# Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham/T

​ Taxes.—Would life be worth living if we had to pay such taxes as our fathers had to do? Here are a few:— The hearth or chimney tax of 2s. for every fire-place or stove in houses rated above 20s. per annum was imposed in the fifteenth year of Charles II.'s reign, but repealed in the first year of William and Mary, 1689; the owners of Edgbaston Hall paid for 22 chimneys before it was destroyed in 1668. In 1642, there was a duty of £4 a pair on silk stockings. A window tax was enacted in 1695 "to pay for the re-coinage of the gold coin," and was not entirely removed till July 24, 1851 ; from a return made to Parliament by the Tax Office in 1781, it appeared that the occupiers of 2,291 houses paid the window tax in Birmingham; there was collected for house and window tax in 1S23, from the inhabitants of this town, the sum of £27,459 12s. l½d., though in the following year it was £9,000 less. Bachelors and widowers were rated by 6 and 7 William III., c. 6, "to enable the King to carry on the war against France with rigour," Births, marriages, and deaths were also made liable to duties by the same Act. The salt duties were first levied in 1702, doubled in 1732, and raised again in 1782, ceasing to be gathered in 1825. The price of salt at one period of the long Peninsular war rose to £30 per ton, being retailed in Birmingham at 4d. per lb. Carriages were taxed in 1747. Armorial bearings in 1798. Receipts for money and promisory ​notes were first taxed in 1782. Hair powder tax, of 21s. per annum, was first levied in 1795. In 1827, there was a 1s. 3d. duty on a!ma,nacks. The 3s. advertisement duty was reduced to 1s. 6d. in 1833, and abolished August 4, 1853. The paper duty, first put on in 1694, was repealed in 1861; that on bricks taken off in 1850; on soap in 1853; on sugar in May, 1874, and on horses the same year. Hats, gloves, and linen shirts were taxed in 1785; patent medicines, compound waters, and codfish, in 1783; in fact every article of food, drink, and clothing required by man from the moment of his birth until his burial, the very shroud, the land he trod on, the house he lived in, the materials (or building, have all been taxed. For coming into the world, for living in it, and for going out of it, have Englishmen had to pay, even though they grumbled. Now-a-days, the country's taxes are few in number, and per head are but small in amount, yet the grumbling and the growling is as heavy as of old. Can it arise from the pressure of our local rates? Where our fathers paid 20s. to the Government, we do not pay 5s.; but where the old people gave 5s. in rates, we have to part with 25s.
Telegraphs.—The cable for the first Atlantic telegraph was made here. Its length was 2,300 nautical miles, and it required 690,000 lbs. of copper in addition to the iron wire forming the strand, of which latter there was about 16,000 miles' length. The first time the "Queen's Speech" was transmitted to this town by the electric telegraph was on Tuesday, November 30, 1847, the time occupied being an hour and a half. The charge for sending a message of 20 words from here to London, in 1848, was 6s. 6d. The Sub-Marine Telegraph Co. laid their wires through Birmingham in June and July, 1853.
Temperance.—There appears to have been a sort of a kind of a temper-ance movement here in 1788, for the Magistrates, at their sitting August 21, strongly protested against the increase of dram-drinking; but they went on granting licenses, though. Father Matthew's first visit was September 10, 1843; J. B. Gough's, September 21, 1853; Mr. Booth's, in May, 1882. The first local society for inculcating principles of temperance dates from September 1, 1830; U.K. Alliance organised a branch here in February, 1855; the first Templars' Lodge was opened September 8, 1868; the Royal Crusaders banded together in the summer of 1881; and the Blue Ribbons were introduced in May, 1882. This novelty in dress ornamentation was adopted (so they said) by over 40,000 inhabitants, but at the end of twelve months the count was reduced to 8,000, including Sunday School children, popular parsons, maidens looking for husbands, old maids who had lost their chances, and the unco' guid people, who, having lost their own tastes, would fain keep others from their cakes and ale.
Temple Row.—A "parech meeting" in 1715 ordered the purchase of land for a passage way out of Bull Street to St. Philip's Church. It was not until 1842 when part of the Royal Hotel stables were taken down, that it was made its present width. In 1837 the churchyard had some pleasant walks along the sides, bounded by a low wooden fence, and skirted with trees.
Temple Street takes its name from the old summer arbour, wittily called "the Temple," which once stood in a garden where now Temple Row joins the street. An advertisement in Gazette of December 5, 1743, announced a house for sale, in Temple Street, having a garden twelve yards wide by fifty yards long, adjoining the fields, and with a prospect of four miles distance.
Theatrical Jottings.—What accommodation, if any, was provided ​here for "their majesties' servants," the playactors, in the times of Queen Anne and her successor. George I., is not known, but as Hutton tells us that in 1730 the amusements of the stage rose in elegance so far that threepenny performances were given "in a stable in Castle Street," we may be sure the position held by members of the profession was not very high in the estimation of our townsfolk previous to that period. Indeed, it would almost seem as if the acting of plays was quite an innovation at the time named, and one that met with approval, for shortly after we read of there being theatres in Smallbrook Street, in New Street, and "a new theatre" in Moor Street. The first-named closed in 1749 or 1750; the second is supposed to have been on the site of the present Theatre Royal, but it could not have been a building of much importance as we find no note of it after 1744; the third, built in 1739, was taken possession of by the disciples of Wesley, and on March 21, 1764, was opened as a chapel. Previous to the last event, however, another theatre had been erected (in 1752) in King Street, leading out of New Street, near to the Free School, which, being enlarged in 1774, is described by Hutton as having few equals. In this year also (1774) the Theatre Royal was erected (at a cost of nearly £5,700) though the latter half of its title was not assumed until August, 1807, on the occasion of the Royal assent being given to the house being "licensed."
A bill had been introduced into the House of Commons for this purpose on the 26th of March, 1777, during the debate on which Burke called Birmingham "the great toyshop of Europe" but it was thrown out on the second reading. The King Street Theatre, like its predecessor in Moor Street, after a time of struggle, was turned into a place of worship in 1786, a fate which, at a later date, also befell another place of public entertainment, the Circus, in Bradford Street, and the theatrical history of the town, for a long term of years centred round the Theatre Royal, though now and then spasmodic attempts were made to localise amusements more or less of a similar nature. One of these, and the earliest, was peculiarly unfortunate; early in 1778 a wooden pavilion, known as the "Concert Booth," was erected in the Moseley Road, dramatic performances being given between the first and last parts of a vocal and instrumental concert, but some mischievous or malicious incendiary set fire to the building, which was burnt to the ground Aug. 13 of the same year. Four years later, and nearly at the same date (Aug. 17) the Theatre in New Street met with a like fate, the only portion of it left being the stone front (added in 1780) which is still the same, fortunately coming almost as safely through the next conflagration. The proprietors clear&d away the ruins, and erected a more commodious structure, which, under the management of Mr. William Macready, was opened June 22, 1795. In the meantime, the King Street Theatre having been chapelised, the town appears to have been without any recognised place for dramatic entertainments other than those provided in the large rooms of the hotels, or the occasional use of a granary transmogrified for the nonce into a Thespian arena. On the night of the 6th of January, 1820, after the performance of "Pizarro," the Theatre Royal was again burnt out, but, possibly from having their property insured up to £7,000, the proprietors were not so long in having it rebuilt, the doors of the new house being opened on following Aug. 14. This is, practically, the same building as the present, which has seats for about 3,500, the gallery holding 1,000. Many of the first artists of the profession have trod the boards of the Old Theatre since the last-named date, and Birmingham has cause to be proud of more than one of her children, who, starting thence, have found name and fame elsewhere. The scope of the ​present work will not allow of anything more than a few brief notes, and those entirely of local bearing, but a history of the Birmingham stage would not be uninteresting reading.
A wooden building in Moor Street, formerly a circus, was licensed March, 19, 1861; closed in 1863, and cleared off the ground in 1865.
Theatrical performances were licensed in Bingley Hall in 1854.
The Prince of Wales Theatre, previously Broad Street Music Hall, was opened in 1862. It was reconstructed in 1876, and has accommodation for an audience of 3,200.
