Dismissing the rest of the Hymenomycetes, in which there is little

worthy of mention to record, we come to the Gastromycetes, or Puff-ball

family, in which the spore-bearing surface is more or less concealed

within an outer coating, and most frequently breaks up into a dusty

mass. The Myxomycetes, which were formerly included in this group,

will here be placed in their proper position at the end of the Fungi.

Of the aberrant group to which the common Stinkhorn (not very common

in this district) belongs, the more brilliant _Cynophallus caninus_ is

recorded by Purton, from near Bridgnorth, and was found at Bromsgrove

Lickey, in 1856. The very rare and remarkable Earth-star, _Geaster

coliformis_, has not been found in the district to which this notice

is limited, but it has been twice found in the county of Worcester.

The localities are given as “near Hanley Castle, Worcestershire,” _Mr.

Ballard_, by Withering; and “Hanley Common, Worcestershire,” _Mr.

Rufford_, by Purton. In the same place _Geaster fornicatus_ occurred,

and this is said by Withering to have been found also “at Birches

Green, near Birmingham.” _G. limbatus_ is recorded from Edgbaston Park,

Stonebridge, Allesley, Oversley, and Rushford.

Another group of Fungi is that which grows upon living leaves, the

various forms of which are known as Cluster-cups, Rust, Smut and Brand.

These are what are usually called Leaf-Fungi. Many species are common

here; but, as most kinds grow only upon certain specified plants, it

follows that their range is determined in great measure by the presence

or absence of their hosts. _Podisoma sabinæ_ and _P. juniperi_ have

been found in the district. The only rare cluster-cup recorded is

_Œcidium depauperans_, which occurs every summer on cultivated Violas

in a few localities, and in one of these it is uniformly accompanied

and followed by the Puccinia, to which the name of _Puccinia ægra_ has

been given by the writer. Till lately this Œcidium was not known to

occur out of the United Kingdom, but Professor Trelease, of St. Louis,

in a private letter says that he has recently seen in the United States

specimens apparently identical with it. _Puccinia sonchi_ was found by

Mr. Hawkes, near Great Barr, on seedlings of Sonchus, and as yet has

not been found anywhere else in Great Britain.

The species of the next group, the Discomycetes, or Cup-fungi, are not

uncommon, though few of the showy forms are to be seen. The common

Morell occurs, sparingly in the district, and _Morchella semilibera_

is recorded from Badsey. _Helvella crispa_, _H. lacunosa_, _H.

elastica_; _Mitrula paludosa_; _Spathularia flavida_; _Leotia lubrica_;

_Geoglossum glabrum_, _G. hirsutum_, and _Rhizina undulata_ have all

been found, though rarely. Among the minuter species may be mentioned

_Peziza dematiicola_, of which the writer found a few specimens at

Sutton two years ago, this being the first and at present the only

locality cited, since the place where the original specimens of

Berkeley were discovered is unknown. _P. asperior_ has been found at

Berkswell (the only British locality); the curious _P. Curreiana_, on

rush stems in Sutton Park and elsewhere; and the rare _P. Crouani_, _P.

Dalmeniensis_, _P. stereicola_; _Ascobolus minutissimus_; _Vibrissea

leptospora_; _Propolis pyri_, and a new species which Mr. Phillips has

named _Dermatea nectrioides_, at various places in the neighbourhood.

The next group of Fungi is the Pyrenomycetes or Globe-fungi. They

occur usually on dead bark and wood, or stalks of plants, and are

mostly black, more rarely red or brown. Several common species

look like grains of gunpowder scattered over the wood. Among these

Withering mentions no species at all rare from this district, and

Purton only three--_Melogramma Bulliardi_, _M. gastrinum_, and _Sphæria

pomiformis_. To these may be added _Nectria mammoidea_ and _Hypomyces

candicans_ from near Sutton; _Eutypa velutina_ and _E. scabrosa_

from Berkswell; _Valsa cincta_ Fr., _V. aglæostoma_, and _Sphæria

ampullasca_, from Sutton; _Lophiostoma angustilabra_, from Middleton;

and the interesting _Gymnoascus ruber_, which affords a glimpse of

the mode by which the Pyrenomycetes were evolved, has appeared in

Birmingham itself.

Of the Mucorini or Pin-mould family, to which belongs the pin-shaped

mould, so common on decaying meat--two species of Pilobolus, _P.

œdipus_ and _P. Kleinii_, remarkable for their extraordinary explosive

power, have been found here and nowhere else in the kingdom. The

same is true of two species of Mortierella, _M. Candelabrum_ and _M.

polycephala_, of which even the genus is not known from any other

British locality.

Lastly we come to the Myxomycetes, a group which, though distinctly

fungal, approximates in some degree to the animal kingdom. These

are rather abundant here, nearly one third of the British Species

having been found; including the rare _Didymium pertusum_; _Badhamia

hyalina_; _Enerthenema papillatum_; _Dictydium umbilicatum_; _Cribraria

aurantiaca_; _Arcyria cinerea_, and _Prototrichia flagellifera_. Worthy

of especial notice is _Physarum leucophæum_ Fr., hitherto only known

as British by specimens published by Cooke in his “Fungi Britannici.”

The writer has found this at Sutton in abundance, and identifies it

with the heretofore unidentified _Trichia rubiformis_ of Purton, whose

description is accompanied by an exceedingly accurate and picturesque

plate (“Midland Flora,” tab. 37.)

Besides the groups of Fungi enumerated above, there are others more

obscure and consequently less interesting to many students, of which

no mention will be made here, although numerous rare or undescribed

species belonging to them have been found in the district within recent

years.

APPENDIX.

ARTICLES RECEIVED TOO LATE TO BE INCLUDED ALPHABETICALLY BETWEEN PAGES

117 & 212.

=Chains, Cables, and Anchors.=--[BENJAMIN HINGLEY, M.P.]--(B. 99). The

manufacture of chains, cables, and anchors is carried on at Tipton,

and to a much larger extent at Netherton, and in the neighbourhood

of Old Hill near Dudley. The manufacture of chain cables in their

present form, namely, with elongated links supported by a bar or stud

in the centre of each link is of comparatively modern origin; there

are Naval men still living who remember that Men-of-War and Merchant

Ships were fitted with hempen cables of large diameter, which occupied

a considerable space in the fore-hold of the ship. The British Fleet in

Nelson’s fighting days knew not chain cables, but was encumbered with

large coils of hempen rope.

It is certain that iron chains of some description were known and used

in the days of the Romans, as it is recorded that Julius Cæsar could

not cut the cables of the vessels of the Gauls, because they were made

of iron. Such chains were doubtless a succession of iron rings, or “S”

hooks of comparatively small size. It is believed that the first chain

cable was used on a British Ship, in the year 1808. It was made by a

blacksmith named Robert Flinn, at North Shields, for a vessel which

at that time was reckoned to be of a considerable size, namely, the

“Ann and Isabella.” of 221 tons. It not only saved that vessel when in

peril, but also saved a whole tier of ships that had been made fast to

her, their hempen cables having been cut by the ice, owing to a great

flood with much ice in the Tyne. This notable instance gave a great

impetus to the making of chain cables on the banks of the Tyne, where

it is still carried on to a considerable extent.

At about the same date, Samuel Brown, afterwards Sir Samuel Brown, a

Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, having, it is said, been in communication

with Flinn, and taken a great interest in Flinn’s iron cables, took out

a patent, and in the year 1810 he prevailed upon the British Admiralty

to put iron cables on several Men-of-War, with such successful results

that the days of hempen cables became numbered; Lieutenant Brown

afterwards devoted his attention to the making of chain cables, and

established a manufactory at Millwall on the Thames, he also, with the

assistance of “John Rennie, an Engineer,” constructed an efficient

testing machine as he “was of opinion that there was nothing more

essential in completing an iron cable than the most rigid attention to

proving.”

The manufacture of chain cables naturally commenced on the sea coast,

and it rapidly spread from the Tyne and Wear, where it first commenced,

to London, Liverpool, Bristol, and to Aberdeen, and Irvine in Scotland.

It may be said, that up to the year 1820, although chain making was

a local industry in the district of Birmingham, it was confined to

small welded chains in the form of elongated rings, for farming and

domestic purposes; but about the year 1820 a new impetus was given to

it by the late Mr. Noah Hingley, who then carried on business as a

nail master and dealer in small chains at Cradley Heath near Dudley.

He in the course of his business made periodical visits to the Port of

Liverpool, travelling sometimes by the Stage Coach, and at other times

on horseback, and there, one of the new chain cables, with a stud in

the centre of each link, attracted his attention. He at once resolved

to develop the trade in Staffordshire, and without hesitation made a

contract to supply to a Liverpool ship owner, a chain cable made of

iron 1½ inch diameter to be used in lieu of an hempen one. It was a

bold venture, as no workman in the Midland district had ever seen a

chain of such large size, or one fitted with studs, but after a few

trials a workman with the assistance of two strikers, and two boys to

blow the bellows, succeeded in turning out a good chain cable which

was duly delivered in Liverpool, and did good service on board ship.

