Chapter XXIII: Part 23

_Boilermaking_.--The making of iron boilers, gasholders, sugar-boilers, &c., may be dated as a special trade from about 1831, when 30 men and boys were employed thereat, turning out about 150 tons yearly; in 1860, about 200 hands turned out 1,000 tons; in 1880 the workers were roughly estimated at 750 to 800 and the output at 4,500 tons.

_Booksellers_.--In 1750, there were but three, Aris, Warren, and Wollaston: now the booksellers, publishers, and wholesale stationers are over a hundred, while small shops may be counted to treble the number.

_Boots and Shoes_ are manufactured by about 40 wholesale houses, several doing a great trade, and of retailers and little men there are a dozen gross, not counting cobblers who come with the last. American-made articles were first on sale here in March 1877. Rivetted boots may be said to have originated (in 1840) through the mistake of a local factor's traveller, who booked an order for copper sprigs too extensive for his customer. Another of the firm's commercials suggested the rivetting if iron lasts were used. A Leicester man, in a small way, took up the notion, and made a fortune at it, the real inventor only getting good orders. Ellis's patent boot studs to save the sole, and the Euknemida, or concave-convex fastening springs, are the latest novelties.

_Brass_.--The making of goods in brass was commenced here about 1668, but the manufacturer of brass itself was not carried on before 1740, when Mr. Turner built his works in Coleshill Street. The Brass and Spelter Co. was started in February 1781, with a capital of £20,000 in £100 shares. Brasshouse Passage, Broad Street, tells of the site of another smelting place, the last chimney of which was demolished on January 27. 1866. The Waterworks Co. bought the site for offices. Stamped brass came in through Richard Ford in 1769, and the process at first was confined to the manufacture of small basins and pans, but in a very few years it was adapted to the production of an infinitude of articles. Pressed brass rack pulleys for window blinds were the invention of Thomas Horne, in 1823, who applied the process of pressure to many other articles. Picture frames, nicely moulded in brass, were made here in 1825, by a modeller named Maurice Garvey. In 1865 it was estimated that the quantities of metal used here in the manufacture of brass were 19,000 tons of copper, 8,000 tons of old metal, 11,000 tons of zinc or spelter, 200 tons of tin, and 100 tons of lead, the total value being £2,371,658. Nearly double this quantity is now used every year. The number of hands employed in the brass trade is about 18,000.

_Buckles_ were first worn as shoe fastenings in the reign of Charles II. When in fashion they were made of all sizes and all prices, from the tiny half-inch on the hatband to the huge shoebuckle for the foot, and varying from a few pence in price to many guineas the pair. The extent of the manufactures at one time may be guessed from the fact of there being over 20,000 buckle makers out of employ in 1791-2, when vain petitions were made to the royal princes to stem the change then taking place in the "fashions." Sir Edward Thomason said his father in 1780 made 1,000 pair par day, mostly of white metal, but some few plated; by one pattern, known as the "silver penny," he cleared a profit of £1,000. The introduction of shoestrings, and naturally so, was much ridiculed in our local papers, and on one occasion was made the pretext for a disgraceful riot, the pickpockets mobbing the gentlemen going to and from one of the Musical Festivals, the wearers of shoestrings being hustled about and robbed of their purses and watches.

_Buttons_.--The earliest record of button-making we have is dated 1689, but Mr. Baddeley (inventor of the oval chuck), who retired from business about 1739, is the earliest local manufacturer we read of as doing largely in the trade, though sixty or seventy years ago there were four or five times as many in the business as at present, blue coats and gilt buttons being in fashion. By an Act passed in the 4th of William and Mary foreign buttons made of hair were forbidden to be imported. By another Act, in the 8th of Queen Anne it was decreed that "any taylor or other person convicted of making, covering, selling, using, or setting on to a garment any buttons covered with cloth, or other stuff of which garments are made, shall forfeit five pounds for every dozen of such buttons, or in proportion for any lesser quantity;" by an Act of the seventh of George the First, "any wearer of such unlawful buttons is liable to the penalty of forty shillings per dozen, and in proportion for any lesser quantity." Several cases are on record in which tradesmen have been heavily fined under these; strange laws, and before they were repealed it is related by Dr. Doran (in 1855) that one individual not only got out of paying for a suit of clothes because of the illegality of the tailor in using covered buttons, but actually sued the unfortunate "snip" for the informer's share of the penalties, the funniest part of the tale being that the judge who decided the case, the barrister who pleaded the statute, and the client who gained the clothes he ought to have paid for, were all of them buttoned contrary to law. These Acts were originally enforced to protect the many thousands who at the time were employed in making buttons of silk, thread, &c., by hand, and _not_, as is generally supposed, in favour of the metal button manufacturers, though on April 4, 1791, Thomas Gem, the solicitor to the committee for the protection of the button trade, advertised a reward for any information against the wearers of the unlawful covered buttons. The "gilt button days" of Birmingham was a time of rare prosperity, and dire was the distress when, like the old buckles, the fashion of wearing the gilt on the blue went out. Deputations to royalty had no effect in staying the change, and thousands were thrown on the parish. It was sought to revive the old style in 1850, when a deputation of button makers solicited Prince Albert to patronise the metallic buttons for gentlemen's coats, but Fashion's fiat was not to be gainsayed. John Taylor, High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1756, is said to have sent out about £800 worth of buttons per week. Papier maché buttons came in with Henry Clay's patent in 1778. He also made buttons of slate. Boulton, of Soho, was the first to bring out steel buttons with facets, and it is said that for some of superior design he received as much as 140 guineas per gross. Horn buttons, though more correctly speaking they should have been called "hoof" buttons, were a great trade at one time, selling in 1801 as low as 5-1/2d. per gross. "Maltese buttons" (glass beads mounted in metal) were, in 1812, made here in large quantities, as were also the "Bath metal drilled shank button" of which 20,000 gross per week were sent out, and a fancy cut white metal button, in making which 40 to 50 firms were engaged, each employing 20 to 40 hands, but the whole trade in these specialities was lost in consequence of a few men being enticed to or imprisoned in France, and there establishing a rival manufacture. Flexible shanks were patented in 1825 by B. Sanders. Fancy silk buttons, with worked figured tops, were patented by Wm. Elliott, in 1837. Porcelain buttons, though not made here, were designed and patented by a Birmingham man, R. Prosser, in 1841. The three-fold linen button was the invention of Humphrey Jeffries, in 1841, and patented by John Aston. In 1864 so great was the demand for these articles that one firm is said to have used up 63,000 yards of cloth and 34 tons of metal in making them. Cadbury and Green's "very" button is an improvement on these. Vegetable ivory, the product of a tree growing in Central America and known as the Corozo palm, was brought into the button trade about 1857. The shells used in the manufacture of pearl buttons are brought from many parts of the world, the principal places being the East Indies, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the islands of the Pacific Ocean, Panama, and the coasts of Central America, Australia, New Zealand, &c. The prices of "shell" vary very much, some not being worth more than £20 per ton, while as high as £160 to £170 has been paid for some few choice samples brought from Macassar, a seaport in India. The average import of shell is about 1,000 tons per year, and the value about £30,000.--There are 265 button manufacturers in Birmingham, of whom 152 make pearl buttons, 26 glass, 8 horn and bone, 14 ivory, 12 gilt metal, 3 wood, and 5 linen, the other 45 being of a mixed or general character, silver, brass, steel, wood, and papier maché, being all, more or less, used. Nearly 6,000 hands are employed in the trade, of whom about 1,700 are in the pearl line, though that branch is not so prosperous as it was a few years back.