The Holte Theatre was opened May 12, 1879, the license to the Lower Grounds Co. being granted November 29, 1878.
The last new Theatre, the Grand, in Corporation Street, must rank as one of the handsomest edifices in the town. It faces what was once the Old Square, and has a frontage of 120ft., the height to the cornice of the roof being 52ft., the whole being capped with a dome, supporting a winged figure of Auroro, which, drawn in a car by prancing horses, is 15ft. high. The interior is laid out in the most improved modern style, ornately decorated throughout, and provides accommodation for over 3,000 persons. The cost is put at £30,000, of which £17,000 went to the builders alone, and the theatre is the property of Mr. A. Melville. The opening day was Nov. 14th, 1883. The "Interlude of Deritend Wake, with the representation of a Bullbaiting" was part of the performance announced at the King street Theatre. May 31, 1783.
Mrs. Sarah Siddons, whose debut in London the previous season had been anything but successful, came to Birmingham for the summer season of 1776. Henderson, one of her colleagues here, notwithstanding the Drury Lane veto, declared that she was "an actress who never had an equal nor would ever have a superior"—an opinion quickly verified.
One of Kean's benefits was a total failure. In the last scene of the play "A New Way to Pay Old Debts," wherein allusion is made to the marriage of a lady, "Take her," said Kean, "and the Birmingham audience into the bargain."
Garrick was visiting Lord Lytton at Hagley on one occasion when news was brought that a company of players were going to perform at Birmingham. His lordship suggested that Garrick should write an address to the audience for the players. "Suppose, then," said he, "I begin thus:
   "Ye sons of iron, copper, brass and steel, Who have not heads to think, nor hearts to feel."
"Oh," cried his lordship, "if you begin like that, they will hiss the players off the stage, and pull the house down." "My lord," replied Garrick, "what is the use of an address if it does not come home to the business and bosoms of the audience?"
A "Birmingham Garrick," was the name given to an actor named Henderson (1762), whose friends did not think him quite so great a tragedian as he fancied himself.
Kemble made his last appearance on the Birmingham stage July 9, 1788.
Robinson Crusoe, or Harlequin Friday, was the pantomime in 1790.
Madame Catalini first appeared at Royal in 1807.
Incledon, the famous tenor, sang here first time in same year.
William Charles Macready made his debût on the stage of the Royal as Romeo. June 7, 1810. He took his farewell benefit Aug. 13, 1871.
Alfred Bunn had the Theatre in 1823, during which year there appeared here Mr. and Mrs. C. Kemble, W. C. Macready, Joey Grimaldi, Miss Ellen Tree (afterwards Mrs. Charles Kean), W. Farren, Braham, Elliston, Dowton, Rignold and Power.
Barry Sullivan was born here in 1824.
In 1824 the whole town was up in arms taking part in the "Battle of ​the Preachers and the Players," which was commenced by the Rev. J. Ansell James delivering a series of sermons bitterly inveigling against the theatre as a place of amusement, and pouring forth the most awful denunciations against the frequenters thereof. Alfred Bunn, the manager, was not slow to retort. He put "The Hypocrite" on the boards. Shuter, the clever comedian and mimic, personating Mr. James in the part of Mawuorm so cleverly that the piece had an immense run. The battle ended in a victory for both sides, chapel and theatre alike being crammed. If it pleased the godly it was a god-send for Bann whose exchequer it filled to repletion.
Signor Costa was at the Festival in 1829, and he afterwards appeared on the stage at the Royal.
Paganini first fiddled at the Royal, January 22, 1832.
Sheridan Knowles, Macready, Paganini, Matthews, and Miss Ellen Tree were among the Stars at the Royal in 1833.
Mercer H. Simpson took the management of the Royal in 1838. His farewell benefit was on December 16, 1864, and he died March 2, 1877, aged 76.
Sims Reeves' first visit to this town was in May, 1843; his last appearance at the Festivals was in 1873; at the Royal in May, 1875, and at the Town Hall, March 25, 1884.
Jenny Lind first sang here Aug. 29, 1847; she sang for the Queen's Hospital at Town Hall, Dec. 28, 1848; her last concerts were Jan, 22-23, 1862.
Madle. Rachael first played here Aug. 19, 1847.
Charles Dickens and his amateur friends gave their special performances in aid of the Shakespeare House Fund, at the Royal. June 6 and 27, 1848, the receipts amounting to £589.
Variety was not wanting at our New Street Theatre in 1852. Among the artistes advertised to appear were: A strong Man who had 5 cwt. of stone broken (by a sledge hammer) on his chest nightly; performing Dogs and Horses; Madame Grisi, Signor Mario, Haymarket Company, Benjamin Webster, and Madame Celeste, etc., etc.
Miss Monkton, the female Mazeppa, appeared at Prince of Wales'. May 15, 1805, and at the Royal in Nov. 1867.
Miss Neilson's first appearance here was in Nov. 1868, in an adaptation, by Mr. C. Williams, a local dramatist, of Miss Braddon's "Captain of the Vulture."
Mr. Irving first appeared as Hamlet in this town at Prince of Wales', Dec, 1877.
Sarah Bernhardt was at Prince of Wales', July 4-6, 1881.
Kyrle Bellew last appeared here at Prince of Wales', Sept. 17, 1881.
Mrs. Langtry was at Prince of Wales'. May 29, 1882.
Edwin Booth's first appearance here was at the Royal, as Richelien. Dec. 11 1882.
Bobby Atkins, whose real name was Edward, was the most popular comedian of the Royal, with which he had been connected for more than twenty-five years. He died in 1882, in his 64th year. His bosom friend. John Barton, made his exit from the world's stage April 16, 1875.
Mr. George Rignold's mother is stated by Mr. Thomas Swinbourne (himself a native) to have been a leading actress of the Theatre Royal and very popular, as indeed she would necessarily be, her role of parts including Hamlet and Virginius. The father was, says Mr. S., "an admirable terpsichorean artists, and George inherits the talents of both parents, with a dash of music besides, for, like William, in ' Black-eyed Susan,' he plays on the fiddle like on angel.'"
Two or three of our places of amusement have been turned into chapels permanently, and therefore it was hardly a novelty to hold "Gospel services" in the Prince of Wales's Theatre. October 3, 1875, but it was to their credit that "the gods" behaved themselves.
​Time.—When it is exactly twelve at noon here in Birmingham, it is 7min. 33secs. past at Greenwich, 12min. 50secs. past at Dover, and 16niin. 54secs. past at Paris; while it wants l½mins. to the hour at Manchester, 9½min. at Glasgow, 17min. 50secs. at Dublin, and 26½mins. at Cork. At Calcutta, the corresponding time would be 6.1½ p.m., Canton 7.40 p.m., Japan 9.15 p.m., Mexico 5.34 a.m., New Orleans 8.5 a.m.. New York 7.11 a.m., New Zealand 11.45 p.m., Nova Scotia 7.55 a.m., San Francisco 4.5 a.m., St. Petersburg 2.10 p.m., Sydney 10.12 p.m., and at Washington just seven o'clock in the morning.
Tithes.—One hundred and fifty years ago (if not considerably later) the Rector of St. Martin's was paid tithes in cash based on the value of the crops, &c., one acre of good wheat being tithed at 7s. d.6 ; an acre of good barley at 4s. 4½d.; an acre of flax and hemp, if pulled, at 5s.; an acre of good oats, peas, or potatoes, and all kinds of garden stuff at 3s. 9d.; for meadow land 4d. an acre, and 2d. for leasow (or leasland); 3d. being claimed for cow and her calf, l½d. for each lamb, &c. In course of time these payments were changed into a fixed tithe rent, but before matters were comfortably settled, the Rector found it necessary to give notice (April, 1814) that he should enforce the ancient custom of being paid "in kind." The gun trade was brisk at that time, but whether the reverend gentleman took his tenths of the guns, what he did with them, or how the parties came to terms is not recorded.—The tithes formerly due in kind to the Vicar of Edgbaston were commuted by Act passed June 8, 1821, into an annual "corn rent," payable by the occupiers of all kinds in the parish.