The making of this first chain cable was a source of wonder in the

district, and people came from far and wide to see it.

Mr. Hingley afterwards introduced the making of anchors in a similar

manner--bringing men from Liverpool with a knowledge of the trade, and

afterwards erecting the first Nasmyth’s steam hammer for that purpose

in the Staffordshire district, namely, at Netherton Ironworks, near

Dudley.

Mr. Hingley lived to see the chain cable and anchor trade developed

to a large extent, and by several eminent firms who engaged in the

business in and about Dudley; he also took part in the establishment

of efficient public testing machines at Netherton and at Tipton, under

the authority of an Act of Parliament, making compulsory the testing

of cables and anchors for British ships. The machines in question are

under the control of the Board of Trade, and of Lloyd’s Registry of

British and Foreign shipping, and are of the most powerful description.

One of the machines at Netherton is not only capable of testing, but

also of breaking for experimental purposes, a chain made of bar iron 4

inches in diameter.

The manufacture of anchors and cables is now almost exclusively

located in Staffordshire, having entirely left the sea coast except at

Newcastle-on-Tyne. The making of chain cables and anchors is for the

most part carried on in factories and exclusively by men and boys with

the aid of machinery, but the smaller chains for a variety of purposes,

and especially trace chains, are made to a large extent by women and

girls in shops attached to the cottages. There are many hundreds,

probably a thousand or two, of the shops in question spread around the

district of Cradley Heath and Old Hill in the county of Stafford. It

cannot be said that such work is unsuitable for women and girls within

certain limits; but there is no doubt that close inspection under the

Workshops Act is necessary, and that there should be strict limitations

of the hours of labour. The tendency is not only to work children of

tender years, but to do so until late at night, especially at the end

of the week, to make up for lost time in the earlier part of the week.

It is computed that the Staffordshire chain and anchor trade as a whole

consumes annually about 50,000 to 70,000 tons of iron, according to the

state of trade, and the annual value, when trade is fair, approaches

one million sterling. The workpeople earn from five shillings per

week--the wages of a woman or girl--to fifty shillings per week, the

wages of a large cable maker. It is a singular fact that anchor makers

are to a considerable extent either Irish or of Irish origin, the

descendants of the original stock imported from Liverpool by the late

Mr. Noah Hingley. Their work is laborious and the wages continue high,

varying from thirty to sixty shillings per week, and for the most part

they spend it freely.

=Die Sinking.=--[G. SHERRIFF TYE.]--(B. 560.) For brooches, buttons,

&c., a block of iron is moulded by the forger on to which a piece

of cast steel is welded. Medal dies are all steel, as the powerful

pressure applied would flatten them were they of iron. When a sharp

blow is given, instead of pressure, the part-steel die stands the blow

well, though it will not withstand a squeeze. While the steel is soft

the die is cut out with steel cutting tools and finished by gravers,

previous to the final polishing. The die sinkers of Birmingham make

dies for the following purposes, among others: buttons, military

ornaments, brassfoundry, plated wares, tea trays and tin work, gun work

and small iron work, medals and coins, jewellery, seals for wax and

paper embossing, brass dies for paper wrappers and bands, as used in

the wholesale linen trades; needles, papers, etc., wheels and rolls for

ornamenting metal tubes or sheets.

=Saddlery Trade.=--[THOMAS MIDDLEMORE.]--(B. 463). _Obsolete Articles

of Manufacture._--The articles supplied by the Saddlery trades being

for use rather than for ornament, it follows that fashion can have

little effect in making any of them obsolete. Old wants have still to

be satisfied.

It is yet worth noticing that whilst a very large trade was done some

30 years ago in shot belts, shot and cap pouches, and powder flasks,

this trade has now become practically obsolete, since the breechloader

has superseded the muzzleloader. Cartridges, both for military and

sporting purposes, are now carried in a bag, or a bandolier, _i.e._, a

shoulder or waist belt, to which is fastened transversely a series of

pockets, each of which holds a cartridge.

_New varieties introduced._--For welts of saddles, “hide bellies”

split very thin have for the most part taken the place of seal

skins. Crocodile skins have been used occasionally for saddles with

indifferent success, but for bags, purses and pocket books, they,

along with snake skins, have been largely and successfully employed.

Calf skins for the latter purposes have been superseded by hides split

specially thin. Kangaroo skins are now used in the whip trade for

covering whips, but still more for making the whip thong. Hog skins,

for which formerly the sole use was the saddle manufacture, are now

prepared for furniture purposes, bookbinding, and bags. They have the

advantages of being very durable, and of having a unique and handsome

grain.

_Saddles_--The old “spring bar,” to which the stirrup leather is

fastened, is gradually giving way to the “safety bar,” the object of

which is to release the rider in the event of a fall, and to remove the

danger of his being dragged, which is an universally admitted fault

of the old “spring bar.” Further, increased safety is secured to lady

riders by various “safety stirrups” which render dragging by the foot

impossible. For the comfort of the horse the following inventions are

worth notice:--“Gaussen’s corrugated rubber pannels” which break the

jar caused by the weight of the rider--“Inflated air pannels,” which

have the same effect--“ventilating pannels,” which are at the same time

movable; these last prevent the danger of sore backs, and are very

readily cleaned; they promise to become of general use.

_Harness._--The changes that have here taken place concern rather the

furniture or metal work, than the general form. For cheaper kinds

of harness, electro-plating has superseded close plating. Again,

electro-plating in its turn is being superseded by the new white

metals, which are alloys having the colour of silver, and of analogous

composition to German silver. The advantages of the new metals are,

that they are uniform in their composition, and therefore durable,

cheap, and of good appearance.

_Military._--The regulation saddle of 20 years back, called the

“Nolan,” has been superseded by an “Iron Arch Saddle,” and now

another regulation, introduced in 1884, made entirely of steel, with

the exception of the wooden side bars, is being used along with the

“Iron Arch Saddle.” The old “knapsack” has given place to the new

“Valise Equipment,” which was designed to distribute the weight of the

pack more evenly. On the introduction of the Camel Corps, a special

equipment was designed. Large quantities of this pattern were used in

the Egyptian campaign.

_Travelling Appointments._--The “Gladstone Bag,” a combination of a

bag and portmanteau, has become more popular than any kind of either

the one or the other. Tin Boxes have quite replaced the old wooden

trunks. The quality has, however, of late years, been so reduced in

order to force a sale, that unquestionably a reaction has set in

against them. When damaged they are unsightly, and cannot be repaired.

Baskets covered with canvas or leather are now, in consequence of their

cheapness, lightness, and strength, much used for ladies’ travelling

trunks. The introduction of Bicycles and Tricycles has created a new

and vast trade in saddles, satchels, and the like for wheelmen. The

trade is now only second in importance to that for ordinary English

riding saddles.

_Increase since 1865._--In the year 1864, the declared value of the

exports of saddlery and harness for the United Kingdom was £345,419.

For the year 1885, the total value was only £385,687. This increase,

of less than 12 per cent., compares unfavourably with that of the

sixteen years from 1849 to 1865, which was more than 300 per cent. The

exports for the first four months of the present year were £122,093,

which is less than the exports for the same period in 1865 by £8,569.

This declining prosperity, which has occurred during the past five

years, is due to a strangled trade in South Africa, and droughts in

Australasia. Good seasons, and a rise in the wool market, give promise

of an immediately better future for the saddlery trade.

_Effects of the spread of Civilization on Supply of Raw Material._--The

most noteworthy fact in the leather trade, with regard to the spread

of civilization upon its supply of material, is furnished by the

basils now sent in enormous quantities from the Australasian Colonies.

Before 1865, a sheep was grown simply for its fleece, and tallow. Of

late years the skin has been tanned, and converted into a basil. These

Colonial basils supply a demand which the home production has, of

late years, failed to satisfy. The Colonial basils are excellent in

colour and texture. If they were tanned in larch instead of the native

mimosa bark, they could scarcely be further improved. The increase of

competition has, during the past twenty years, led to the adulteration

of leather. The adulterants most used are glucose and barytes. Such

adulteration is now so general, that large consumers of leather are

compelled to avail themselves of the resources of chemical science, in

order to learn the true value of the leather they buy, by ascertaining

the kind, and by estimating the quantity of the adulterant employed in

the leather tested.