_Chemical Manufactures_.--About 50,000 tons of soda, soup, bleaching powder, oil of vitriol, muriatic acid, sulphuric acid, &c., are manufactured in or near Birmingham, every year, more than 20,000 tons of salt, 20,000 tons of pyrites, and 60,000 tons of coal being used in the process.

_China_, in the shape of knobs, &c., was introduced into the brass founding trade by Harcourt Bros, in 1844. China bowls or wheels for castors were first used in 1849 by J.B. Geithner.

_Chlorine_.--James Watt was one of the first to introduce the use of chlorine as a bleaching agent.

_Citric Acid_.--Messrs. Sturge have over sixty years been manufacturing this pleasant and useful commodity at their works in Wheeley's Lane. The acid is extracted from the juice of the citron, the lime, and the lemon, fruits grown in Sicily and the West Indies. The Mountserrat Lime-Juice Cordial, lately brought into the market, is also made from these fruits. About 350 tons of the acid, which is used in some dying processes, &c., is sent out annually.

_Coins, Tokens, and Medals_.--Let other towns and cities claim preeminence for what they may, few will deny Birmingham's right to stand high in the list of money-making places. At what date it acquired its evil renown for the manufacture of base coin it would be hard to tell, but it must have been long prior to the Revolution of 1688, as in some verses printed in 1682, respecting the Shaftesbury medal, it is thus sneeringly alluded to:

"The wretch that stamped got immortal fame,
'Twas coined by stealth, like groats in Birminghame."