Tower.—Originally, all guns made here for Government, had to be put together in London, but when the French Revolution broke out, it was seen that a quicker mode of procedure was necessary, and an establishment in Bagot Street was erected in 1798, where all guns for Government were viewed and stamped with the "Tower' mark. Hence the name.
Town Criers were first appointed in 1526. Jacob Wilson entered into office May 4, 1853, and was pensioned off with 15s. a week in August, 1879, after a family tenure of the office, according to Jacob, of about 350 years. Surely it was a crying shame to stop the children of that family from crying in the future. The last of the criers did not last long after deposition from office, Jacob's last words being uttered in 1881.
Town Improvements.—Some fifty and odd years ago Dobbs, a local comedian, used to sing,
   "Brumagem has altered so,
   There's scarce a place in it I know;
   Round the town you now must go
   To find old Brumagem."
Had he lived till these days he might well have sung so, for improvements are being carried out so rapidly now that in another generation it is likely old Birmingham will have been improved off the face of the earth altogether. Prior to the days of steam, our forefathers went about their work more leisurely, for it was not until 1765 that the Act was obtained for the "enlightening" of the streets, and four years later when the first Act was passed (April 21, 1769) for street improvements. The Street Commissioners appointed by this Act, and who held their first meeting May 22, 1709, for many years did little more than regulate the traffic of the streets, keep them cleanish, and look after the watchmen. In course of time the operations of the said Commissioners were extended a little, audit is to them that we owe the existence of the central open space so long known as the Bull Ring, for they gave £1,730, in 1801, for the removal of nine tenements there and then blocking the way. Money must have been of more value then than now, for if such a purchase was ​necessary at the present date one or two more figures would require being added to the amount. This town improvement was completed in 1806, when the Commissioners purchased the remaining houses and shops round St. Martin's, hut property owners had evidently learned something during the five years, for whereas the Commissioners at first estimated the further cost at £10,957, they reluctantly had to provide no less than £22,266, the additional sum required being swallowed up by "incidental expenses." The poet already quoted had apparently been absent during these alterations, for he wailingly bemoaned—
   "Poor old Spiceal Street half gone, The poor old Church stands all alone, And poor old I can only groan, That I can't find Brumagem."
Though an Improvement Act for Duddeston and Nechells was obtained in 1829, the town improvements for the next forty years consisted principally of road making, street paving, market arranging, &c., the opening-up ideas not getting well-rooted in the minds of our governors until some time after the Town Council began to rule the roast. That a great deal of work was being done, however, is shown by reference to the Borough accounts for 1840, in which year £17,366 was expended in lighting, watching, and otherwise improving the thoroughfares, in addition to £13,794 actually spent on the highways. 1852 saw the removal of the turnpikes, at a cost of over £3,200; in the same year £5,800 was expended in widening the entrance to Temple Row from Bull Street, and £1,800 for rounding off the corner of Steelhouse Lane and Snow Hill. In October, 1853, it was decided to obtain for £33,000 the 11,540 square yards of land at the corner of Ann Street and Congreve Street, where the Municipal Buildings. Art Gallery, and new Gas Office now stand. Almost every year since has seen the purchase of properties more or less required for substantial improvements, though some of them may not even yet have been utilised. A few fancy prices might be named which have had to be paid for old bits of property here and there, but about the dearest of all was £53 10s, per yard, which the Council paid (in 1864) for the land required to round off the corner of New Street and Worcester Street, a further £1,300 going, in 1873, to extinguish certain leasehold rights. This is by no means the highest figure given for land in the centre of the town, as Mr. John Feeney, in 1882, paid at the rate of £66 per yard for the site at corner of Cannon Street and New Street, the portion retained for his own use costing him even more than that, as he generously allowed the Corporation to take 30½ yards for £1,000. The introduction of the railways, and consequent obliteration of scores of old streets, courts, alleys, and passages, has been of vast service towards the general improvement of the town, as well in the matter of health and sanitation, as leading to the construction of many new buildings and the formation of adequate approaches to the several railway stations, the erection of such establishments as the Queen's Hotel, the Great Western Hotel, &c. Nor have private property owners and speculators been at all backward, as evidenced by our magnificent modern banking establishments, the huge piles of commercial buildings in Colmore Row, New Street, and Corporation Street, the handsome shops in New Street, High Street, and Bull Street, with many other edifices that our grandfathers never dreamed of, such as the Midland, the Grand, and the Stork Hotels, the palatial Club Houses, the Colonnade and Arcades, New Theatres, Inns of Court, &c., &c. Many of these improvements have resulted from the falling-in of long leases on the Colmore, the Grammar School, and other estates, while others have been the outcome of a far-seeing policy on the part of such moneyed men as the late Sir Josiah Mason, Isaac ​Horton and others of somewhat similar calibre. Going away from the immediate centre of the town architectural improvements will be noted on all hands, Snow Hill, for one place, being evidently in the regenerative throes of a new birth, with its Gothic Arcade opposite the railway station, and the new circus at the foot of the hill, where for so many long years there has been nothing hut a wreck and a ruin. In close neighbourhood, Constitution Hill, Hampton Street, and at the junction of Summer Lane, a number of handsome houses and shops have lately been erected by Mr. Cornelius Ede, in the early Gothic style, from designs by Mr. J. S. Davis, the architect of the Snow Hill Arcade, the whole unquestionably forming a very great advance on many former street improvements. The formation in 1880 of John Bright Street as an extension of the Bristol Road (cost £30,000) has led to the erection of many the buildings in that direction; the opening out of Meetinghouse Yard and the alterations in Floodgate Street (in 1879, at a cost of £13,500), has done much for that neighbourhood; the widening of Worcester Street and the formation of Station Street, &c., thanks to the enlargement of the Central Station, and the remodelling of all the thoroughfares in the vicinity of Navigation Street and Worcester Wharf, also arising therefrom, are important schemes now in progress in the same direction; and in fact there is hardly any district within the borough boundaries in which improvements of more or less consequence are not being made, or have been planned, the gloomy old burial grounds having been turned into pleasant gardens at a cost of over £10,000, and oven the dirty water-courses known as the river Rea and Hockley brook have had £12,000 worth of cleaning out bestowed upon them. It is not too much to say that millions have been spent in improving Birmingham during the past fifty years, not reckoning the cost of the last and greatest improvement of all—the making of Corporation Street, and the consequent alterations on our local maps resulting therefrom. The adoption of the Artizans' Dwelling Act, under the provisions of which the Birmingham Improvement Scheme has been carried out, was approved by the Town Council, on the 16th of October, 1875. Then, on the 15th of March, 1876, followed the Local Government Board enquiry; and on the 17th of June, 1876, the provisional order of the Board, approving the scheme, was issued. The Confirming Act receive the Royal assent on the 15th of August, 1876. On the 6th of September, 1880, a modifying order was obtained, with respect to the inclusion of certain properties and the exclusion of others. The operations under the scheme began in August, 1878, when the houses in New Street were pulled down. In April, 1879, by the removal of the Union Hotel, the street was continued into Cherry Street: and further extensions have been made in the following order:— Cherry Street to Bull Street, August 1881; the Priory to John Street, June 1881; Bull Street to the Priory, January, 1882; John Street to Aston Street, February, 18S2. Little Cann.on Street was formed in August 1881; and Cowper Street in January, 1881. The first lease of hind in the area of the scheme—to the Women's Hospital—was agreed upon in January, 1876; and the firs tlease in Corporation Street—to Mr. J. W. Daniell—was arranged in May, 1878. In July, 1879, a lease was agreed upon for the new County Court: The arbitrations in the purchase of properties under the scheme were begun in June, 1879, and in June, 1880, Sir Henry Hunt, the arbitrator nominated by the Local Government Board, made his first award, amounting to £270,405, the remainder of the properties having been bought by agreement. The loans borrowed on account of the scheme amount to £1,600,000, the ​yearly charge on the rates being over £20,000 per annum, but as the largest proportion of the property is let upon 75-year leases, this charge will, in time, not only be reduced yearly by the increase of ground-rents, as the main and branch streets are filled up, but ultimately be altogether extinguished, the town coming in for a magnificent income derived from its own property. The length of Corporation Street from New Street to Lancaster Street is 851 yards, and if ultimately completed (as at first intended) from Lancaster Street to Aston Road, the total length will be 1,484 yards or five-sixths of a mile. The total area of land purchased for the carrying-out of the scheme is put at 215,317 square yds. (about 44a. 1r. 38p.), of which quantity 39,280 square yards has been laid out in new streets, or the widening of old ones. Of the branch or connecting streets intended there is one (from Corporation Street to the corner of High Street and Bull Street, opposite Dale End), that cannot be made for several years, some valuable leases not expiring until 1890 and 1893, but, judging by the present rate of building. Corporation Street itself will be completed long before then. More than a score of the unhealthiest streets and lanes in the town have been cleared away, and from a sanitary point of view the improvement ill health and saving of life in the district by the letting in of light and air, has been of the most satisfactory character, but though the scheme was originated under the Artisans' Dwelling Act, intended to provide good and healthy residences in lieu of the pestiferous slums and back courts, it cannot in one sense be considered much of a success. The number of artisans' dwellings required was 1,335, about 550 of which were removed altogether, the rest being improved and relet, or converted into shops, warehouses, &c. A piece of land between Newtown Row and Summer Lane, containing an area of 14,250 square yards was purchased for the purpose of leasing for the erection of artisans' dwellings, and a 50ft. wide street was laid out and nicely planted with trees, but, owing either to the badness of trade, or the overbuilding of small houses in other parts previously, less than a sixth of the site has been taken, and but a score of houses built, a most wonderful contrast to the rapid filling of Corporation Street with its many magnificent edifices present and prospective, that promise to make it one of the finest streets in the provinces. There cannot, however, be such necessity for the erection of small houses as was imagined when the Act was adopted here, for according to a return lately obtained, and not reckoning the thousands of little domiciles on the outskirts, there are in the borough 4,445 houses usually let at weekly rentals up to 23. 6d. per week, 24,692 the rentals of which are between 2s. 6d. and 3s. 6d., and 36,832 others between 3s. 6d. and 7s. per week, a total of 65,969 working men's houses, but of which 5,273 (taking one week with another) are always void.