_New Processes introduced in Leather Dressing._--The old “Splitting”

Machines have been improved, and a new kind called the “Band Knife”

has been introduced. Further Machines for “Scouring,” “Setting,” and

“Rolling” leather have been invented, which do their work both better

and cheaper than hand labour. The currier, as a rule, welcomes these

machines, since he is thereby relieved from much hard physical toil,

whilst his special skill has an unimpaired scope, and is just that part

of his work that is best remunerated. Saddles--The sewing by Machine

has now become universal, and in point of quality is only just inferior

to hand work. Harness--The “Lock Stitch” Machine has superseded the

“Chain Stitch” Machine. The former sews with hard wax, such as is used

in handwork. Generally for all cutting, where quantities are required,

and when shaped pieces other than strips are wanted, the steam press

has superseded the hand knife.

_Machinery or Hand Labour._--During the last 20 years all branches of

the saddlery trades have benefited by the steadily increased employment

of machinery--this is most marked in the currying of leather.

_Effects of Improved modes of Manufacture on Cost of Production._--The

articles of the saddlery trade combine so many different kinds of

material and include such a variety of labour, that no estimate could

be relied upon of the reduction of cost due to improved methods of

manufacture. The values of articles generally reckoned in money are

about 10 per cent. below the values of 1865.

_Present Extent and Description of Manufacture._--In regard to the

Home trade it is only needful to say that owing to the agricultural

depression of the past 10 years, the demand for saddlery has very

greatly fallen off. To some extent this falling off in bulk is supplied

by the demands of cycle riders. In the Foreign trade the past 20

years have witnessed a vast development of the demand from the South

African Colonies. This, owing to a series of seasons of drought, to the

commercial panic of the diamond fields, and to the unsettled political

state of the Colonies, has been followed by an unparalleled state of

depression, which has made the export saddlery trade one of the most

disastrously depressed of our industries. Indeed, it has been remarked

by one thoroughly conversant with the trade, that, if the present state

of things continue, Walsall, which solely depends on the saddlery and

leather trades, will, before long, wear the same look as Bruges, with

grass growing in its streets.

_Effects of Foreign Tariffs._--The effect of the continued high duties

in the United States has been to practically kill the English trade

both in saddlery and saddlers’ ironmongery. Since the Franco-German

war, the French tariff has been increased. This seems to have had

little effect on the saddlery trade between England and France.

Unquestionably, however, France is now losing markets where formerly

her goods were preferred to those of this country.

_Where else Manufacture carried on._--Since 1865, Glasgow has ceased to

be an important centre of the saddlery trade. It is now chiefly carried

on in Birmingham and Walsall, for export saddlery. In military goods,

Bermondsey competes with Birmingham and Walsall.

_Approximate Number of Persons employed in this Town and

District._--_Men, Women, Boys, and Girls._--No satisfactory statement

can now be made, as the present time is one of exceptional depression.

_Average Earnings._--Speaking generally there has been a reduction in

money wages of about 10 per cent. This wage reckoned in commodities, of

course, represents a substantial improvement, as compared with 1865. In

good times the workman was never so well remunerated, and, on the other

hand, his employer so poorly rewarded.

_Social Condition of Workpeople._--No remark need be made in regard to

the improvement of his social condition which the saddler has shared

with those of other trades. The Factory Acts have practically ended the

employment of children. The trade hardly knows the “half-timer.” The

new Patents Act has proved a great stimulus to the invention of the

workman.

_Utilisation of Waste._--If the past 5 years have been disastrous

for the saddlery trade, misfortune has yet taught its lessons. Chief

amongst these are an economical use of material, and the utilisation

of waste. The belly and shoulder parts of hides, which used often to

be sent to market, are now mostly consumed, thus saving capital and

enabling a cheaper article to be produced. Again, the scrap leather,

which is necessarily created by even the most careful cutting, is

now utilised in making goods of extraordinary cheapness. A splitting

machine for dividing pieces of leather, however small, into any

required number of thicknesses, is of great help to this end. When

leather is reduced in size below what is required for any article of

commerce, it is then used either for hardening purposes, or to form

imitation leather when reduced to a pulp and rolled either by itself or

with rope fibre.

=Chemicals.=--In obtaining the statistical information on p. 152, I

am indebted in great measure to Dr. Bostock Hill, Secretary of the

Birmingham Section of the Society of Chemical Industry.--C. J. W.

APPENDIX TO GEOLOGY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY.

PART III., PAGES 213 TO 265.

MINERALS. (OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT.)

BY C. J. WOODWARD, B.SC., F.G.S.

The crystalline minerals occurring within the limits of the Birmingham

district may be most conveniently referred to under the titles of

the several counties in which they actually occur. These counties

are: Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire,

Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire,

and Worcestershire.

=Derbyshire.=--The mines in this county are worked out, and there is

but little opportunity of meeting with minerals. On the spoil-banks of

the old mines poor specimens may be found. Mr. John Tym, of Castleton,

is a local dealer, and the guide to the High Tor Grotto has minerals

for sale. The following list with localities is taken from a paper

on “Economic Geology of Derbyshire,” by Mr. A. H. Stokes, F.G.S.,

H.M. Inspector of Mines. _Barytes_, nearly all lead mines, Newhaven;

_Blende_, Old hillocks, near Ashover and Hartington; _Gypsum_,

Chellaston, also railway cutting between Trent and Loughborough;

_Brown Hæmatite_, north west of Hubberdale mine, near Taddington, also

near Elton; _Brown Lead Ore “Linnets,”_ Elton, and Newhaven, Winster;

_Calcite_, colourless at lead mines of Nether Haddon, near Bakewell.

Alpart, Ashover, and Wirksworth yield good specimens. _Elaterite_,

Windy Knoll Quarry, Main Tor, Castleton; _Fluor Spar_, Blue John

and other mines, Castleton; _Limonite_, a field, one mile north of

Castleton, and to the east of Odin Lead mine; _Petroleum_, Riddings

Colliery, near Alfreton. A sump is sunk at the bottom of the mine,

and into this the oil finds its way. Some years as much as 100 tons

of oil have been obtained at a price as high as £7. 10s. per ton.

_Phosgenite_, very scarce, Meer Brook Sough mine, near Worksworth;

_Pyrites_, large cubic crystals at Gregory mine, near Ashover; _Rock

crystal_, Buxton, in amygdaloid cavities of toad stone; also Diamond

Hill, near Miller’s Dale station; _Towanite_, Old hillocks at Ecton

mine, Cumberland mine, Matlock Bath; _Wad_, mines near Elton; _White

Lead Ore_ (_Cerussite_), near Brassington; Heyspots mine, near Elton;

Cabin mine, Newhaven. A more extensive list of the minerals of

Derbyshire, compiled by the Rev. J. M. Mello, will be found in “The

Midland Naturalist,” Vol. iv., p. 183.

=Gloucestershire.=--Mr. H.B. Woodward, of the Geological Survey, has

given the following list:--_Agate_, Berkeley, Damory Bridge; _Barytes_,

Tortworth; _Bitumen_, Clifton; _Brown Spar_, Tortworth; _Celestine_,

Tortworth, Thornbury, Wickwar, Aust; _Fluor Spar_, Clifton; _Göthite_,

Clifton; _Jasper_, Tortworth; _Prehnite_, Woodford Bridge, Berkeley;

_Rock Salt (pseudomorphs)_, Aust; _Steatite_, Tortworth; _Talc_,

Tortworth; _Vivianite_, near Clifton.

Pyle Hill, near Clifton, is a well-known locality for Celestine. At

Garden Cliff, near Westbury-on-Severn, the “bone bed” is well exposed,

and in this bed occurs plenty of iron pyrites; and in the shales, as

might be expected, crystals of selenite occur.

=Leicestershire.=--_Gold_ occurs in the quartz veins round Pedlar Tor,

Charnwood Forest. _Garnets_ occur in “gneiss” at Brazil Wood (Mr. W. J.

Harrison). _Copper pyrites_, _Molybdenum_, Mount Sorrel and Breedon.

_Galena_, _Blende_, Dimminsdale; _Dolomite_, Cloud Hill; _Gypsum_ and

_Selenite_, various places; _Iron pyrites_ in cubes, Swithland Great

Pit (Mr. James Plant).

=Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire.=--_Barytes_, _Blende_, _Calcite_,

_Galena_, _Glauconite_, _Gypsum_ (_Selenite_), _Lignite_, _Limonite_,

_Pyrites_, _Websterite_, occur in the neighbourhood of Banbury (Mr.

Thomas Beesley).

=Nottinghamshire.=--_Gypsum_ occurs in veins near Retford, and is used

for garden rock-work.

