Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham by Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell

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

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

_Looking-glasses_.--Messrs. Hawkes's, Sromsgrove Street, is the largest
looking-glass manufactory in the world, more than 300 hands being
employed on the premises. A fire which took place Jan. 8, 1879,
destroyed nearly L12,000 worth of stock, the turnout of the
establishment comprising all classes of mirrors, from those at 2. a
dozen to L40 or L50 each.

_Mediaeval Metalwork_.--Mr. John Hardman, who had Pugin for his friend,
was the first to introduce the manufacture of mediaeval 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
aerated artificial and mineral waters is that of Messrs. James Goffe and
Son, of Duke Street, the present proprietors of the artesian well in
Allison Street. This well was formed some years ago by Mr. Clark, a
London engineer, who had undertaken a Corporation contract connected
with the sewers. Finding himself embarassed with the flow of water from
the many springs about Park Street and Digbeth, he leased a small plot
of land and formed a bore-hole, or artesian well, to check the
percolation into his sewerage works. After boring about 400 feet he
reached a main spring in the red sandstone formation which gives a
constant flow of the purest water, winter and summer, of over 70,000
gals. per day, at the uniform temperature of 50 deg. The bore is only
4in. diameter, and is doubly tubed the whole depth, the water rising
into a 12ft. brick well, from which a 4,000 gallon tank is daily filled,
the remainder passing through a fountain and down to the sewers as
waste. Dr. Bostock Hill, the eminent analyst, reports most favourably
upon the freedom of the water from all organic or other impurities, and
as eminently fitted for all kinds of 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 on outsiders for its main supplies 150 years
back, is evidenced by the Worcestershire nailors marching from Cradley
and the Lye, in 1737 to force the ironmongers to raise the prices.
Machinery for cutting nails was tried as early as 1811, but it was a
long while after that (1856) before a machine was introduced
successfully. Now there are but a few special sorts made otherwise, as
the poor people of Cradley and the Lye Waste know to their cost,
hand-made nails now being seldom seen.

_Nettlefold's (Limited)_.--This, one of the most gigantic of our local
companies, was registered in March, 1880, the capital being L750,000 in
shares of L10 each, with power to issue debentures to the vendors of the
works purchased to the extent of L420,000. 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 L1,024.000,
Messrs. Nettlefold's share thereof being L786,000, the Birmingham Screw
Co.'s L143,000, the Manchester Co.'s L50,000, Messrs. Cornforth, Lloyd
and Harrison taking the remainder. The firm's works in Heath Street are
the most extensive of the kind in existence, the turnout being more than
200,000 gross of screws per week, nearly 250 tons of wire being used up
in the same period.--See "_Screws_."

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

_Nuts and Bolts_.--In addition to a score or two of private firms
engaged in the modern industry of nut and bolt making, there are several
limited liability Co.'s, the chief being the Patent Nut and Bolt Co.
(London Works, Smethwick), which started in 1863 with a capital of
L400,000 in shares of L20 each. The last dividend (on L14 paid up) was
at the rate of 10 per cent., the reserve fund standing at L120,000.
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_.--This manufacture was introduced here by Henry Clay in
1772, and being politic enough to present Queen Caroline with a Sedan
chair made of this material, he was patronised by the wealthy and titled
of the day, the demand for his ware being so extensive that at one time
he employed over 300 hands, his profit being something like L3 out of
every L5. It has been stated that many articles of furniture, &c., made
by him are still in use. Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge commenced in
1816, and improvements in the manufacture have been many and continuous.
George Souter introduced pearl inlaying in 1825; electro-deposit was
applied in 1844; "gem inlaying" in 1847, by Benj. Giles; aluminium and
its bronze in 1864; the transfer process in 1856 by Tearne and Richmond.
Paper pulp has been treated in a variety of ways for making button
blanks, tray blanks, imitiation jet, &c., the very dust caused by
cutting it up being again utilised by mixture with certain cements to
form brooches, &c.

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

_Pins_.--What becomes of all the pins? Forty years ago it was stated
that 20,000,000 pins were made every day, either for home or export use,
but the total is now put at 50,000,000, notwithstanding which one can
hardly be in the company of man, woman, or child, for a day without
being asked "Have you such a thing as a pin about you?" Pins were first
manufactured here in quantities about 1750, the Ryland family having the
honour of introducing the trade. It formerly took fourteen different
persons to manufacture a single pin, cutters, headers, pointers,
polishers, &c., but now the whole process is performed by machinery. The
proportion of pins made in Birmingham is put at 37,000,000 per day, the
weight of brass wire annually required being 1,850,000 lbs., value
L84,791; iron wire to the value of L5,016 is used for mourning and hair
pins. The census reports say there are but 729 persons employed (of whom
495 are females) in the manufacture of the 11,500,000,000 pins sent from
our factories every year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Sheathing Metal_.--In a newspaper called _The World_, dated April 16,
1791, was an advertisement beginning thus--"By the King's patent,
_tinned copper_ sheets and pipes manufactured and sold by Charles Wyatt,
Birmingham, and at 19, Abchurch lane, London." It was particularly
recommended for sheathing of ships, as the tin coating would prevent the
corrosion of the copper and operate as "a preservative of the iron
placed contiguous to it." Though an exceedingly clever man, and the son
of one of Birmingham's famed worthies, Mr. Charles Wyatt was not
fortunate in many of his inventions, and his tinned copper brought him
in neither silver nor gold. What is now known as sheathing or "yellow"
metal is a mixture of copper, zinc, and iron in certain defined
proportions, according as it is "Muntz's metal," or "Green's patent,"
&c. Several patents were taken out in 1779, 1800, and at later dates,
and, as is usual with "good things," there has been sufficient
squabbling over sheathing to provide a number of legal big-wigs with
considerable quantities of the yellow, metal _they_ prefer. George
Frederick Muntz, M.P., if not the direct inventor, had the lion's share
of profit in the manufacture, as the good-will of his business was sold
for L40,000 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 L800,000. The business was taken to by a limited
liability company, whose capital in March, 1884, was L180,000, 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 L3 10s. per week painting snuff-boxes at 1/4d. each. The first
mention of their being made here is in 1693.

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

_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 tortoise-shell, 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 in large quantities, there
being, besides, 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 Finnemore (James Street), G.
W. Hughes (St. Paul's Square), Leonardt and Co. (Charlotte Street),
Myers and Son (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 neelds 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
L50,000 in L5 shares. Messrs. Peyton received 1,000 paid-up shares for
their patent for machinery for manufacturing welded and other tubes,
L3,500 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.