Toyshop of Europe.—It was during the debate in the House of Commons (March 26, 1777) on the first reading of a Bill to license the Theatre in Birmingham, that Mr. Burke, who spoke in its favour, described this town as "the great toyshop of Europe." At that time, and for long afterwards, hundreds of articles of utility manufactured here were roughly classed as "light steel toys," and "heavy steel toys;" though we should hardly now be likely to consider tinder boxes, steelyards, pokers, fire-shovels and tongs as playthings.
Trade Notes of the Past.—Foreigners were not allowed to carry on any retail trade here before 1663. The Brums never liked them. An official document of 1695, slates that the trade of the town was "chiefly in steel, iron, and other ponderous ​commodities." In 1702 it was enacted that if brass, copper, latten, bell-metal gun-metal, or shruff-metal be carried beyond sea, clean or mixed, double the value thereof to be forfeited, tin and lead only excepted. An Act was passed March 20, 1716, prohibiting trade with Sweden, much to the in- convenience of our local manufacturers, who imported Swedish iron for con- version into steel in large quantities The Act 1 Geo. I., c. 27 (1720), forbidding the exportation of artizans to foreign countries was not repealed till 1825 (5 Geo. IV., c. 97). In April, 1729, our manufacturers petitioned that the colonists in America should be encouraged to send pig iron over here; ten years previously they bitterly opposed the idea; ten years later they repented, for their American cousins filled our warehouses with their manufactured goods. In 1752 it was stated that above 20,000 hands were employed here in "useful manufactures." In 1785 a reward of fifty guineas was offered here for the conviction of any person "enticing workmen to go to foreign countries;" the penalty for such "enticing" being a fine of £100 and three months' imprisonment.
Trade Societies and Trades' Unions are of modern growth, unless Ave count the old-style combinations of the masters to prevent their workmen emigrating, or the still more ancient Guilds and Fraternities existing in medieval times. There are in all, 177 different Trades' Unions in the country (coming under the notice of the Registrar-General), and most of them have branches in this town and neighbourhood. The majority have sick and benefit funds connected with them, and so far should be classed among Friendly, Benevolent, or Philanthropic Societies, but some few are plainly and simply trade associations to keep lip prices, to prevent interference with their presumed rights, to repress attacks by the avoidance of superabundant labour, and to generally protect members when wrongfully treated, cheated or choused. Prior to 1834, when some 20,000 persons assembled on Newhall Hill, March 31) to protest against the conviction of Dorset labourers for trades' unionism, few of these societies were locally in existence; but the advent of Free Trade seems to have shown all classes of workers the necessity of protecting their individual interests by means of a system of Protection very similar, though on smaller scale, to that abolished by Sir Robert Peel and his friends. That there was a necessity for such trade societies was clearly shown by the harsh manner in which tiny were denounced by John Bright at a Town Hall banquet, held April 28, 1875, that gentleman evidently demurring to the anomally of working men being Protectionists of any kind. Foremost among the local unions is the National Society of Amalgamated Brassworkers, originated April 18, 1872. with over 5,000 members now on its books, having in its first eight years subscribed and paid to members out of employ no less than £29,000.—The Builders' Labourers combined in 1861, and pay out yearly over £200 for sick and funeral benefits.—The National Association of Master Builders was organised here on Dee, 18, 1877.—The Butcher's Trade and Benevolent Association, organised in 1877, helps its members in case of need, keeps a sharp look out when new Cattle Markets, &c., are proposed, and provides a jury to help the magistrates in any doubtful case of "scrag-mag," wherein horse-flesh, donkey meat, and other niceties have been tendered to the public as human food.—The "gentlemen" belonging to the fraternity of accountants met on April 20, 1882, to form a local Institute of Chartered Accountants, and their clients know the result by the extra charges of the chartered ones.—The Clerks' Provident Association provides a register for good clerks out of employ for the use of ​employers who may want them, and, of course, there can be no good clerks out of employ except those who belong to the Association. It was commenced in 1883, from a philanthropic feeling, but must rank among trade societies as much as many others.—The Coal Merchants and Consumers' Association, for regulating the traffic charges, and otherwise protecting the trade (especially the sellers) was organised in 1869.—The Dairymen and Milksellers' Protection Society came into existence April 2, 1884, and is intended to protect the dealers against the encroachments of the Birmingham Dairy Company, and all customers from the cows with wooden udders or iron teats—The dentists in May, 1883, held the first meeting of the Midland Odontological Society, but it is not expected that the people at large will be entirely protected from toothache earlier than the first centenary of the Society.—The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was formed early in 1847.—The Amalgamated Society of Engineers dates half-a-century back, its 430 branches having collectively about 50,000 members, with a reserve fund of £173,000, though the expenditure in 1883 was £124,000 out of an income of £134,000. Locally, there are three branches, with 765 members, having balances in hand of £2,075; the expenditure in 1883 being £680 to men out of work £585 to sick members, £390 to the superannuated, £171 for funerals, and £70 in benevolent gifts.—The Birmingham and Midland Counties Grocers' Protection and Benevolent Association, started in 1871, has a long name and covers a considerable area. It was designed to make provision for the wives and families of unfortunate members of the trade when in distress; to defend actions brought against them under the Adulteration Acts; and most especially to protect themselves from the encroachments of the merchants, importers, and manufacturers, who do not always deliver 112lbs. to the cwt, or keep to sample.—The Licensed Victuallers first clubbed together for protection in 1824, and the Retail Brewers and Dealers in Wine followed suit in 1845, both societies spending considerable sums yearly in relief for decayed members of the trade, the Licensed Victuallers having also a residential Asylum for a number of their aged members or their widows in Bristol Road.—The journeymen printers opened a branch of the Provincial Typographical Association Oct. 12, 1861, though there was a society here previously.—The first local union we find record of was among the knights of the thimble, the tailors striking for an increase in wages in 1833; a branch of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors has lately been organised.—In 1866 a general Trades' Council was formed, which utilises by combined action the powers of the whole in aid of any single society which may stand in need of help.