=Shropshire.=--At Lilleshall an old mine known as the Stump Leasow,

worked for limestone, yielded the following minerals:[67]--_Quartz_, a

minute crystal only. _Erubescite_, a few minute patches in the massive

form. _Copper Pyrites_, in sphenoids. _Iron Pyrites_, in radiating

masses. _Hæmatite_, in minute chocolate-coloured hemispherical masses,

also in an almost continual film containing the calc spar and other

minerals with a coppery sheen. _Barytes_, in pink, lamellar, somewhat

radiating masses. At the free surfaces of these masses are transparent

crystals. _Calcite_, in beautiful ice-like clusters of crystals taking

the form of steep three-faced pyramids. The groups are made up of

steep scalenohedrous with rhombohedral summits. The calcite is in some

cases pink due to manganese, a sample contained 1·20 per cent. of MnO.

In the lower measures the calcite occurs in pointed scalenohedrous

lining cavities in the stone. _Dolomite_, is the most interesting

mineral of the group. It occurs in nodules made up of a succession of

laminæ of varying diameters, the laminæ crystallizing at the edges in

rhombs resembling pearl spar. The composition of one sample of this

dolomite is nearly identical with what according to Boricky is one of

the possible values of Ankerite. Another approximates to the formula

3 CaCO₃ + (FeMn) CO₃ + MgCO₃ and should be described as a ferriferous

dolomite.

In the mining district of West Shropshire many beautiful and

interesting minerals are met with. The district is best reached

from Birmingham by taking train to Minsterley, via Shrewsbury. At

Snailbeach Mine, near Minsterley, occur beautiful rhombs of _Calcite_,

having a violet tinge, due to a small quantity of manganese. There

are also crystals of _Blende_ and _Galena_. At several of the mines

_Witherite_ and _Barytes_ are found, and, according to Mr. Morton,

other minerals met with are _Quartz_, _Chalcedony_, _Petroleum_,

_Pyrites_, _Malachite_, _Redruthite_, _Wad_, _Minium_, and _Cerussite_.

At Wotherton, two miles from Chirbury, is a fine barytes lode which

has been worked for more than 60 years, at first as an open mine, and

subsequently by means of a shaft. The barytes is remarkably pure, and

after grinding is sold in large quantities. In the lode are crevices

and cavities filled with a fine mud, and penetrating into the mud are

fine transparent crystals. These crystals have been measured by Mr.

Miers, of the British Museum, and a record of the forms present will be

found in his description.[68] (“Nature,” vol. xxix., p. 29.)

In connection with the mineralogy of Shropshire, it should be recorded

that the extremely rare instance of the fall of an iron meteorite in

the British Isles took place in this county at Rowton, near Wellington,

on April 20th, 1876. This meteorite was extracted by Mr. G. Brooks,

from the hole in which it had buried itself, and was hot when removed.

It is now in the possession of the British Museum, and Prof. Maskelyne

has given particulars of it in “Nature,” vol. xiv., p. 472. It weighs 7

lbs. 11 oz., “is a mass of metallic iron irregularly angular, although

all its edges appear to have been rounded by fusion in its transit

through the air, and, except at the point where it first struck the

ground, it is covered by a thin black pellicle of the magnetic oxide of

iron … the exposed metallic part of the surface exhibits crystalline

structure very clearly when it is etched. It is only the seventh

aërosiderite or meteoric iron of which the fall has been witnessed,

although upwards of a hundred iron masses have been discovered in

different parts of the globe, which are undoubtedly meteoric, and two

such have been found in Great Britain.”[69]

=Warwickshire.=--Many years ago a pocket of _Grey Oxide of Manganese_

was found near Atherstone, but I have been unable to find now any

traces of it. _Gypsum_ occurs in the cutting of a disused railway

near Henley-in-Arden, and at Spernall (Spernall Plaster Pits), near

Alcester. Mr. A. H. Atkins has called attention to the fact that gypsum

was met with in sinking an artesian well in Small Heath Park, near

Birmingham; he also mentions the occurrence of _Green Copper Carbonate_

at Vaughton’s Hole, near Birmingham.

=Worcestershire.=--Dr. Harvey B. Holl mentions the following

minerals as occurring at the Malvern Hills:--_Quartz_, _Orthoclase_,

_Labradorite_, _Anderine_, _Potash Mica_, _Ferruginous Mica_

(_Biolite_), _Augite_, _Hornblende_, _Epidote_, _Chlorite_, _Hæmatite_,

_Calc Spar_, _Graphite_, _Zeolites_, and _Garnet_.

* * * * *

[The following articles refer to subjects which could not be included

in previous papers, and which are yet worth notice as part of the

history of Birmingham.--ED.]

=Botanical Gardens.=--[SAM: TIMMINS.]--The first proposal to establish

Botanical Gardens, in accordance with the science of horticulture

of the time, was made in 1829. Twelve acres were secured in the

then rural suburb of Edgbaston, and on the advice of the famous J.

C. Loudon four more acres were added, and the buildings erected by

Clarke of Birmingham, and opened to the public in 1831. The original

capital was 500 shares of £5 each, and an annual payment of three

guineas which secured certain privileges of admission beyond those

of the subscriber’s payment. The institution flourished, with some

vicissitudes, for many years, but was necessarily exclusive, and only

recently have admissions been made more easy by reduced and varying

charges on different days. On Monday--the people’s day--large numbers

attend, and the experiment has proved successful. The buildings were

recently greatly extended and rearranged from the designs of Mr. Frank

Osborne, and are now believed to be amongst the best of the kingdom.

Flower shows are held during the summer, and prizes awarded, which are

eagerly contended for by numerous horticulturists and florists of the

town and neighbourhood.

=Guinea Gardens.=--[SAM: TIMMINS.]--Near the Botanical Gardens a group

of small gardens may be seen, which are the only “survivals” of the

acres of “allotment gardens” or “guinea gardens,” which surrounded

Birmingham within a mile from the centre as late as 1830 to 1840.

Birmingham was, in fact, a town of gardens fifty years ago, not merely

as to the gardens attached to houses--front and back gardens in the

principal parts of the town,--but of the groups of gardens rented by

workmen and others, who could reach their gardens easily from their

homes by a short walk, and devote mornings and evenings to them.

The sites of the Kent Street Baths, and those opposite St. Thomas’s

Church,--at Ladywood, Spring Hill, Hockley, Handsworth, and Aston

road,--all within the Parish Boundary, formed a belt of gardens where

the workman and his family often spent the summer evenings and enjoyed

the (then) country air. All is now changed, and the distances even by

rail and tram are too great, and land too valuable, to be let out in

readily accessible gardens for the workers of the town, who cannot for

many reasons live in the suburbs which railways have opened since 1840.

=Sunday Lecture Society.=--[THOS. ROSE.]--This Society, which has now

become one of the most successful of our local institutions, had a very

humble origin. In 1877, a few members of the Birmingham Temperance

Society (foremost amongst whom was Mr. Thos. Hewins), conceived the

idea of holding Meetings on Sunday evenings “for the social, moral, and

intellectual improvement of the non-church and chapel-going portion of

the community.” They accordingly formed themselves into a Committee,

who engaged the then newly erected Board Schools in Bristol Street,

for the winter season of 1877-8, and commenced what were described

as “Sunday Evening Meetings for the People.” For a short time these

meetings were of a purely temperance character, but finding that they

were not so thoroughly appreciated as they had expected, the Committee

extended the variety of the subjects, and lectures were delivered

embracing a wide range of thought, both moral and religious, literary

and dramatic, scientific and historical, occasionally interspersed with

musical evenings illustrative of the principal oratorios. Foremost

amongst the lecturers (who numbered many of our chief local literary

and scientific men), was Mr. Sam: Timmins, who from the first took

an active part in the movement, the success of which was from this

time assured, the lectures being attended by crowded and appreciative

audiences every Sunday evening, and occasionally hundreds were unable

to obtain admission.

In 1880, the then Mayor (Alderman R. Chamberlain), generously offered

the Committee the free use of the Town Hall, and for some months the

lectures were delivered consecutively in that place to audiences

numbering from 3 to 4,000 each Sunday. This gave rise to considerable

opposition on the part of the various religious sects of the town

against what was considered to be “a monopoly of the use of the hall by

one particular sect,” and after much controversy in the public press,

and debate in the Town Council, the question of the letting of the Town

Hall on Sundays was left in the hands of the Mayor for the time being,

on the understanding that its continuous use by any one sect should

be refused. Thereupon the lectures were resumed in the Bristol Street

Board School, with occasional special lectures in the Town Hall.

In 1881, the movement assumed a more representative character. The

then Hon. Sec. (Mr. T. Rose), assisted by some of the leading members

of the Committee, took steps to organize a Sunday Lecture Society,

and a Meeting was held on July 1st, 1881, under the Presidency of

Mr. William Harris, J.P., when the present Society was publicly

inaugurated, the objects being--“To provide for the delivery on Sundays

in the Borough of Birmingham, and to encourage the delivery elsewhere

of lectures upon subjects calculated to promote the social, moral,

and intellectual well-being of the community at large, as hitherto

conducted by the Committee of the Sunday Evening Meetings for the

People.”

