacture as a Birmingham industry was made by Messrs. Hodgkins and Booth, who commenced about 1843, and continued till 1850, when Messrs. Betts and Fairfax succeeded to the business. Messrs. Charles Wood and Sons, of Bath Street and of St. Paul’s Square, not long afterward gained a reputation as manufacturers of high quality watches. Mr. W. Ehrhardt, in 1873, erected a large manufactory for production of watches according to modern ideas, and the English Watch Company (Limited) have also erected extensive ranges of shopping in Villa Street. Exclusive of “jobbers,” there are probably about 600 to 700 artisan watchmakers employed in the town, about 30 per cent. of whom are females; some 500 of these are employed at the two large manufactories just mentioned. It is probable that nearly 700 watches per week are turned out in Birmingham. Birmingham watches have a good reputation, and there is not a “duffer” watch turned out from one year’s end to another.

One singular feature of the trade is that the name of the maker rarely appears on a watch--manufacturers generally put on the names of their customers. Many large export houses have adopted fictitious names, under which a certain pattern watch has attained a reputation that makes the name a valuable property. A large Colonial trade is done on these lines.

Messrs. Dennison, Wigley, and Co., manufacture watch cases, employing about 100 hands, making the cases for American companies. These cases as well as many Swiss ones pass through the Birmingham Assay Office, and are afterwards sent abroad for the movements to be fitted in. Since this practice prevailed, it is obvious that the Assay Office returns are no index of the number of watches made in this town. Almost the only branch of this trade which is not localised is the enamelling and painting of the dials. Watch glass making is scarcely practised in this country, nearly the whole supply of the watchmaking world coming from the Continent.

=Wire Working.=--[J. B. GAUSBY.]--(B. 596.) No marked departure from processes previously described has taken place. More attention is now paid to decoration, and there is an endeavour to introduce more artistic designs. The large demand for wire netting made by machinery as described (B. 597) has led to a wide extension of locality for its manufacture. Large wire drawing firms and galvanizers in different parts of the country have taken up the manufacture, so that although Birmingham still turns out a large quantity of the article, she has not been able to retain the manufacture within her bounds.

=Wire (Steel).=--[CHARLES LEAN.]--(B. 591.) One hundred years ago a horse was employed for drawing wire by a firm in the town. New applications of wire within recent years have been telephones, deep sea sounding, road and aerial tramways, and cycles. The scrap wire is utilised for nails; it is also bought by hawkers for the purpose of making riddles and a number of wire articles. No women or girls are employed in the trade of the district, and perhaps about 700 men and boys, the bulk of whom draw iron wire only.

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[Other articles on Manufacturing Industries will be found in Appendix.--ED.]