Trades and Manufactures.—There are no published returns of any kind that have ever been issued by which more than a guess can be made at the real value of the trade of Birmingham, which varies considerably at times. At the present moment (March, 1885) trade is in a very depressed state, and it would hardly be correct to give the exact figures, were it even possible to obtain them, and any statistics that may appear in the following lines must be taken as showing an average based upon several years. Speaking at a council meeting, February 19, 1878, Mr. Alderman Joseph Chamberlain said the best way to ascertain the trade of the town was to take the local bank returns and the railway traffic "in" and "out," so far as the same could be ascertained. The deposits in all the banks that published returns were, at the end of 1877, £10,142,936, as against £10,564,255 in the previous year—a falling off of £421,312, or 4 percent. With regard to bills of exchange held by the banks, the amount was £3,311,744, against £3,605,067 in ​the previous year—a falling off of £293,323, or 8 per cent. The amount of the advances, however, was £6,041,075, as against £5,570,920 in the previous year — an increase of £470,155, or 8½ percent. With regard to the trade of the town, by the courtesy of the managers of the respective companies, he was able to give the numbers of tons of goods, of coals, and other minerals, the loads of cattle, and the number of passengers. The tons of goods were 973,611, as against 950,042 in 1876—an increase of 23,569 tons, or about 2½ per cent. The tons of coal were 566.535, against 575,904— a falling off of 9,372 tons, or 1½ percent. The other minerals were 119,583 tons, against 100,187—an increase of 19,369, or 19 per cent. The loads of cattle were 22,462 last year, against 19,157 in the previous year—an increase of 3,305 loads, 17 per cent. These were the returns of the "in" and "out" traffic. The number of passengers was 5,787,616 in 1877, against 5.606,331—an increase of 181,285, or about 3¼ per cent. So far as the traffic went, as they had been led to expect from the Board of Trade returns, there had been an increase of business, but a decrease of profits; and as to the decrease of profits he had some figures which showed that the profits of trade for the parish of Birmingham for the year ending April 1, 1877, were £3,969,000; and of the preceding year £4,292,000—a falling off of £323,000, or a trifle over 8 per cent. These figures of Mr. Chamberlain's may be accepted as representing the present state, the increase in numbers and consequent addition to the traffic "in" being balanced by the lesser quantity of goody sent out, though it is questionable whether the profits of trade now reach £3,000,000 per year. Notwithstanding the adverse times the failures have rather decreased than otherwise, there being 13 bankruptcies and 313 arrangements by composition in 1883 against 14 and 324 respectively in 1882. To get at the number of tradesmen, &c., is almost as difficult a to find out the value of their trade, but a comparison at dates fifty years apart will be interesting as showing the increase that has taken place in that period. A Directory of 1824 gave a list of 141 different trades and the names of 4,980 tradesmen; a similar work published in 1874 made 745 trades, with 33,462 tradesmen. To furnish a list of all the branches of trade now carried on and the numbers engaged therein would fill many page«, bat a summary will be found under "Population," and for fuller particulars the reader must go to the Census Tables for 1881, which may be seen at the Reference Library. The variety of articles made in this town is simply incalculable, for the old saying that anything, from a needle to a ship's anchor, could be obtained in Edgbaston Street is really not far from the truth, our manufacturers including the makers of almost everything that human beings require, be it artificial eyes and limbs, ammunition, or armour; beads, buttons, bedsteads, or buckles; cocoa, candlesticks, corkscrews, or coffee-pots; door bolts, dessert forks, dog collars, or dish covers; edge tools, earrings, engines, or eyeglasses; fire irons, fiddle-bows, frying pans, or fishhooks; gold chains, gas fittings, glass toys, or gun barrels; hairpins, harness, handcuffs, or hurdles; ironwork, isinglass, inkstands, or incubators; jewellery, javelins, jews' harps, or baby jumpers; kettles, kitchen ranges, knife boards, or knuckle dusters; lifting-jacks, legirons, latches, or lanterns; magnets, mangles, medals, or matches; nails, needles, nickel, or nutcrackers; organ pipes, optics, oilcans, or ornaments; pins, pens, pickle forks, pistols, or boarding-pikes; quart cups, quoits, quadrats, or queerosities; rings, rasps, rifles, or railway cars; spades, spectacles, saddlery, or sealing wax; thermometers, thimbles, toothpicks, or treacle taps; umbrellas or upholstery; ventilators, vices, varnish, ​or vinegar; watches, wheelbarrows, weighing machines or water closets. A Londoner who took stock of our manufactories a little while back, received information that led him to say, a week's work in Birmingham comprises, among its various results, the fabrication of 14,000,000 pens, 6,000 bedsteads, 7.000 guns, 300,000,000 cut nails, 100,000,000 buttons, 1,000 saddles, 5,000,000 copper or bronze coins, 20,000 pairs of spectacles, 6 Tons of papier-mache wares, over £20,000 worth of gold and silver jewellery, nearly an equal value of gilt and cheap ornaments, £12,000 worth of electro plated wares, 4,000 miles of iron and steel wire, 10 tons of pins, 5 tons of hairpins and hooks and eyes, 130,000 gross of wood screws, 500 tons of nuts and screw-bolts and spikes, 50 tons of wrought iron hinges, 350 miles' length of wax for vestas, 40 tons of refined metal, 40 tons of German silver, 1,000 dozen of fenders, 3,500 bellows, 800 tons of brass and copper wares. Several of these items are rather over the mark, but the aggregate only shows about one half a real week's work, as turned out when trade is good. Agricultural Implements, such as draining tools, digging and manure forks, hay knives, scythes, shovels, spades, &c. , as well as mowing machines, garden and farm rollers, ploughs, harrows, &c., are the specialities of some half-dozen firms, the oldest-established being Messrs. Mapplebeck and Lowe, opposite Smithfield Market.
American Traders.—It has been stated that there is not a bona fide American trader residing amongst us, though at one time they were almost as numerous as the Germans now are. Be that as it may, the following statistics, giving the declared value of exports from Birmingham to America during the ten years ending Sept. 80, 1882, (taken from a report made by the American Consul-General in London), show that a vast trade is still being carried on with our friends on the other side of the Atlantic:—Year ending September 30: 1873, 7.463,185 dols.; 1874, 5,778 957 dols.'; 1875, 4,791,231 dols.; 1876, 3,135,234 dols.; 1877, 2,842,871 dols.; 1878 2,309,513 dols.; 1879, 2,43.5,271 dols.; 1880, 4,920,433 dols.; 1881, 4,376,611 dols.; 1882, 5,178,118 dols. Total, 4.3,231,429 dols.
Ammunition.—To manufacture am- munition for guns and pistols so long made here by the scores of thousands would seem but the natural sequence, but though percussion caps were yearly sent from here in millions of grosses, the manufacture of the complete cartridge is a business of later growth. For the invention of gunpowder the world had to thank a monk, and it is no less curious that we owe percussion caps to the scientific genius of another Churchman, the first patent for their construction being taken out by the Rev. Mr. Forsyth in 1807. They were very little thought of for long after Waterloo, and not introduced into "the service" until 1839, several foreign armies being supplied with them before the War Office allowed them to be used by "Tommy Atkins" with his "Brown Bess." A machine for making percussion caps was patented by John Abraham in 1864. The manufacture of such articles at all times involves several dangerous processes, and Birmingham has had to mourn the loss of many of her children through accidents arising therefrom. (See "Explosions.") The ammunition works of Messrs. Kynoch and Co., at Witton, cover over twenty acres, and gives employment to several hundred persons, the contrariness of human nature being exemplified in the fact that the death-dealing articles are mainly manufactured by females, the future mothers or wives perchance of men to be laid low by the use of such things. The plant is capable of turning out 500,000 cartridges per day, as was done during the Turkish war, and it takes 50 tons of rolled brass, 100 tons of lead, and 20 tons of gunpowder ​weekly to keep the factory fully going, all kinds of ammunition for rifles and machine gnus being made on the premises. Other extensive works are those of the Birmingham Small Arms and Metal Co., at Adderley Park Hills, and the National Arms and Ammunition Co., at Small Heath, and Perry Barr.