The constitution of the Society also provided that a minimum

subscription of One Shilling per year should constitute membership,

and that any pecuniary profit should be applied to the further

promotion of the objects of the Society. Mr. Sam: Timmins was elected

first President, and the management of its affairs was entrusted to a

Committee of 30, exclusive of Officers, to be elected annually from

amongst the body of members.

In the first year of the Society’s existence the members numbered

80, including the names of many of the most influential public men

of the town, and the subscription list amounted to £45. 14s. 6d. The

number of members is now 168, and the subscription list amounts to £70;

the income being further augmented by the collections taken at the

various lectures (which are thus largely self-supporting). Nearly all

the lectures being given voluntarily, the cost of working the Society

is comparatively small, and is fully met by the income derived from

subscriptions and collections. Five of the principal Board Schools are

engaged every Sunday evening throughout the winter season, from October

to April, and at intervals special lectures are delivered in the Town

Hall. During the season from 1885 to 1886, 71 lectures were delivered

at the Board Schools, with a total attendance of 23,150, or an average

of 326 to each lecture, and 10 lectures were delivered at the Town

Hall, with a total attendance of 33,000, or an average of 3,300 for

each lecture. Ald. R. Chamberlain, M.P., is now President of the

Society, as well as one of its most popular lecturers. In Councillor

R. F. Martineau, the Committee possesses a most able and energetic

Chairman. Mr. W. B. Smith is the Treasurer, and Mr. J. H. Forrester,

No. 1, Summer Hill Terrace, worthily fills the office of Hon. Secretary.

=Newspapers.=--[SAM: TIMMINS.]--The earliest known Birmingham Newspaper

was “The Birmingham Journal,” published by Thomas Warren, in 1733.

It was at first published on Thursdays, but afterwards on Mondays.

Only one copy has survived, that of May 21st, 1733, No. XXVIII. The

“Journal” is interesting as it shows some traces of the style of Dr.

Johnson, who very probably assisted Warren in his newspaper. “Aris’s

Birmingham Gazette” was first published in 1741, and its original title

is used on the Saturday issue from the Daily Gazette Office to this

day. It was originally published on Mondays, and some of its earlier

issues bore another heading, for special County circulation. “Swinney’s

Birmingham Chronicle” was published for several years, from 1796 to

1816, but no complete file has been preserved. Jabet’s “Commercial

Herald” was issued from 1804 to 1813. The “Birmingham Journal” was

revived in 1825, by Wm. Hodgetts, and was continued until absorbed in

“The Daily Post.” The “Birmingham Advertiser” was commenced in 1833,

and continued till 1845. In 1836, the “Midland Counties Herald” was

begun on a new plan of gratuitous circulation and is continued as a

sheet of advertisements and news relating to the land and agricultural

interests to this day. The “Birmingham Morning News” appeared in 1871,

with George Dawson as its first editor, and was continued till 1875.

“Aris’s Birmingham Gazette” was one of the first two country papers

which began a series of “Local Notes and Queries” in 1856. The example

has been very generally followed, and the series continued in the

“Weekly Post” and the “Weekly Mercury,” and many important facts of

local history have thus been discovered and preserved.

The removal of the “taxes on knowledge”--the stamp duty and

advertisement duty and the paper duty--soon produced local daily

papers, the first being the “Daily Press,” in 1855, edited for some

time by George Dawson, and followed by the “Daily Mercury.” In 1857

the “Daily Post” was started, and in 1879 the “Daily Globe” appeared.

In 1869 the “Midland Illustrated News” was begun, but it survived

only about a year and a half. Among the other newspapers were the

“Birmingham Chronicle” (1823); the “Midland Chronicle” (1811); the

“Philanthropist” (1835). Many other short-lived newspapers have been

issued from time to time--many of which are to some extent preserved by

odd copies in the Reference Library, and among them a German newspaper

of which only one number appeared. Birmingham was one of the first

towns which produced a Sunday newspaper--the “Sunday Echo,” and some

others have been issued since. The “cheap press” secured a very large

number of readers, when the first halfpenny daily evening paper, the

“Daily Mail,” was established in 1869, followed for some time by a

similar issue from the “Daily Gazette” office, and afterwards by the

“Midland Echo.”

Many monthly pamphlets--practically newspapers--were issued, such as

the “Independent” (1827), and “Inspector” (1817); the “Weekly Recorder”

and “Register” (1819), by George Edmonds; and many serials, sarcastic

or humorous, have appeared from time to time. The scurrilous “Argus” of

fifty years ago, and later the “Town Crier” (1861), “Brum,” “Graphic,”

“Dart,” “Owl,” “Free Lance,” &c., with our illustrated “Phonographic

Punch,” and one local monthly, “Edgbastonia,” in which many interesting

biographies of local celebrities have appeared. On several occasions

Sunday sermons have been published in serials such as the “Birmingham

Pulpit” (1871-73). Other attempts to establish newspapers for

discussion rather than mere news have been tried as in the “Liberal

Review” (1880).

=Theatres.=--[SAM: TIMMINS.]--Birmingham has been famous as a

theatrical town for nearly a century, and especially as the “training

ground” where many of the leading actors of the present century learned

their art and won their first laurels. The stage was, however, rather

a late creation in Birmingham, and no traces are found earlier than

about 1730, when mere booths served the purpose of a “play-house,”

and actors were only “rogues and vagabonds” according to law. “A shed

in Temple Street” and a “stable in Castle Street,” with admission

threepence each, and the small band parading the town during the day,

in the absence of newspapers, to announce the performance, formed,

according to Hutton, the “rise of the drama” in our town. As early as

1750 travelling circuses and theatres appeared in Coleshill Street;

and in 1802 the famous Astley brought his circus to the “back of

the Stork Hotel.” In 1730 a temporary building was erected in Moor

Street, in 1743 another in New Street, in 1747 another in Smallbrook

Street, and in 1776 a more important and permanent theatre was built

in King Street--a street covered by the railway station and Stephenson

Place, and the site of the theatre being now that of the front of the

Exchange. This became an important theatre, and existed till late in

the century in competition with the present Theatre Royal, which was

founded about the same date. The few play bills which have survived,

and the expenditure on the building, show that every effort was made

to do justice to the drama a century ago. At this date theatres were

merely tolerated, but in 1777 an application was made for a licence

for the New Street Theatre to play for “four months in the year,” and

this application was somewhat famous, for it was eloquently supported

by Edmund Burke, who used the phrase--since so well-known and so little

understood--that Birmingham was the “great Toy-shop of Europe.” The

phrase, however, was not new, but was used in a book by Sir Samuel

Morland a hundred years earlier to describe the shops where trinkets

and small steel and iron wares were sold, and not in connection

with children’s “toys.” The second reading of the Bill, to enable

His Majesty the King to grant a Patent was, however, lost, but the

enterprise was continued, and in 1780 the present front of the Theatre

Royal was erected with a commodious theatre, well lighted by wax

candles, and with “the passages warmed with stoves” as the performances

were to be given in the winter as well as the summer months. It was

not till 1807 that a “Patent” was secured for the Theatre which then

became the Theatre Royal, and still remains under the jurisdiction

of the Lord Chamberlain. In 1778 a “wooden building” was erected as

an “opera house,” near the Plough and Harrow, in the Moseley Road,

but this was burned down soon after. In 1792, the Theatre Royal was

destroyed by fire, and again in 1820, but the front remained unharmed

in these two great fires and the medallions of Shakespeare and Garrick

remain as placed in 1780. In both cases the fires were believed to be

incendiary and with good reason too. In 1795 the Theatre was rebuilt

and re-opened by William Macready, who remained till 1810, in which

year, on June 11, his future famous son, William Charles Macready,

appeared as Romeo,--“a young gentleman and his first appearance on any

stage.” In 1813, Macready was followed by Elliston, as lessee, and in

1819 he was succeeded by Alfred Bunn. During all this period all the

great actresses, and actors, and singers, and celebrities of the time

appeared on the Theatre Royal stage, and a very complete series of

Play Bills has fortunately been preserved. The present lessee, Mr. M.

H. Simpson, and his father have had the Theatre Royal for fifty years,

and recently additions and alterations have been made, not only in

the Theatre proper, but in the accessory rooms for actors and scenery

which have never been surpassed for extent and convenience. The Theatre

Royal was, practically, the only theatre for many years, but in 1853 a

dramatic licence was granted by the magistrates for a building on the

Bingley Hall site: in 1856 the “Music Hall” in Broad Street was built,

but in 1862 it was converted into a theatre, and opened as the Royal

Operetta House, by Mr. W. H. Swanborough. In 1866 it was bought by Mr.