Smiles, in his lives of Boulton and Watt, referring to the middle of the last century, says, "One of the grimmest sights of those days were the skeletons of convicted coiners dangling from gibbets on Handsworth Heath." Coining was a capital offence for hundreds of years, but more poor wretches paid the penalty of their crimes in London in a single year than here in a century, wicked as the bad boys of Brummagem were. An immense trade was certainly done in the way of manufacturing "tokens," but comparatively few counterfeits of the legal currency were issued, except in cases where "a royal patent" had been granted for the purpose, as in the instance of the historical "Wood's half-pence," £100,000 worth (nominal) of which, it is said, were issued for circulation in Ireland. These were called in, as being too bad, even for Paddy's land, and probably it was some of these that the hawker, arrested here Oct. 31, 1733, offered to take in payment for his goods. He was released on consenting to the £7 worth he had received being cut by a brazier and sold as metal, and his advertisements (hand bills) burnt. These bad half pence weighed about 60 to the lb., 2s. 6d. worth (nominal) being somewhat less than 10d. in value. In the ten years prior to 1797 it has been estimated that 700 tons of copper were manufactured here into tokens, and the issue of the celebrated Soho pence, providing the nation with a sufficiency of legitimate copper coin, did not stay the work, the number of tokens in circulation in the early part of the present century being something wonderful, as many as 4,000 different varieties having been described by collectors, including all denominations, from the Bank of England's silver dollar to a country huckster's brass farthing. More than nine-tenths of these were made in Birmingham, and, of course, our tradesmen were not backward with their own specimens. The Overseers issued the well-known "Workhouse Penny," a copper threepenny piece, silver shillings and sixpences, paper notes for 2s. 6d., and leather bonds for 5s. With the exception of the penny these are all scarce now, particularly the 5s., 2s. 6d., and 6d., a specimen of the latter lately being sold at auction for 47s. In 1812 Sir Edward Thomason struck, for a Reading banker (Mr. J.B. Monk), 800 gold tokens of the nominal value of 40s. each; but this was just a step too far, and the Government forbade their use. In the same year he also manufactured two million penny tokens for our soldiers in Spain, which were _not_ forbidden. The permitted manufacture of token money came to an end with the year 1817, an Act coming into force Jan. 1, 1818, forbidding further issue from that date, or the circulation of them after the end of the year, except in the case of the Overseers of Birmingham, who were granted grace till Lady-day, 1820, to call in what they had issued. In 1786 Boulton struck over 100 tons of copper for the East India Co., and, adding to his presses yearly, soon had plenty of orders, including copper for the American Colonies, silver for Sierra Leone, and a beautiful set for the French Republic. To enumerate all the various coins, medals, and tokens issued from Soho would take too much space, but we may say that he brought the art of coining to a perfection very little surpassed even in the present day. In 1789 he made for the Privy Council a model penny, halfpenny, and farthing, but red-tapeism delayed the order until 1797, when he began coining for the Government twopennies (only for one year), pennies, halfpennies and farthings, continuing to do so until 1806, by which time he had sent out not less than 4,200 tons weight. In this coinage of 1797 the penny was made of the exact weight of 1 oz., the other coins being in proportion. In 1799, eighteen pennies were struck out of the pound of metal, but the people thought they were counterfeit, and would not take them until a proclamation ordering their circulation, was issued December 9th. They became used to a deprecation of currency after that, and there was but very little grumbling in 1805, when Boulton was ordered to divide the pound of copper into 24 pennies. The machinery of Boulton's mint, with the collection of dies, pattern coins, tokens, and medals, were sold by auction in 1850. The collection should have numbered 119 different pieces, but there was not a complete set for sale. The mint, however, could not be called extinct, as Messrs. Watt and Co. (successors to Bolton and Watt), who had removed to Smethwick in 1848, struck over 3,300 tons of copper and bronze coin between 1860 and 1866, mostly for Foreign countries. The first English copper penny (1797) was struck in Birmingham, and so was the last. Messrs. Ralph Heaton and Son (the mint, Warstone Line) receiving the contract in April, 1853. for 500 tons of copper coin, comprising pence, half-pence, farthings, half-farthings, and quarter-farthings. The present bronze coinage came into use December 1st, 1860, and Messrs. Heaton have had several contracts therefor since then. This firm has acquired a reputation quite equal to the Soho Mint, and hive supplied the coins--silver, copper, and bronze--for Belgium, Canada, China, Chili, Denmark, Germany, Hayti, India, Republic of Columbia, Sarawak, Sweden, Tunis, Turkey, Tuscany, Venezuela, and other Principalities and States, including hundreds of tons of silver blanks for our own Government and others, sending workmen and machinery to the countries where it was preferred to have the coins struck at home. Boulton, in his day, supplied the presses and machinery for the Mint on Tower Hill (and they are still in use), as well as for the Danish, Spanish, and Russian authorities. Mexico, Calcutta, Bombay, &c. Messrs. Heaton, and the modern Soho firm, also dealing in such articles. Foremost among modern local medallists, is Mr. Joseph Moore, of Pitsford Street, whose cabinet of specimens is most extensive. An effort is being made to gather for the new Museum and Art Gallery a collection of all coins, medals, and tokens struck in Birmingham, and if it can be perfected it will necessarily be a very valuable one.

_Coal_.--Over half-a-million tons of coal are used in Birmingham annually.

_Cocoa_.--The manufacture of cocoa cannot be classed among the staple trades of the town, but one of the largest establishments of the kind in the kingdom, if not in the world, is that of Messrs. Cadbury, at Bournville, where nearly 400 persons are employed. The annual consumption of cocoa in this country is estimated at 13,000,000 lbs., and the proportion manufactured by Messrs. Cadbury, who have houses in Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, Montreal, &e., may be guessed at from the fact that their works cover nearly four acres, and packing-boxes are required at the rate of 12,000 per week.

_Copying Presses_ were invented by James Watt in, and patented in, May, 1780. His partner, Boulton, had a lot ready for the market, and sold 150 by the end of the year.

_Compressed Air Power_.--A hundred years ago every little brook and streamlet was utilised for producing the power required by our local mill-owners, gun-barrel rollers, &c. Then came the world's revolutioniser, steam, and no place in the universe has profited more by its introduction than this town. Gas engines are now popular, and even water engines are not unknown, while the motive power derivable from electricity is the next and greatest boon promised to us. Meanwhile, the introduction of compressed air as a means of transmitting power for long distances marks a new and important era, not only in engineering science, but in furthering the extension of hundreds of those small industries, which have made Birmingham so famous a workshop. In the Birmingham Compressed Air Power Company's Bill (passed March 12, 1884), the principle involved is the economic utility of centralising the production of power, and many engineers are of opinion that no other means can possibly be found so convenient as the use of compressed air in transmitting motive power, or at so low a cost, the saving being quite 20 per cent, compared with the use of steam for small engines. The Birmingham Bill provides for the supply of compressed air within the wards of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, Deritend, and Bordesley, which have been selected by the promoters as affording the most promising area. In the three wards named there were rated in March of 1883, as many as 164 engines, of which the nominal horse-power varied from 1/2 to 10, fifty-nine from 11 to 20 fifteen from 21 to 30, six from 32 to 50, ten from 52 to 100, and four from 102 to 289. Assuming that of these the engines up to 30-horse power would alone be likely to use compressed air, the promoters count upon a demand in the three wards for 1,946 nominal, and perhaps 3,000 indicated horse-power. To this must be added an allowance for the probability that the existence of so cheap and convenient a power "laid on" in the streets will attract other manufacturers to the area within which it is to be available. It is proposed, therefore, to provide machinery and plant capable of delivering 5,000 indicated horse-power in compressed air, and to acquire for the works sufficient land to permit of their dimensions being doubled when extension shall become necessary. The site which has been chosen is a piece of ground belonging to the Birmingham and Warwick Canal Company, and situated by the canal, and bounded on both sides by Sampson Road North and Henley Street. Here the promoters are putting down four air-compressing engines, driven by compound and condensing steam engines and which are to be heated by six sets (four in each set) of elephant boilers. From the delivery branches of the air-compressors a main 30in. in diameter will be laid along Henley Street, and, bifurcating, will be taken through Sampson Road North and Stratford Street at a diameter of 24in. The mains will then divide, to as to pass down Sandy Lane, Fazeley Street, Floodgate Street, Bradford Street, Bromsgrove Street, and other thoroughfares, giving off smaller branches at frequent intervals, and so forming an elaborate network. The whole cost of buildings, plant, and construction is estimated at £140,500, but upon this large outlay it is hoped to realise a net annual profit of £9,164, or 6-1/2 per cent, on capital. The engineers, reckoning the annual cost of producing small steam power in Birmingham at £10 per indicated horse-power, which will probably be regarded as well within the mark, propose to furnish compressed air at £8 per annum, and if they succeed in carrying out the scheme as planned, it will without doubt be one of the greatest blessings ever conferred on the smaller class of our town's manufacturers.