Artificial Eyes and Limbs are necessary articles to some members of the genus homo, but the demand, fortunately, is not of such an ex- tensive character as to require many manufacturers; indeed, the only firm in Birmingham that devotes itself entirely to supplying artificial limbs is that of Messrs. Best and Son, Summer Lane, whose specialities in the way of arms and legs are famed in all English and Continental medical circles as wonderful examples of the peculiar mechanism requisite to successfully imitate the motions and powers of natural limbs. There are half-a-dozen makers of "eyes," human and otherwise, the chief being Messrs. Pache and Son, Bristol Street, and Mr. Edward Hooper, Suffolk Street, who hold the almost unique position of being the sole known makers of artificial human eyes anywhere. Few people would imagine it, lint it is said that there are at least 1,500 persons in Birmingham who carry glass eyes in their head ; while the demand from foreign countries is some- ting enormous, the United States taking the lead as they fain would do in everything. But there is no part of the civilised world, from Spitzbergen to Timbuctoo, where Birmingham made eyes are not to be seen, even the callous "heathen Chinee" buying them in large quantities. Naturalists and taxidermists find here eyes to match those of any creature that has lived and breathed, and "doll's eyes" are made by the ton.
Bedsteads, Metallic.—The making of iron and brass bedsteads, as a staple trade, dates only from the accession of Her Majesty ; but, unlike that august personage, they were a long time before they were appreciated as they deserved to be, for, in 1850, there were only four or five manufacturers in the town, and their output did not reach 500 a week. Now, about 1,800 hands are employed in the trade, and the annual value of the work sent out can- not be less than £200,000.
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 arc 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 s])rings, are the latest novelties.
Brass.—The making of goods in brass was commenced hereabout 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 per 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 leaser 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 mache 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 5½d. 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 but- tons, 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 thin £20 per ton, while as high as £160 to £170 has been paid for some few choice samples brought from Macassar, a sea-port 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 Done, 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 mache, 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, soap, 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, fruit 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 pie- eminence 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 3,000 tons of copper and bronze coin between 1860 and 1866, mostly tor 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 Lane) 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 have 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 18,000,000 lbs., and the proportion manufactured by Messrs. Cadbury, who have houses in Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, Montreal, &c., 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.
Comprised Air Power.—A hundred years age every little brook and stream- let 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, Mean- while, 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 Sr. 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 ½ 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 1,943 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 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, so 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 £l40,500, but upon this large outlay it is hoped to realise a net annual profit of £9,164, ​or 6½ 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 it 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 catting files and rasps were patented by Mr. Shilton, Dartmouth Street, in 1833.
Fox, Henderson and Co.—In March, 1853, this firm 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 of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.—See "Exhibitions," "Noteworthy men."
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 aroused 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 Hagley 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 Walt'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 ho 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 Common- wealth 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 or, 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, publishers, 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 machiners, 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 Proofhouse 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 objected to provisional proof, 29,794 were best birding single, 1.50,176 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.—Oast-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 formally 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 work- men 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 18S5) 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 tonsl7cwt. 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, mines, 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, Bromsgrove Street, is the largest looking-glass mannfactory 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(illegible text). 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 medieval 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 aerate! 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 age 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 remain- der passing through a fountain and down to ti e 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 aerated 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 en 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.
Neltlefold'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 ot 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 Mache.—The 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, imitation 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 1,850,000lbs., 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 pattern." including all kinds that could possibly be 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 mournings being, 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 thou- sands of hands are employed. The Midland Railway Carriage and Waggon Co. was formed in 1853, and has works on 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 purpose^, ocean telegraph cables included. Messrs. Wright introduced steam 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|in. 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 speciality highly appreciated by surveyors and others.
Saddlery.—One of the oldest local trades, as Leland, 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 German clock-maker 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 then 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 sharing 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 continuous 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 pro- portions, 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 bigwigs 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 14d. 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.
Spectacles.—Sixty and seventy years ago spectacles were sent out by the gross to all part of the country, but they were of a kind now known as "goggles," the frames being large and clumsy, and made of silver, white metal, or tortoiseshell, the fine steel wire frames now used not being introduced until about 1840.
Stereoscopes, the invention of Sir David Brewster, were first made in this town, Mr, Robert Field producing them.
Steel Pens.—Though contrary to the general belief, metallic pens are of very ancient origin. Dr. Martin Lister, in his book of Travels, published in 1699, described a "very curious and antique writing instrument made of thick and strong silver wire, wound up like a hollow bottom or screw, with both the ends pointing one way, and at a distance, so that a man might easily put his forefinger between the two points, and the screw fills the ball of his hand. One of the points was the point of a bodkin, which was to write on waxed tables; the other point was made very artificially, like the head and upper beak of a cock and the point divided in two, just like our steel pens, from whence undoubtedly the moderns had their patterns; which are now made also of fine silver or gold; or Prince's metal, all of which yet want a spring and are therefore not so useful as of steel or a quill: but the quill soon spoils. Steel is undoubtedly the best, and if you use China ink, the most lasting of all inks, it never rusts the pen, but rather preserves it with a kind of varnish, which dries upon it, though you take no care in wiping it."—Though Messrs. Gillott and Sons' Victoria Works, Graham Street, stands first among the pen-making establishments open to the visit of strangers, it is by no means the only manufactory whereat the useful little steel pen is made is large quantities, there being, beside', Mr. John Mitchell (Newhall Street), Mr. William Mitchell (Cumberland Street), Hinks, Wells and Co. (Buckingham Street), Brandauer and Co. (New John Street, West), Baker ​and Finnamore (James Street), G. W. Hughes (St. Paul's Square), Leonardt and Co. (Charlotte Street), Myers and Sou (Charlotte Street), Perry and Co. (Lancaster Street), Ryland and Co. (St. Paul's Square). Sansum and Co. (Tenby Street), &c. , the gross aggregate output of the trade at large being estimated at 20 tons per week.
Stirrups.—According to the Directory, there are but four stirrup makers here, though it is said there are 4,000 different patterns of the article.
Swords.—Some writers aver that Birmingham was the centre of the metal works of the ancient Britons, where the swords and the scythe-blades were made to meet Julius Caesar. During the Commonwealth, over 15,000 swords were said to have been made in Birmingham for the Parliamentary soldiers, but if they thus helped to overthrow the Stuarts at that period, the Brummagem boys in 1745 were willing to make out for it by supplying Prince Charlie with as many as ever he could pay for, and the basket-hilts were at a premium. Disloyalty did not always prosper though, for on one occasion over 2,000 cutlasses intended for the Prince, were seized en route and found their way into the hands of his enemies. Not many swords are made in Birmingham at the present time, unless matchets and case knives used in the plantations can be included under that head.
Thimbles, or thumbells, from being originally worn on the thumb, are said by the Dutch to have been the invention of Mynheer van Banschoten for the protection of his lady-love's fingers when employed at the embroidery-frame; but though the good people of Amsterdam last year (1884) celebrated the bicentenary of their gallant thimble-making goldsmith, it is more than probable that he filched the idea from a Birmingham man, for Shakespeare had been dead sixty-eight years prior to 1684, and he made mention of thimbles as quite a common possession of all ladies in his time:
   "For your own ladies, and pale-visag'd maids, Like Amazons, come tripping after drums. Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change; Their needles to lances."
King John, Act v. sc. 3.
   "Thou liest, thou thread, thou thimble."
   "And that I'll prove upon thee, though thy little finger be armed in a thimble,"
Taming of the Shrew, Act iv., sc. 3.
The earliest note we really have of thimbles being manufactured in Birmingham dates as 1695. A very large trade is now done in steel, brass, gold, and silver.
Thread.—Strange are the mutations of trade. The first thread of cotton spun by rollers, long before Arkwright's time, was made near this town in the year 1700, and a little factory was at work in the Upper Priory (the motive power being two donkeys), in 1740, under the ingenious John Wyatt, with whom were other two well-remembered local worthies—Lewis Paul and Thomas Warren. Many improvements were made in the simple machinery, but fate did not intend Birmingham to rival Bradford, and the thread making came to an end in 1792.
Tinderboxes, with the accompanying "fire steels," are still made here for certain foreign markets, where lucifers are not procurable.