James Rodgers, and in 1876 was practically rebuilt, and additions and

alterations are now in progress under Mr. Rodgers and his Son. In 1879

a license was granted to the Holte Theatre, in the Aston Lower Grounds;

and the Grand Theatre, Corporation Street, built and managed by Mr.

Andrew Melville, was opened November 14, 1883. In 1785 an Amphitheatre

existed in Livery Street and was converted into a Chapel: in King

Street the Theatre was also converted into a Chapel, and afterwards

back again to a Public Hall; and in 1827 the Circus of James Ryan,

permanently built some years later, was converted into the Circus

Chapel. In short, the great progress of Birmingham in the second half

of the last century was felt in every way: the Musical Festival was

founded, and the drama grew rapidly as the town extended and the taste

of the public improved.

THE COVENTRY INDUSTRIES.

BY W. G. FRETTON, F.S.A.

An exhaustive account of the ribbon and watch manufactures of Coventry,

with technical descriptions of the various processes involved in the

treatment of the raw material, in its progress of manufacture from its

primitive condition to its finished state, having already appeared

in the comprehensive series of articles in the midland industries,

published on the occasion of the former visit of the Association in

1865, it only remains to note the changes and additions which have been

made since that period in the Industries of Coventry.

=Ribbon Trade.=--Several causes have combined to produce a very

serious decline in the manufacture of silk fabrics, the chief of them

being the French commercial treaty, to which may be added change of

fashion, and increased competition and more rapid production by the

further development of machinery. From 1860 to 1878 the ribbon trade

in Coventry and its neighbourhood, had decreased by at least one half,

and the decline has been going on since that period, with exceptional

experiences of spasmodic improvement, ever since. Efforts have been

made in various ways to direct the textile skill of the artisans into

other channels wherein their weaving abilities might be turned to

their advantage, and the area of textile manufactures increased. In

one of these departments may be specially noticed the manufacture of

_bookmarks_, and other illuminated ribbons. This trade was chiefly

introduced by Mr. Thomas Stevens, and has been most successfully

developed by himself and other manufacturers, until their extent,

beauty of design, variety of application, &c., have been marvellous.

Portraits, valentines, presents suitable to the seasons, birthdays,

views of noted buildings, poetical sentences, mottoes, labels, and

other decorative and descriptive ornaments have been produced, which,

half a century ago, it would have been deemed impossible to produce

from a loom. But this has involved the construction of complicated

and expensive machinery, and has raised the art of loom-making

considerably. Such a trade is, after all, but limited, it is the

production of a luxury, a merchandise “which none but the rich can buy.”

=Trimming Trade.=--Another department of textile industry which has

sprung up, somewhat analogous to the Ribbon manufacture, is the

Trimming trade, for which special looms have been adopted--cambric

frilling, mainly introduced by Messrs. Cash; bead work, and other

ornamental fabrics have also been introduced.

=Cotton Spinning and Weaving.=--Soon after the decline of the ribbon

trade the attention of the Coventry manufacturers was drawn to the

experiment of introducing the cotton spinning and weaving. A large

factory with suitable annexes for carrying on a large trade was erected

on the north side of the city by a company formed in 1860, the Rev. S.

H. Widdrington, then vicar of St. Michael’s, taking a great interest

in the project. Its operations have been attended by varied success;

the distance from the centres of the cotton trade forming an obstacle

to its full development, the spinning department has received most

attention.

=Elastic Web.=--In 1859 Messrs. Dalton and Barton introduced the

manufacture of elastic webs, but afterwards disposed of this department

of their business to Mr. Pridmore, by whom it is still carried on

at Foleshill. In 1862 a company was formed for carrying on the same

kind of trade, chiefly through the instrumentality of the vicar of

St. Michael’s, and known as the Coventry Elastic Weaving Company,

and for nearly twenty years it conducted a large business, having

branches at Red Lane, Foleshill, and in White Friars’ Lane, Coventry.

Owing to a brisk competition in other weaving centres, and consequent

over-production, the company dissolved a few years ago, a portion of

the plant and trade being retained by Mr. J. C. Odell, one of the

members of the company, and still successfully carried on. There are

several firms in the city conducting similar business.

=The Bradford Stuff Manufacture= was introduced into Coventry in

1864, and established in a large disused factory, originally erected

as a cotton mill, in Hill Street, afterwards occupied as a ribbon

manufactory. The firm is known as the “Leigh” Mills Company (Limited),

the present Lord-Lieutenant of the County having shown much interest in

the promotion of this and other new industries in Coventry. Excellent

woollen and worsted goods are made here, silk and cotton being also

used in some of the varieties manufactured.

=Coach Lace and Broad Stuffs= for railway and other carriages,

trimmings for furniture, &c., are largely manufactured by Messrs.

Dalton and Barton, Messrs. Perkins and Son, and others.

=Silk Dyeing= is still carried on to a considerable extent by several

firms, and the city maintains its old character for the permanence and

brilliancy exhibited in this class of work, which is one of the ancient

staples of the city.

It will be seen that while Coventry still maintains its textile

productions in the weaving industry, its works are not confined

to ribbons, and the manufacturers and artisans generally deserve

the highest commendation for the spirit and the aptitude they have

displayed in adapting themselves to the altered circumstances of the

textile industry of the city, and the opening up of new branches of the

weaving industry has emancipated the city from dependence on the ribbon

trade alone.

Many firms are still engaged in the manufacture of ribbons, sashes,

ladies’ scarfs, &c., and during the last year or two, gauzes having

been in demand have been largely made.

=Watch Manufacturing.=--Coventry is one of the principal places in

England for this branch of manufacturing industry, and at the head of

the numerous firms engaged therein, Messrs. J. Rotherham and Sons hold

the first and oldest position. A trade of such extent, and exhibiting

so many stages of progress in its production, necessarily possesses

many features of interest, and may be divided into the following,

with minor divisions springing from them:--watch manufacturers, case

makers, engravers, springers, engine-turners, and polishers; cap

makers, dial makers, escapement, balance, pallet, roller, and lever

makers; movement, motion, index, hand, and glass makers; fuzee cutters,

gilders, examiners, and finishers; jewellers, keyless motion and

movement makers, and motioners.

The trade has been subject to many changes and fluctuations, and is at

present in a depressed state, owing largely to foreign competition,

and the production of cheap watches by means of machinery. Efforts

have been made by more than one of the Coventry firms to meet the

latter source of competition by the introduction of machinery in the

construction of various parts of the watch, and in the subdivision

of labour, more especially in the class known as “going barrels”

with various measures of success; but for the better class of watch,

the old system bids fair to maintain its position. A project for

the establishment of technical schools for special instruction in

the various processes in connection with the Coventry staple trades

in general, and that of Horology in particular, is still under

consideration, and may lead to satisfactory results. There are about

150 manufacturers of watches in Coventry.

=The Cycle Manufacture= was introduced into this city about 20 years

ago in conjunction with the making of sewing machines. The latter

branch of trade has given place almost entirely to the former, and the

reputation which the various firms engaged in the trade have succeeded

in obtaining, have placed Coventry in the first rank in this new and

peculiar manufacture. The Coventry Machinists’ Company (Cheylesmore)

were the first to introduce this trade into this country, and it is

still one of the largest of the producers. Among the rest may be

mentioned the Rudge, Premier, Singer and Co., Fleet, Centaur, Meteor,

Excelsior, Wellington, Victoria, and others, all of which have some

speciality claiming some peculiar excellence.

=Artistic Work in Metal= was introduced into Coventry chiefly by the

exertions and artistic taste of Mr. Skidmore over 30 years ago, and

has been followed out by himself, and by various Companies in the same

direction ever since. Work from the different firms established in

Coventry of great excellence, may be found in many of the principal

towns in the British Islands, and on the Continent, notably in

Lichfield and Hereford Cathedrals, Prince Consort Memorial, Burlington

House, &c. Ironfounding and agricultural implement manufacturing

has also attained a high position of excellence under the firm of

Matterson, Huxley, and Watson of this city.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The information in this section, up to the close of 1884, is taken

from the very accurate and interesting “History of the Corporation of

Birmingham,” by J. Thackray Bunce. Two vols., 1878 and 1885.

[2] In 1795 it had risen to £1,200; in 1818 to £3,000; in 1861 to

£11,000; in 1880 to £21,983; and it is reckoned that at the end of the

century the revenue of the School will be £50,000.

[3] This barn and croft were taken away in 1738 from both chief master

and usher, and their salaries raised in lieu to £88. 15s. 0d. and £60.

[4] In all these provisions boys from the manor had the preference.

[5] An alternative plan, apparently not adopted, was to have two

exhibitions of £5 each, at Catherine Hall, Cambridge; and two

fellowships of £30 a year each at the same college.