_Fenders and Fireirons_.--The making of these finds work for 800 or 900 hands, and stove grates (a trade introduced from Sheffield about 20 years back) almost as many.

_Files and Rasps_ are manufactured by 60 firms, whose total product, though perhaps not equal to the Sheffield output, is far from inconsiderable. Machines for cutting files and rasps were patented by Mr. Shilton, Dartmouth Street, in 1833.

_Fox, Henderson and Co_.--In March, 1853, this arm employed more than 3,000 hands, the average weekly consumption of iron being over 1,000 tons. Among the orders then in hand were the ironwork for our Central Railway Station, and for the terminus at Paddington, in addition to gasometers, &c., for Lima, rails, wagons and wheels for a 55-mile line in Denmark, and the removal and re-election[1] of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.-See "_Exhibitions," "Noteworthy men_."

[Footnote 1: Transcriber's note: this is probably a typographical error for "re-erection".]

_Galvanised Buckets_ and other articles are freely made, but the galvanisers can hardly be pleasant neighbours, as at the works of one firm 40 to 50 carboys of muriatic acid and several of sulphuric acid are used every day, while at another place the weekly consumption of chemicals runs to two tons of oil of vitriol and seven tons of muriatic acid.

_German Silver_.--To imitate closely as possible the precious metals, by a mixture of baser ones, is not exactly a Birmingham invention, as proved by the occasional discovery of counterfeit coin of very ancient date, but to get the best possible alloy sufficiently malleable for general use has always been a local desideratum. Alloys of copper with tin, spelter or zinc were used here in 1795, and the term "German" was applied to the best of these mixtures as a Jacobinical sneer at the pretentious appellation of silver given it by its maker. After the introduction of nickel from the mines in Saxony, the words "German silver" became truthfully appropriate as applied to that metal, but so habituated have the trade and the public become to brassy mixtures that German silver must always be understood as of that class only.

_Glass_--The art of painting, &c. on glass was brought to great perfection by Francis Eginton, of the Soho Works, in 1784. He supplied windows for St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Salisbury and Lichfield Cathedrals, and many country churches. The east window of St. Paul's, Birmingham, and the east window of the south aisle in Aston Church, are by Eginton. One of the commissions he obtained was from the celebrated William Beckford, Lord Mayor of London, for windows at Fonthill, to the value of £12,000. He was not, however, the first local artist of the kind, for a Birmingham man is said to have painted a window in Haglev Church, in 1756-57, for Lord Lyttelton, though his name is not now known. William Raphael Eginton (son of Francis) appeared in the Directory of 1818, as a glass-painter to the Princess Charlotte, but we can find no trace of his work. Robert Henderson started in the same line about 1820, and specimens of his work may be seen in Trinity Chapel; he died in 1848. John Hardman began in Paradise Street about 1837, afterwards removing to Great Charles Street, and thence to Newhall Hill, from which place much valuable work has been issued, as the world-known name well testifies. Engraving on glass is almost as old as the introduction of glass itself. There is a beautiful specimen in the Art Gallery. Glass flowers, fruit, &c., as ornamental adjuncts to brassfoundry, must be accredited to W. C. Aitken, who first used them in 1846. American writers claim that the first pressed glass tumbler was made about 40 years back in that country, by a carpenter. We have good authority for stating that the first pressed tumbler was made in this country by Rice Harris, Birmingham, as far back as 1834. But some years earlier than this dishes had been pressed by Thomas Hawkes and Co., of Dudley, and by Bacchus and Green, of Birmingham. No doubt the earliest pressing was the old square feet to goblets, ales, jellies, &c. Primitive it was, but like Watt's first engine, it was the starting point, and Birmingham is entitled to the credit of it. It is very remarkable that none of the samples of Venetian glass show any pressing, although moulding was brought by them to great perfection. It would not be fair to omit the name of the first mould-maker who made the tumbler-mould in question. It was Mr. James Stevens, then of Camden Street, Birmingham, and it is to him, and his sons, James and William, that the world is greatly indebted for the pressing of glass. The older Stevens has been dead some years, and the sons have left the trade. Previous to this mould being made for tumblers, Mr. James Stevens made some pressed salt-moulds to order for an American gentleman visiting Birmingham. Some of the most beautiful works in glass fountains, candelabra, &c., that the world has ever seen have been made at Messrs. Oslers, Broad Street, whose show rooms are always open to visitors.