Tinning.—Iron pots were first tinned in 1779, under Jonathan Taylor's patent. Tinning wire is one of the branches of trade rapidly going out, partly through the introduction of the galvanising process, but latterly in consequence of the invention of "screw," "ball," and other bottle stoppers. There were but five or six firms engaged in it ten years back, but the then demand for bottling-wire may be gathered from the fact that one individual, with the aid of two helpers, covered with the lighter-coloured metal about 2cwt. of slender iron wire per day. This would give a total length of about 6,500 miles per annum, enough to tie up 25,718,784 bottles of pop, &c.
Tools.—The making of tools for the workers in our almost countless trades ​has given employ to many thousands, but in addition thereto is the separate manufacture of "heavy edge tools." Light edge tools, such as table and pocket knives, scissors, gravers, &c., are not made here, though "heavy" tools comprising axes, hatchets, cleavers, hoes, spades, mattocks, forks, chisels, plane irons, machine knives, scythes, &c., in endless variety and of hundreds of patterns, suited to the various parts of the world for which they are required. Over 4,000 hands are employed in this manufacture.
Tubes.—Immense quantities (estimated at over 15,000 tons) of copper, brass, iron, and other metal tubing are annually sent out of our workshops. In olden days the manufacture of brass and copper tubes was by the tedious process of rolling up a strip of metal and soldering the edges together. In 1803 Sir Edward Thomason introduced the 'patent tube"—iron body with brass coating, but it was not until 1838 that Mr. Charles Green took out his patent for "seamless" tubes, which was much improved upon in 1852 by G. F. Muntz, junr., as well as by Mr. Thos. Attwood in 1850, with respect to the drawing of copper tubes. The Peyton and Peyton Tube Co., London Works, was registered June 25, 1878, capital £50,000 in £5 shares. Messrs. Peyton received 1,000 paid-up shares for their patent for machinery for manufacturing welded and other tubes, £3,500 for plant and tools, the stock going at valuation.
Tutania Metal took its name from Tutin, the inventor. It was much used a hundred years ago. in the manufacture of buckles.
Umbrellas.—The name of the man who first carried an umbrella in this town (about the year 1780) has not yet been enrolled among our "Birmingham Worthies," but he must have been known to some of our fathers, for it is not much more than 100 years ago since Jonas Hanway walked down the Strand, shielding his wig from the wet with the first umbrella seen in London. The metal work required for setting-up, technically called "furniture," has long been made here, and gives employment to about 1,700 hands, two-thirds of whom are females.
Vinegar.—Pardon's Vinegar Brewery, Glover Street, is worth a visit, if only to look at their five vats, each upwards of 30ft. high and 24ft. in diameter, and each capable of storing 58,000 gallons. But, besides these, among the largest of their kind in the world, there are thirteen 24,000 gallons vats, five 15,000, and twenty seven 10,000.
Vitriol.—The Oil of Vitriol in 1800 was reduced from 3s. per lb. ta Is. ; in 1865 it was sold at Id.
Watchmaking.—Few names of eminent horologists are to be found in the lists of departed tradesmen; so few indeed that watchmaking would seem to have been one of the unknown arts, if such a thing was possible at any period of the last two hundred years of Birmingham history. Messrs. Brunner (Smallbrook Street), Swinden (Temple Street), and Ehrardt (Barr Street West) take the lead at present among private firms, but the introduction of a watch manufactory is duo to Mr. A L. Dennison, who, though not the originator of the notion, after establishing factories in America (in or about 1850) and Switzerland, came to this country in 1871, and, with other gentlemen, in the following year started the Anglo- American Watch Co. (Limited), a factory being erected in Villa Street. The trade of the Co. was principally with America, which was supplied with machine made "works" from here until the Waltham, Elgin, and other firms over there beat them out of the market, a not very difficult operation, considering that our fair-trading cousins impose a 25 per cent, duty on all such goods sent there by the free-traders of this country. The Villa Street establishment was purchased in 1875 by Mr. William Bragge, who developed the business under the name of The English ​Watch Co., the manufacture being confined almost solely to English Lever watches, large and small sized, key-winding and keyless. In January, 1882, Mr. Bragge, for the sum of £21,000 parted with the business, plant, stock, and premises, to the present English Watch Co. (Limited), which has a registered capital of £50,000 in shares of £10 each, the dividend (June, 1884) being at the rate of 6 percent, on paid-up capital.—In April, 1883, the prospectus of The English Double Chronograph Co. (Limited) was issued, the capital being £50,000 in £10 shares, the object of the company being to purchase (for £15.000) and work the patents granted to Mr. W. H. Douglas, of Stourbridge, for improvements in chronographs, the improvements being of such a nature that ordinary keyless English levers can be turned into double chronographs at a trifling cost.
Whipmaking, as a trade distinct from saddlery, dates from about 1750, and it received a great impetus by the introduction, in 1730, of a machine by Matthew Dean for the easier manipulation of the leather thongs.
Whistles of all sizes and sorts, from the child's tin whistle to the huge and powerful steam whistles used on board the American liners, are made in this town, and it might be imagined there could hi but little novelty in any new design. This, however, is not the case, for when the authorities of Scot- land Yard (June, 1884) desired a new police whistle, samples were sent in from many parts of the country, from America, and from the Continent. The order, which was for 40,000, was secured by Messrs. J. Hudson and Co., Buckingham Street, and so distinct is the speciality, that fifty other places have followed the examples of the Metropolis.
Wire.—Wire-drawing, which formerly had to be done by hand, does not appear to have been made into a spacial trade earlier than the beginning of the 18th century, the first wire mill we read of being that of Penns, near Sutton Coldfield, which was converted from an iron forge in 1720. Steel wire was not made till some little time after that dace. The increased demand for iron and steel wire which has taken place during the last 35 years is almost in- credible, the make in 1850 being not more than 100 tons: in 1865 it was calculated at 2,003 tons, in 1875 it was put at 12,000 tons. while now it is estimated to equal 30,000 tons. In March 1853, a piece of No. 16 copper wire was shown at Mr. Samuel Walker's in one piece, three miles long, drawn from a bar ⅝ths in diameter. Originally the bar weighed 128 lbs, but it lost 14lbs. in the process, and it was then thought a most remarkable production, but far more wonderful specimens of wire-spinning have since been exhibited. A wire rope weighing over 70 tons, was made in 1876 at the Universe Works, of Messrs. Wright, who are the patentees of the mixed wire and hemp rope. Birdcages, meat covers, mouse traps, wire blinds, wire nails, wire latticing, &c., we have long been used to; even girding the earth with land and ocean telegraph wire, or fencing in square miles at a time of prairie land, with wire strong enough to keep a herd of a few thousand buffaloes in range, are no longer novelties, but to shape, sharpen, and polish a serviceable pair of penny scissors out of a bit of steel wire by two blows and the push of a machine, is something new, and it is Netelefold's latest.
Wire Nails, Staples, &c., are made at Nettlefold's by machinery much in advance of what can be seen elsewhere. In the nail mill the "Paris points" as wire nails are called, are cut from the coil of wire by the first motion of the machine as it is fed in, then headed and pointed at one operation, sizes up to one inch being turned out at the rate of 360 a minute. In the manufacture of spikes, the punch for making the head is propelled by springs, which are compressed by a cam, and then released at each stroke; two ​cutters worked by side cams on the same shaft cut off the wire and make the point. A steel finger then advances and knocks the finished spike out of the way to make room for the next. Wire staples, three inches long, are turned out at the rate of a hundred a minute; the wire is pushed forward into the machine and cut off on the bevel to form the points; a hook rises, catches the wire, and draws it down into the proper form, when a staple falls out compete.
Wire Gauge—The following table shows the sizes, weights, lengths, and breaking strains of iron wire under the Imperial Standard Wire Gauge, which came into operation March 1, 1884:—
Yates.—At one period this was the favourite slang term of the smashing fraternity for the metal used in their nefarious business, the spoons manufactured by Messrs. Yates and Son being the best material for transmutation into base coin.
Trafalgar.-See "Nelson" and "Statues."