[6] The first exhibitioners were William Milner and Bartholomew

Baldwin, in 1677. Up to 1817, eighty-two exhibitioners had been

elected. In 1723, however, a chancery commission declared it a manifest

breach of trust on the Governors’ part that no exhibition had been

granted for twenty years; while on January 18, 1734, _the chief master,

having no scholars under his care_, William Spilsbury, jun., a scholar

in the _usher’s_ school, was elected exhibitioner at Oxford, no other

boy being qualified or likely to be qualified for some years.

[7] See the illustrations in _Hutton’s_ Birmingham.

[8] The first appointed were in 1752, as follows: William Latham, in

Dudley Street; Thomas Wilson, near the Old Cross; Mary Ankers, wife

of Noel Ankers, in Freeman Street; another Widow Austin, in London

Prentice Street.

[9] For some reason not very clear, the _branch_ school in Shutt Lane,

as also a drawing school established by the Governors, were in 1829

declared by a decree in Chancery to be unauthorised by the charter, and

were then discontinued.

[10] This was the original intention. But one of these two large

apartments was taken by the Governors, and the room designed for the

library was given to the commercial school in its place. The latter is

now the assembly room of the Girls High School.

[11] It should be added that Mr. Green’s report also declares that

“it is universally admitted that the present Board has discharged its

duties with all care and conscientiousness.”

[12] The present bailiff.

[13] See the development of 1883.

[14] The imposition of fees has ever been a sore point. The first

report of the new Town Council Governors was issued on January 7th,

1879, and stated that they had endeavoured to reduce these fees; and in

1880 they expressed their regret at their imposition.

[15] In 1800, there were 120 boys: in 1850, 250 boys; in 1860, 456 boys

in Grammar School, and 1080 children in the Elementary Schools: there

are now 343 boys and 195 girls in the High School: 849 boys and 644

girls in the Grammar Schools. Grand total, 1493.

[16] The number of Masters in the Grammar School was, in 1878, 26; in

the Elementary Schools there were 20 teachers and 21 monitors.

[17] Existing rights reserved; in 1878 the Head Master had 17, and the

second Master, 5 boarders.

[18] These amounts have been greatly exceeded. The annual expenditure

on exhibitions is, Boys’ High School, £690; Girls, £200; Boys’ Grammar

School, £270; Girls, £360. There is only one James Exhibition.

[19] Opened September, 1883.

[20] Five sums of £1,000 each for Scholarships, Prize Essays,

Chaplaincy, Divinity Lectureship, and Medical Tutorship.

[21] _e.g._, Law, which was shortly added.

[22] The arts department being henceforward regarded as preparatory to

the other two.

[23] In that year the present Warden, the Rev. W. H. Poulton, came into

office, and the number immediately increased to 22.

[24] The purchase value of the property was £110,000, yielding an

annual rent of £3,700. £60,000 was spent upon the building and

furnishing. The total amount of the benefaction will, in the end,

approach £200,000. As early as 1882, however, we find that the Council

“view with regret the narrow margin that is likely to exist unless

the present endowment is supplemented by other gifts,”--[Report, p.

11.]--and this anxiety is again forcibly expressed in 1885. It was

relieved in that year, however, by an “Additional Endowment Fund,” the

subscriptions to which reached £4,855.

[25] In 1882, it was ordered that wives and children of Professors,

Lecturers, and Secretaries, who died during their term of office, be

admitted to all classes without payment.

[26] Two exhibitions of £15 each, increased next year to four, awarded

by the Governors of King Edward’s Schools, and a Science Scholarship

of £20 a year, created by the Trustees of Piddock’s Charity, are also

tenable at the College.

[27] Various other societies have been formed within the college,

_e.g._, Physical, Chemical, Botanical, Poesy, and French Debating

Societies.

[28] The Libraries and Fine Art Gallery were shortly undertaken by the

town, and have never formed part of the work of the Institute.

[29] _Paid_ Teachers were substituted in 1860.

[30] The Perry Barr and Harborne Institutes had been opened previously.

[31] M. Achille Albitès.

[32] Now covered by the Schools of the Society of Friends, and where

Wyatt and Paul’s first spinning of cotton by rollers was tried.

[33] The principal object of this part is to shew the development of

the parochial system, and readers will therefore kindly notice--

1.--All architectural details are omitted, and will be found under the

head, “Architecture,” where there is anything special to notice.

2.--Particulars as to patronage, annual value of livings, number of

sittings, are, in order to economise space and prevent repetition,

relegated to a table at the end of this section, in which table all the

churches in the Borough are arranged alphabetically, irrespective of

whether they are in the parish of Birmingham, Edgbaston, or that part

of Aston parish which is within the Borough.

[34] For the records of these sales see a valuable paper by Mr. J. R.

Holliday on St. Martin’s Church, in the Transactions for 1873 of the

Archæological Section of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.

[35] See the excellent monograph, “Old St. Martin’s,” by J. T. Bunce,

1875.

[36] A copy and translation of this interesting document will be found

in Toulmin Smith’s Memorials of Old Birmingham, 1864.

[37] The materials for the historical facts are to be found in the

“Sketch of the History of Protestant Non-Conformity in Birmingham,” by

the Rev. J. R. Wreford, formerly minister of the New Meeting House,

Birmingham, 1832, and “Protestant Non-Conformity in Birmingham,” by the

Rev. J. A. James, Birmingham, 1849.

[38] See the interesting volume, “Memorials of the Old Meeting House

and Burial Ground.” by Catherine Hutton Beale. Printed for subscribers

by White and Pike, Birmingham.

[39] In the order of time there was an intermediate meeting house in

Livery Street, originally a circus, and used by the congregations

of the Old and New Meetings, whilst those meeting houses were being

rebuilt after the riots of 1791. It was afterwards occupied by a part

of the Carr’s Lane congregation, on Mr. Brewer’s resignation of the

pastorate there in 1802, and, it becoming too small, it was resolved to

build Ebenezer Chapel. The chapel in Livery Street was pulled down in

1853, and the printing establishment of M. Billing, Sons, and Co., is

built on the site.

[40] An excellent paper on the Old Church may be found in the third

vol. of the Transactions of the Archæological Section of the Birmingham

and Midland Institute.

[41] The principal chemicals manufactured on a large scale

are:--Sulphuric, Sulphurous, Hydrochloric, Nitric, Crude Carbolic,

Hydrocyanic, and Hydrofluoric Acids; Washing Soda, Bicarbonate of Soda,

Rochelle Salt, Glauber’s Salt, Carbonate of Potash, Bicarbonate of

Potash, Chlorate of Potash, Cyanide of Potassium, Iodide of Potassium,

Oxalate of Potash, Bleaching Powder, Ammonia, Sulphate of Ammonia, Sal

Ammoniac, Carbonate of Ammonia, Precipitated Chalk, Bisulphite of Lime,

Citrate of Magnesia, Fluid Magnesia, Nitrates of Barium and Strontium,

Sulphate of Copper, Phosphorus, Milk of Sulphur, Tin Crystals, Benzol,

Toluene, Xylene, Phenol, Naphthalene, Crude Anthracene, and other Tar

Products, Fruit Essences.

[42] Mungo consists of tailors’ scraps of cloth torn up into shreds,

and rendered suitable for working up afresh. Shoddy is a similar

material, but made from old garments instead of new material.

[43] A heavy knife used for cutting down sugar cane.

[44] Among goldbeaters Gypsum goes by the name of talc

[45] I am indebted to my colleague Mr. A. H. Hiorns for these

particulars.

[46] Sometimes “the process is simply performed by rubbing two pieces

of bone quite flat on a smooth stone, and then cutting in one of the

pieces the shape required, leaving a hole through to the edge by which

to pour in the metal.”--Mr. C. B. Bragg.

[47] For these particulars I am indebted to my colleague, Mr. A. H.

Irons.

[48] “Birmingham and Midland Hardware District,” edited by Samuel

Timmins, London, Hardwicke, 1866.

[49] The screw hand-press so generally used in Birmingham trades was

the first great means of cheapening the making of steel pens, which had

previously been made by hand, in Sheffield and London. Mr. Mitchell,

Mr. Joseph Gillott, and Sir Josiah Mason, were the first to make steel

pens by press work.--Ed.

[50] This mechanism was first used by James Watt, for copying

medallions and busts, and his machines are still preserved at

Heathfield Hall, Handsworth.--Ed.

[51] For the Enfield-Martini of 0·4″ bore, the thickness is 0·130 inch,

and the disc cut out is 1·205 in diameter.

[52] I am indebted to Mr. J. W. Davis for these particulars.

[53] In these cases the value of the gold is trifling as compared with

the labour expended, hence there is every confidence in the value of

the metal.