_Guns_.--The imitative, if not inventive, powers of our forefathers have been shown in so many instances, that it is not surprising we have no absolute record of the first gun-maker, when he lived, or where he worked, but we may be confident that firearms were not long in use before they were manufactured here. The men who made 15,000 swords for the Commonwealth were not likely to go far for the "musquets" with which they opposed Prince Rupert. The honour of procuring the first Government contract for guns rests with Sir Richard Newdigate, one of the members for the county in William III.'s reign, a trial order being given in 1692, followed by a contract for 2,400 in 1693, at 17/-each. For the next hundred years the trade progressed until the Government, in 1798, found it necessary to erect "view-rooms" (now "the Tower", Bagot Street) in Birmingham. From 1804 to 1817 the number of muskets, rifles, carbines, and pistols made here for the Government, amounted to 1,827,889, in addition to 3,037,644 barrels and 2,879,203 locks sent to be "set up" in London, and more than 1,000,000 supplied to the East India Co. In the ten years ending 1864 (including the Crimean War) over 4,000,000 military barrels were proved in this town, and it has been estimated that during the American civil war our quarreling cousins were supplied with 800,000 weapons from our workshops. Gunstocks are chiefly made from beech and walnut, the latter for military and best work, the other being used principally for the African trade, wherein the prices have ranged as low as 6s. 6d. per gun. Walnut wood is nearly all imported, Germany and Italy being the principal markets;--during the Crimean war one of our manufacturers set up sawmills at Turin, and it is stated that before he closed them he had used up nearly 10,000 trees, averaging not more than thirty gunstocks from each. To give anything like a history of the expansion of, and changes in, the gun trade during the last fifteen years, would require a volume devoted solely to the subject, but it may not be uninteresting to enumerate the manifold branches into which the trade has been divided--till late years most of them being carried on under different roofs:--The first portion, or "makers", include--stock-makers, barrel welders, borers, grinders, filers, and breechers; rib makers, breech forgers and stampers; lock forgers, machiners, and filers; furniture forgers, casters, and filers; rod forgers, grinders, polishers, and finishers; bayonet forgers, socket and ring stampers, grinders, polishers, machiners, hardeners, and filers; band forgers, stampers, machiners, filers, and pin makers; sight stampers, machiners, jointers, and filers; trigger boxes, oddwork makers, &c. The "setters up" include machines, jiggers (lump filers and break-off fitters), stockers, percussioners, screwers, strippers, barrel borers and riflers, sighters and sight-adjusters, smoothers, finishers makers-off, polishers, engravers, browners, lock freers, &c., &c. The Proof-house in Banbury Street, "established for public safety" as the inscription over the entrance says, was erected in 1813, and with the exception of one in London is the only building of the kind in England. It is under the management of an independent corporation elected by and from members of the gun trade, more than half-a-million of barrels being proved within its walls yearly, the report for the year 1883 showing 383,735 provisional proofs, and 297,704 definitive proofs. Of the barrels subjected to provisional proof, 29,794 were best birding single, 150,176 best birding double, and 160,441 African. Of those proved definitively, 63,197 were best double birding barrels, 110,369 breech-loading birding, 37,171 breech-loading choke bore, and 54,297 saddle-pistol barrels. As an instance of the changes going on in the trades of the country, and as a contrast to the above figures, Birmingham formerly supplying nearly every firearm sold in England or exported from it, trade returns show that in 1882 Belgium imported 252,850 guns and pistols, France 48,496, the United States 15,785, Holland 84,126, Italy 155,985, making (with 3,411 from other countries) 560,653 firearms, valued at £124,813, rather a serious loss to the gun trade of Birmingham.

_Handcuffs and Leg Irons_.--It is likely enough true that prior to the abolition of slavery shackles and chains were made here for use in the horrible traffic; but it was then a legal trade, and possibly the articles were classed as "heavy steel toys," like the handcuffs and leg irons made by several firms now. A very heavy Australian order for these last named was executed here in 1853, and there is always a small demand for them.

_Hinges_.--Cast-iron hinges, secret joint, were patented in 1775 by Messrs. Izon and Whitehurst, who afterwards removed to West Bromwich. The patent wrought iron hinge dates from 1840, since which year many improvements have been made in the manufacture of iron, brass, wire, cast, wrought, pressed, and welded hinges, the makers numbering over three score.

_Hollow-ware_.--The invention of tinning iron pots and other hollow-ware was patented in 1779 by Jonathan Taylor, the process being first carried out by Messrs. Izon and Whitehurst at their foundry in Duke Street. The enamelling of hollow-ware was Mr. Hickling's patent (1799), but his method was not very satisfactory, the present mode of enamelling dating from another patent taken out in 1839. Messrs. Griffiths and Browett, Bradford Street, have the lion's share of the local trade, which is carried on to a much greater extent at Wolverhampton than here.

_Hydraulic Machinery_ is the specialite almost solely of Messrs. Tangye Bros., who established their Cornwall Works in 1855.