Train Bands.—The Trainbands of former da3's may be likened to the militia of the present time, but were drawn from every parish in the hundreds, according to the population. A document in the lost Staunton Collection gave the names and parishes of the men forming "Lord Compton's Company of Foot for the Hundred of Hemlingford" in 1615, being part of the "Warwickshire Trayne Bands." Birmingham supplied six men armed with pikes and six with muskets; Birmingham and Aston jointly the same number; Edgbaston one pike; Coleshill three of each; Sutton Coldfield four pikes and six muskets; Solihull three pikes and four muskets; Knowle the same; Berkswell two pikes and live muskets; and Meriden one pike and two muskets. These Trained Bands numbered 600 men from Coventry and the county in 1642, besides the Militia and Volunteers of Warwickshire, which were called up in that year. These latter mustered very strongly on the days for review and training, there being at Stratford-upon- Avon (June 30) 400 Volunteers well armed and 200 unarmed; at Warwick (July 1 & 2) 650 well armed; at Coleshill (July 4) 800 almost all well armed ; and at Coventry near 800 most well armed — the total number being 2,850, making a respectable force of 3,450 in all, ready, according to the expression of their officers, "to adhere to His Majestic and both Houses of Parliament, to the losse of the last drop of their dearest blood." These fine words, however, did not prevent the "Volunteers" of this neighbourhood opposing His Majestie to the utmost of their power soon afterwards.
Tramways.—These take their ​name from Mr. Outram, who, in 1802, introduced the system of lightening carriage by running the vehicles on rail in the North of England. The first suggestion of a local tramway came through Mr. G. F. Train, who not finding scope sufficient for his abilities in America, paid Birmingham a visit, and after yarning us well asked and obtained permission (Aug. 7, 1860) to lay down tram rails in some of the principal thoroughfares, but as his glib tongue failed in procuring the needful capital his scheme was a thorough failure. Some ten years after the notion was taken u]i by a few local gentlemen, and at a public meeting, on December 27, 1871, the Town Council were authorised to make such tramways as they thought to be necessary, a Company being formed to work them. This Company was rather before its time, though now it would be considered, if anything, rather backward. The first line of rails brought into use was laid from the bottom of Hockley Hill to Dudley Port, and it was opened May 20, 1872; from Hockley to top of Snow Hill the cars began to run September 7, 1873 ; the Bristol Road line being first used May 30, though formally opened June 5, 1876. The Birmingham and District Tramway Company's lines cost about £65,000, and they paid the Corporation £910 per year rental, but in May, 1877, their interest was bought up by the Birmingham Tramway and Omnibus Company for the sum of £25,000, the original cost of the property thus acquired being £115,000. The new company leased the borough lines for seven years at £1,680 per annum, and gave up the out-district portion of the original undertaking. That they have been tolerably successful is shown by the fact that in 1883 the receipts from passengers amounted to £39,859, while the owners of the £10 shares received a dividend of 15 per cent. The authorised capital of the company is £60,000, of which £33,600 has been called up. The Aston line from Corporation Street to the Lower Grounds was opened for traffic the day after Christmas, 1832. The Company's capital is £50,000, of which nearly one-halt' was expended on the road alone. This was the first tramway on which steam was used as the motive power, though Doune's locomotive was tried, Jan. 8, 1876, between Hands worth and West Bromwich, and Hughes's between Monmouth Street and Bournbrook on July 2, 1880, the latter distance being covered in twenty-five minutes with a car-load of passengers attached to the engine. The next Company to be formed was the South Staffordshire and Birmingham District Steam Tramway Co., who "broke ground" July 26, 1882, and opened their first section, about seven miles in length (from Handsworth to Darlaston), June 25, 1883 This line connects Birmingham with West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Great Bridge, Dudley, Walsall, and intermediate places, and is worked with 40-horse power engines of Wilkinson's make. The Birmingham and West Suburban Tramways Co.'s lines, commencing in Station Street run, by means of branches from several parts, to various of the suburbs:—1st, by way of Pershore Street, Moat Row, Bradford Street, and Moseley Road, to Moseley; 2nd, by way of Deritend, Bordesley, Camp Hill, along Stratford Road, to Sparkhill; 3rd, leaving Stratford Road (at the Mermaid) and along Warwick Road, to Acock's Green; 4th. striking off at Bordesley. along, the Coventry Road to the far side of Small Heath Park; 5th, from Moat Row, by way of Smithfield Street to Park Street, Duddeston Row, Curzon Street, Vauxhall Road, to Nechells Park Road; 6th, in the same direction by way or Gosta Green, Lister Street, and Great Lister Street, using "running powers" over the Aston line where necessary on the last-named and following routes; 7th from Corporation Street, along Aston Street, Lancaster Street, Newtown ​Row, up the Birchfield Road; 8th, from Six Ways, Birchfield, along the Lozells Road to Villa Cross, and from the Lozells Road along Wheeler Street to Constitution Hill, forming a junction with the original Hockley and Snow Hill line. The system of lines projected by the Western Districts Co., include: 1st, commencing in Edmund Street, near the Great Western Railway Station, along Congreve Street, Summer Row, Parade, Frederick Street, and Vyse Street, to join the Hockley line; 2nd, as before to Parade, along the Sandpits, Spring Hill to borough boundary in Dudley Road, and along Heath Street to Smethwick; 3rd, as before to Spring Hill, thence in one direction along Monument Road to Hagley Road, and in the opposite direction along Icknield Street to Hockley ; 4th, starting from Lower Temple Street, along Hill Street, Hurst Street, Sherlock Street to the borough boundary in Pershore Road, and from Sherlock Street, by way of Gooch Street, to Balsall Heath; 5th, byway of Holloway Head. Bath Row, and Islington to the Five Ways. The whole of the lines now in use and being constructed in the Borough are the property of the Corporation, who lease them to the several Companies, the latter making the lines outside the borough themselves, and keeping them in repair. The average cost of laying down is put at 50s. per yard for single line, or £5 per yard for double lines, the cost of the metal rail itself being about 20s. per yard.
Trees in Streets.—Though a few trees were planted along the Bristol Road in 1853, and a few others later in some of the outskirts, the system cannot be fairly said to have started till the spring of 1876, when about 100 plane trees were planted in Broad Street, 100 limes in Bristol Street, 20 Canadian poplars in St. Martin's church-yard, a score or so of plane trees near Central Station, and a number in Gosta Green and the various playgrounds belonging to Board Schools, a few elms, sycamores, and Ontario poplars being mixed with them. As a matter of historical fact, the first were put in the ground Nov. 29, 1885, in Stephenson Place.
Tunnels.—The tunnel on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, near King's Norton, is 2,695 yards long, perfectly straight, 17½ft. wide, and 18ft. high. In the centre a basin is excavated sufficiently wide for barges to pass without inconvenience; and in this underground chamber in August, 1795, the Royal Arch Masons held a regular chapter of their order, rather an arch way of celebrating the completion of the undertaking. The other tunnels on this canal are 110, 120, 406, and 524 yards in length. On the old' Birmingham Canal there are two, one being 2,200 yards long and the other l,010 yards. On the Loudon and Birmingham Railway (now London and North Western) the Watford tunnel is 1,830 yards long, the Kisley tunnel 2,423 yards, and Primrose Hill 1,250 yards. On the Great Western line the longest is the Box tunnel, 3,123 yards in length. The deepest tunnel in England pierces the hills between Great Malvern and Herefordshire, being 600ft. from the rails to the surface; it is 1,560 yards in length. The longest tunnels in the country run under the range of hills between Marsden in Yorkshire and Diggle in Lancashire, two being for railway and one canal use. One of the former is 5,434 yards, and the other (Stanedge, on the L. & N. W.) 5,435 yards long, while the canal tunnel is 5,451 yards.
Turnpike Gates.—At one time there were gates or bars on nearly every road out of the town. Even at the bottom of Worcester Street there was a bar across the road in 1818. There was once a gate at the junction of Hang'sman Line (our Great Hampton Row) and Constitution Hill, which, being shifted further on, to about the spot where Green and Cadbury's Works now are, remained till 1839. The gate ​ in Deritend was removed in August, 1828; the one at Five Ways July 5, 1841; those at Small Heath, at Sparkbrook, in the Moseley Road, and in the Hagley Road were ail "free'd" in 1851, and the sites of the toll houses sold in 1853. In the "good old coaching days" the turnpike tolls paid on a coach running daily from here to London amounted to £1,428 per year.