_Jewellery_.--A deputation from Birmingham waited upon Prince Albert, May 28, 1845, at Buckingham Palace, for the purpose of appealing to Her Majesty, through His Royal Highness, to take into gracious consideration the then depressed condition of the operative jewellers of Birmingham, and entreating the Queen and Prince to set the example of wearing British jewellery on such occasions and to such an extent as might meet the royal approval. The deputation took with them as presents for the Queen, an armlet, a brooch, a pair of ear-rings, and a buckle for the waist; for the Prince Consort a watch-chain, seal, and key, the value of the whole being over 400 guineas. The armlet (described by good judges as the most splendid thing ever produced in the town) brooch, ear-rings, chain and key were made by Mr. Thomas Aston, Regent's Place; the buckle and seal (designed from the Warwick vase) by Mr. Baleny, St. Paul's Square. It was stated by the deputation that 5,000 families were dependent on the jewellery trades in Birmingham. The "custom of trade" in connection with jewellers and the public was formerly of the most arbitrary character, so much so indeed that at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Birmingham jewellers did not exhibit, except through the London houses they were in the habit of supplying, and the specimens shewn by these middlemen were of a very unsatisfactory character as regards design. It is almost impossible to describe them without appearing to exaggerate. Construction in relation to use went for nothing. A group of Louis Quatorze scrolls put together to form something like a brooch with a pin at the back to fasten it to the dress, which it rather disfigured than adorned; heavy chain-like bracelet, pins, studs, &c., of the most hideous conceits imaginable, characterised the jewellery designs of Birmingham until about 1854-55, when a little more intelligence and enterprise was introduced, and our manufacturers learned that work well designed sold even better than the old-styled ugliness. A great advance has taken place during the past thirty years, and Birmingham jewellers now stand foremost in all matters of taste and design, the workmen of to-day ranking as artists indeed, even the commonest gilt jewellery turned out by them now being of high-class design and frequently of most elaborate workmanship. At the present time (March 1885) the trade is in a very depressed condition, thousands of hands being out of employ or on short time, partly arising, no doubt, from one of those "changes of fashion" which at several periods of our local history have brought disaster to many of our industrial branches. It has been estimated that not more than one-half of the silver jewellery manufactured in Birmingham in 1883, passed through the Assay Office, but the total received there in the twelve months ending June 24th, 1883, amounted to no less than 856,180 ounces, or 31 tons 17 cwt. 4 lbs. 4 oz., the gold wares received during same period weighing 92,195 ounces, or 3 tons 7 cwt. 12 lbs. 3 oz., the total number of articles sent in for assaying being 2,649,379. The directory of 1780 gave the names of twenty-six jewellers; that of 1880 gives nearly 700, including cognate trades. The fashion of wearing long silver guard-chains came in in about 1806, the long gold ones dating a score years later, heavy fob chains then going out. The yearly make of wedding rings in Birmingham is put at 5,000 dozen. Precious stones are not to be included in the list of locally manufactured articles, nor yet "Paris pastes," though very many thousands of pounds worth are used up every year, and those anxious to become possessed of such glittering trifles will find dealers here who can supply them with pearls from 6d., garnets from 2d., opals from 1s., diamonds, rubies, emeralds, amethysts, &c., from half-a-crown, the prices of all running up according to size, &c., to hundreds of pounds per stone.

_Latten_, the term given to thin sheets of brass, was formerly applied to sheets of tinned iron.

_Lockmakers_ are not so numerous here as they once were, though several well known patentees still have their works in the borough. The general trade centres round Willenhall, Walsall, and Wolverhampton.

_Looking-glasses_.--Messrs. Hawkes's, Sromsgrove Street, is the largest looking-glass manufactory in the world, more than 300 hands being employed on the premises. A fire which took place Jan. 8, 1879, destroyed nearly £12,000 worth of stock, the turnout of the establishment comprising all classes of mirrors, from those at 2. a dozen to £40 or £50 each.

_Mediæval Metalwork_.--Mr. John Hardman, who had Pugin for his friend, was the first to introduce the manufacture of mediæval and ecclesiastical metal work in this town, opening his first factory in Great Charles Street in 1845. The exhibits at the old Bingley Hall in 1849 attracted great attention and each national Exhibition since has added to the triumphs of the firm. Messrs. Jones and Willis also take high rank.

_Metronome_, an instrument for marking time, was invented by Mr. W. Heaton, a local musician, about 1817.

_Mineral Waters_.--The oldest local establishment for the manufacture of aërated artificial and mineral waters is that of Messrs. James Goffe and Son, of Duke Street, the present proprietors of the artesian well in Allison Street. This well was formed some years ago by Mr. Clark, a London engineer, who had undertaken a Corporation contract connected with the sewers. Finding himself embarassed with the flow of water from the many springs about Park Street and Digbeth, he leased a small plot of land and formed a bore-hole, or artesian well, to check the percolation into his sewerage works. After boring about 400 feet he reached a main spring in the red sandstone formation which gives a constant flow of the purest water, winter and summer, of over 70,000 gals. per day, at the uniform temperature of 50 deg. The bore is only 4in. diameter, and is doubly tubed the whole depth, the water rising into a 12ft. brick well, from which a 4,000 gallon tank is daily filled, the remainder passing through a fountain and down to the sewers as waste. Dr. Bostock Hill, the eminent analyst, reports most favourably upon the freedom of the water from all organic or other impurities, and as eminently fitted for all kinds of aërated waters, soda, potass, seltzer, lithia, &c. The old-fashioned water-carriers who used to supply householders with Digbeth water from "the Old Cock pump" by St. Martin's have long since departed, but Messrs. Goff's smart-looking barrel-carts may be seen daily on their rounds supplying the real _aqua pura_ to counters and bars frequented by those who like their "cold without," and like it good.--Messrs. Barrett & Co. and Messrs. Kilby are also extensive manufacturers of these refreshing beverages.

_Nails_.--No definite date can possibly be given as to the introduction of nailmaking here as a separate trade, most smiths, doubtless, doing more or less at it when every nail had to be beaten out on the anvil. That the town was dependent on outsiders for its main supplies 150 years back, is evidenced by the Worcestershire nailors marching from Cradley and the Lye, in 1737 to force the ironmongers to raise the prices. Machinery for cutting nails was tried as early as 1811, but it was a long while after that (1856) before a machine was introduced successfully. Now there are but a few special sorts made otherwise, as the poor people of Cradley and the Lye Waste know to their cost, hand-made nails now being seldom seen.

_Nettlefold's (Limited)_.--This, one of the most gigantic of our local companies, was registered in March, 1880, the capital being £750,000 in shares of £10 each, with power to issue debentures to the vendors of the works purchased to the extent of £420,000. The various firms incorporated are those of Messrs. Nettlefold's, at Heath Street, and Princip-street, Birmingham, at King's Norton, at Smethwick, &c., for the manufacture of screws, wire, &c., the Castle Ironworks at Hadley, Shropshire, and the Collieries at Ketley, in the same county; the Birmingham Screw Co., at Smethwick; the Manchester Steel Screw Co., at Bradford, Manchester; Mr. John Cornforth, at Berkeley Street Wire and Wire Nail Works; and Messrs. Lloyd and Harrison, at Stourport Screw Works. The purchase money for the various works amounted to £1,024.000, Messrs. Nettlefold's share thereof being £786,000, the Birmingham Screw Co.'s £143,000, the Manchester Co.'s £50,000, Messrs. Cornforth, Lloyd and Harrison taking the remainder. The firm's works in Heath Street are the most extensive of the kind in existence, the turnout being more than 200,000 gross of screws per week, nearly 250 tons of wire being used up in the same period.--See "_Screws_."

_Nickel_ owes its introduction here to Mr. Askin, who, in 1832, succeeded in refining the crude ore by precipitation, previously it having been very difficult to bring it into use. Electro-plating has caused a great demand for it.

_Nuts and Bolts_.--In addition to a score or two of private firms engaged in the modern industry of nut and bolt making, there are several limited liability Co.'s, the chief being the Patent Nut and Bolt Co. (London Works, Smethwick), which started in 1863 with a capital of £400,000 in shares of £20 each. The last dividend (on £14 paid up) was at the rate of 10 per cent., the reserve fund standing at £120,000. Messrs. Watkins and Keen, and Weston and Grice incorporated with the Patent in 1865. Other Co.'s are the Midland Bolt and Nut Co. (Fawdry Street, Smethwick), the Phoenix Bolt and Nut Co. (Handsworth), the Patent Rivet Co. (Rolfe Street, Smethwick), the Birmingham Bolt and Nut Co., &c.

_Optical and Mathematical Instruments_ of all kinds were manufactured here in large numbers eighty years ago, and many, such as the solar microscope, the kaleidoscope, &c. may be said to have had their origin in the workshops of Mr. Philip Carpenter and other makers in the first decade of the present century. The manufacture of these articles as a trade here is almost extinct.

_Papier Maché_.--This manufacture was introduced here by Henry Clay in 1772, and being politic enough to present Queen Caroline with a Sedan chair made of this material, he was patronised by the wealthy and titled of the day, the demand for his ware being so extensive that at one time he employed over 300 hands, his profit being something like £3 out of every £5. It has been stated that many articles of furniture, &c., made by him are still in use. Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge commenced in 1816, and improvements in the manufacture have been many and continuous. George Souter introduced pearl inlaying in 1825; electro-deposit was applied in 1844; "gem inlaying" in 1847, by Benj. Giles; aluminium and its bronze in 1864; the transfer process in 1856 by Tearne and Richmond. Paper pulp has been treated in a variety of ways for making button blanks, tray blanks, imitiation jet, &c., the very dust caused by cutting it up being again utilised by mixture with certain cements to form brooches, &c.

_Paraffin_.--The manufacture of lamps for the burning of this material dates only from 1861.

_Pins_.--What becomes of all the pins? Forty years ago it was stated that 20,000,000 pins were made every day, either for home or export use, but the total is now put at 50,000,000, notwithstanding which one can hardly be in the company of man, woman, or child, for a day without being asked "Have you such a thing as a pin about you?" Pins were first manufactured here in quantities about 1750, the Ryland family having the honour of introducing the trade. It formerly took fourteen different persons to manufacture a single pin, cutters, headers, pointers, polishers, &c., but now the whole process is performed by machinery. The proportion of pins made in Birmingham is put at 37,000,000 per day, the weight of brass wire annually required being 1,850,000 lbs., value £84,791; iron wire to the value of £5,016 is used for mourning and hair pins. The census reports say there are but 729 persons employed (of whom 495 are females) in the manufacture of the 11,500,000,000 pins sent from our factories every year.

_Planes_.--Carpenters' planes were supplied to our factors in 1760 by William Moss, and his descendants were in the business as late as 1844. Messrs. Atkins and Sons have long been celebrated makers, their hundreds of patterns including all kinds that could possibly he desired by the workman. Woodwork is so cut, carved, and moulded by machinery now, that these articles are not so much in demand, and the local firms who make them number only a dozen.

_Plated Wares_.--Soho was celebrated for its plated wares as early as 1766; Mr. Thomason (afterwards Sir Edward) commenced the plating in 1796; and Messrs. Waterhouse and Ryland, another well-known firm in the same line, about 1808, the material used being silver rolled on copper, the mountings silver, in good work, often solid silver. The directory of 1780 enumerates 46 platers, that of 1799 96 ditto; their names might now be counted on one's finger ends, the modern electro-plating having revolutionised the business, vastly to the prosperity of the town.

_Puzzles_.--The Yankee puzzle game of "Fifteen," took so well when introduced into this country (summer of 1880), that one of our local manufacturers received an order to supply 10,000 gross, and he was clever enough to construct a machine that made 20 sets per minute.

_Railway Waggon Works_.--With the exception of the carriage building works belonging to the several great railway companies, Saltley may be said to be the headquarters of this modern branch of industry, in which thousands of hands are employed. The Midland Railway Carriage and Waggon Co. was formed in 1853, and has works of a smaller scale at Shrewsbury. The Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Waggon Co. was originated in London, in 1845, but removed to Saltley in 1862, which year also saw the formation of the Union Rolling Stock Co. The capital invested in the several companies is very large, and the yearly value sent out is in proportion, more rolling stock being manufactured here than in all the other towns in the kingdom put together, not including the works of the railway companies themselves. Many magnificent palaces on wheels have been made here for foreign potentates, Emperors, Kings, and Queens, Sultans, and Kaisers, from every clime that the iron horse has travelled in, as well as all sorts of passenger cars, from the little narrow-gauge vehicles of the Festiniog line, on which the travellers must sit back to back, to the 60ft. long sleeping-cars used on the Pacific and Buenos Ayers Railway, in each compartment of which eight individuals can find sleeping accommodation equal to that provided at many of the best hotels, or the curious-looking cars used on Indian railways, wherein the natives squat in tiers, or, as the sailor would say, with an upper and lower deck.

_Ropemaking_ is a trade carried on in many places, but there are few establishments that can equal the Universe Works in Garrison Lane, where, in addition to hundreds of tons of twine and cord, there are manufactured all sorts of wire and hemp ropes for colliery and other purposes, ocean telegraph cables included. Messrs. Wright introduced strain machinery early in 1853, and in the following year they patented a rope made of best hemp and galvanised wire spun together by machinery. On a test one of these novelties, 4-1/4in. circumference, attached to two engines, drew a train of 300 tons weight. To supply the demand for galvanised signalling and fencing cords, the machines must turn out 15,000 yards of strand per day.

_Rulemaking_, though formerly carried on in several places, is now almost confined to this town and the metropolis, and as with jewellery so with rules, very much of what is called "London work" is, in reality, the produce of Birmingham. Messrs. Rabone Brothers are the principal makers, and the boxwood used is mostly obtained from Turkey and the Levant, but the firm does not confine itself solely to the manufacture of wood rules, their steel tapes, made up to 200ft in one length, without join of any sort, being a specialty highly appreciated by surveyors and others.

_Saddlery_.--One of the oldest local trades, as Lelaud, in 1538, speaks of "lorimers" as being numerous then. That there was an important leather market is certain (Hutton thought it had existed for 700 years), and we read of "leather sealers" among the local officers as well as of a "Leather Hall," at the east end of New Street. The trade has more than quadrupled during the last 25 years, about 3,000 hands being now engaged therein, in addition to hundreds of machines.

_Screws_.--In olden days the threads of a screw had to be filed out by hand, and the head struck up on the anvil. The next step was to turn them in a lathe, but in 1849 a Gerimn clockmaker invented a machine by which females could make them five times as fast as the most skilful workman, and, as usual, the supply created a demand; the trade for a few years received many additions, and the "screw girders," as the hard-working lasses were called, were to be met with in many parts of the town. 1852, 1,500 hands were employed, the output being from 20 to 25 tons per week, or 2,000,000 gross per year. Gradually, however, by the introduction and patenting of many improvements in the machinery, the girls were, in a great measure, dispensed with, and their employers as well, Messrs. Nettlefold and Chamberlain having, in 1865, nearly the whole trade in their hands, and sending out 150,000 gross of screws per week. Nearly 2,000 people are employed at Nettlefold's, including women and girls, who feed and attend the screw and nail-making machines. Notwithstanding the really complicated workings of the machines, the making of a screw seems to a casual visitor but a simple thing. From a coil of wire a piece is cut of the right length by one machine, which roughly forms a head and passes it on to another, in which the blank has its head nicely shaped, shaved, and "nicked" by a revolving saw. It than passes by an automatic feeder into the next machine where it is pointed and "wormed," and sent to be shook clear of the "swaff" of shaving cut out for the worm. Washing and polishing in revolving barrels precedes the examination of every single screw, a machine placing them one by one so that none can be missed sight of. Most of the 2,000 machines in use are of American invention, but improved and extended, all machinery and tools of every description being made by the firm's own workpeople.

_Sewing Machines_.--The various improvements in these machines patented by Birmingham makers may be counted by the gross, and the machines sent out every year by the thousands. The button-hole machine was the invention of Mr. Clements.

_Sheathing Metal_.--In a newspaper called _The World_, dated April 16, 1791, was an advertisement beginning thus--"By the King's patent, _tinned copper_ sheets and pipes manufactured and sold by Charles Wyatt, Birmingham, and at 19, Abchurch lane, London." It was particularly recommended for sheathing of ships, as the tin coating would prevent the corrosion of the copper and operate as "a preservative of the iron placed contiguous to it." Though an exceedingly clever man, and the son of one of Birmingham's famed worthies, Mr. Charles Wyatt was not fortunate in many of his inventions, and his tinned copper brought him in neither silver nor gold. What is now known as sheathing or "yellow" metal is a mixture of copper, zinc, and iron in certain defined proportions, according as it is "Muntz's metal," or "Green's patent," &c. Several patents were taken out in 1779, 1800, and at later dates, and, as is usual with "good things," there has been sufficient squabbling over sheathing to provide a number of legal big-wigs with considerable quantities of the yellow, metal _they_ prefer. George Frederick Muntz, M.P., if not the direct inventor, had the lion's share of profit in the manufacture, as the good-will of his business was sold for £40,000 in 1863, at which time it was estimated that 11,000 tons of Muntz's mixture was annually made into sheathing, ships' bolts, &c., to the value of over £800,000. The business was taken to by a limited liability company, whose capital in March, 1884, was £180,000, on which a 10 per cent, dividend was realised. Elliott's Patent Sheathing and Metal Co. was formed in.1862.

_Snuff-boxes_.--A hundred years ago, when snuff-taking was the _mode_, the manufacture of japanned, gilt, and other snuff-boxes gave employment to large numbers here. Of one of these workmen it is recorded that he earned £3 10s. per week painting snuff-boxes at 1/4d. each. The first mention of their being made here is in 1693.

_Soap_.--In more ways than one there is a vast deal of "soft soap" used in Birmingham, but its inhabitants ought to be cleanly people, for the two or three manufactories of hard yellow and mottled in and near the town turn out an annual supply of over 3,000 tons.