[54] The statistics given have been supplied by Messrs. Crawley,

Parsons and Co.

[55] I have been surprised to note Birmingham made pearl buttons put

on cards headed _Nouveauté, Paris_. I understand that many of these

buttons are sent to the United States.--C. J. W.

[56] Sir William Thomson has proposed intervals corresponding to

the dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet in order to distinguish

lighthouses. C. J. W.

[57] It is interesting to know that Mr. Edward White Benson, father of

the present Archbishop of Canterbury, was associated with Mr. Askin in

the early experiments on extraction of nickel.

[58] Mr. Henry Bore, who has been connected with the Perryan Pen Works

for nearly thirty years, has in the press a work dealing principally

with the origin of pen making. Mr. Bore’s investigation points to Mr.

John Mitchell as the first to introduce the making of pens by means of

tools principally if not entirely his invention, but there is little

doubt that the use of steel pens by the writing public is due in the

first instance to the energy of Mr. James Perry, who was assisted in

this work by the late Sir Josiah Mason.

[59] An amalgam of gold is spread on the work to be gilt. The article

is then put in an oven and heated till the mercury escapes, leaving

the gold behind. Military buttons and ornaments are gilt in this

manner.--C. J. W.

[60] Ramsay. Quart. Journal Geol. Society, 1855, p. 191, &c.

[61] Jukes, South Staffordshire Coalfield, 2nd Edition, p. 15.

[62] For a Note by the writer on the distribution of this species in

Britain, see _Midland Naturalist_, Vol. 1, 1878, p. 323.

[63] Those who are interested in the Embryology of these lowly

creatures will find a paper upon the subject by Professor E. Ray

Lankester, in the “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.”

Part I. 1875.

[64] A paper by Professor E. Ray Lankester on the Invaginate planula,

or Diploblastic phase of _Paludina vivipara_, may be found in the

“Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science.” New Series. No. 58.

April, 1875.

[65] For a paper by the writer on this habit in the Mollusca, see

“Conchological Journal,” Vol. I., p. 401, et seq. 1874-8.

[66] See the “Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,” New Series,

No. 56, October, 1875, for the Embryology of _L. stagnalis_, by

Professor E. Ray Lankester.

[67] For detailed description see “On a group of minerals from

Lilleshall, Salop, by C. J. Woodward.” “Quarterly Journal Geological

Society,” August, 1883, p. 466.

[68] For particulars relating to this mine, I am indebted to Mr. W.

Yelland.

[69] Professor Maskelyne in Report of the British Association Committee

on Luminous Meteors, 1876, p. 166, quoted in a paper by Townshend. Mr.

Hall on “Contributions towards a History of British Meteorites,” in the

“Mineralogical Magazine,” 1879.

INDEX.

Almshouses, xvi., xvii., xix.

Architecture, 118

Art Gallery, xiii.

Art Gallery Purchase Fund, xviii.

Art, School of, xviii.

Artists (Local), 132

Cox, David, 128

Jones, E. Burne, 131

Mason, Geo., 130

Aston Hall, 126

Baskerville, John, 9

Baths and Parks, xi.

BOTANY--

Algæ, 335

Flowering Plants, Ferns, etc. of Warwickshire, 316

Worcestershire, 320

Staffordshire, 327

Fungi, 339

Hepaticæ, 333

Ick, Wm., 313

Introductory remarks, 311

Lichens, 333

Mosses of Warwickshire, 331

Worcestershire, 332

Staffordshire, 333

Perry, W. G., 313

Purton, Tho., 312

Students’ Garden, 315

Withering, Wm., 312

Botanical Gardens, 357

Boulton, M., 10

Chamberlain, J. H., 52, 57, 125

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS--

Blind Institution, 93

Children’s Hospital, 88

Deaf and Dumb, 92

Dental Hospital, 89

Dispensary, 85

Ear and Throat Hospital, 89

Eye Hospital, 86

General Hospital, 81

Homœopathic Hospital, 90

Lying-in Charity, 87

Orthopædic Hospital, 86

Queen’s Hospital, 83

Sanatorium, 90

Skin and Lock Hospital, 91

Women’s Hospital, 91

Clubs, xx.

Contributors, v.

Corporation, History of, ix.

Corporation Land, xiv.

Cotton Spinning, 9

COVENTRY INDUSTRIES--

Artistic Work in Metal, 370

Bradford Stuff Manufacture, 368

Coach Lace, etc., 368

Cotton Spinning and Weaving, 367

Cycle Manufacture, 369

Elastic Web, 367

Ribbon Trade, 366

Silk Dyeing, 368

Trimming Trade, 369

Watch Manufacturing, 368

Dawson, Geo., 112, 133

Debating Societies, 74, 79

Deritend Chapel, 5

Dickens, Ch., 78

Directories, 9

Drainage Board, 14

Dudley Trust, xviii.

ECCLESIASTICAL--

Aston, Parish of, 94, 102

Baptists, 107, 116

Birmingham, Parish of, 94

Burial Grounds, 117

Cemeteries, 117

Chapels, 106

Churches, 94

Congregationalists, 109, 113, 116

Dissenters--see Nonconformists, 105

Edgbaston, Parish of, 94, 101

Friends, Society of, 110, 116

Jewish Synagogue, 112

Methodists, 111, 113, 116

Nonconformist Churches and Chapels, 105

Parishes of the Borough, 94

Presbyterians, 112

Quakers (see Friends), 110, 116

Roman Catholics, 113, 116

Swedenborgians, 113

Unitarians, 106, 116

Wesleyans, 110, 116

Elementary Education, 58

Religious Education and Voluntary Schools, 60

Technical School, 59

Free Libraries, xviii.

Gas and Water Companies, xiii.

GEOLOGY & PHYSIOGRAPHY--

Abberley, 218

Anticlinal, 217

Archæan Rocks, 222

Arden, Forest of, 216

Arenig Rocks, 240

Atherstone, 225, 256

Aymestry Limestone, 230

Axes of Elevation, 214, 217

Bala Rocks, 240

Bangham Pit, 236

Barnt Green, 213, 226

Barr Beacon, 214, 240

Barr, Great, 214, 227, 240

Barr Limestone, 228

Bibliography of Birmingham Geology, 263, 265

Birmingham Plateau, 215

Black Country, 213, 216, 232

Boulder Clay, 248, 253

Boulder Clay, lower, 249

Boulder Clay, upper, 249, 252

Brazil Wood, 256

Breccia, Volcanic, 235

Bridgnorth, 238

Bromsgrove, 242

Brooch Coal, 231

Budleigh Salterton, 237

Bunter, 237, 250

Caldecote, Volcanic Rocks of, 223, 225

California, 241, 249

Cambrian Rocks, 218, 221, 224-227

Cannock Chase, 213, 232, 239

Caradoc Rocks, 240

Carboniferous Rocks, 218, 221, 230-234

Carboniferous Limestone, 230, 234, 241

Charnwood Forest, 217, 221

Charnwood Forest, Rocks of, 223, 256

Chilvers Coton, 226

Clent Hills, 214, 236, 253

Coalfield, Forest of Wyre, 218, 230, 234

Coalbrookdale, 218, 230, 234

Coalfield, South Staffordshire, 218, 227, 230

Coal Measures, 218, 230, 234

Coal, 260

Coalfield, Coalbrookdale, 234

Coalfield, Warwickshire, 234

Copt Heath, 248

Croft, 224

Crystalline Rocks, 221

Devonian Rocks, 241

Drainage of Mines, 262

Dost Hill, 226

Droitwich, 243

Dudley, 214, 216, 218, 227, 230, 234

Dudley, Limestone of, 229, 261

Edge Hill, 245

Edgbaston, 215

Enderby, 224

Enville, 235

Erratic Blocks, 249, 251

Fenny Compton, 245

Fire Clay, 260

Fossils, Cambrian, 224, 227

Carboniferous, 233, 241

Devonian, 241

Lias, 245

Ordovician, 240

Post Tertiary, 252

Rhætic, 247

Silurian, 228, 240

Trias, 241

Fundamental Rocks, 221, 224

Geology, 216, 265

Geological Formation, Table of, 220, 221

Glacial Deposits, 248, 253

Glacial Sands, 249

Gypsum, 242

Hailstone Quarry, 259

Halesowen, Sandstone, 230, 232

Hamstead, 232, 262

Harborne, 215

Harbury, 245, 248

Hartshill, Rocks of, 225

Hawkesbury, 234

Heathen Coal, 230

Hockley, 241

Hollybush Sandstone, Fossils of, 224

Hollybush Sandstone, 221, 224, 227

Igneous Rocks, 221, 225, 233, 236, 250, 253, 254-260

Insect Beds, 246

Ironstones, 231, 260

Jurassic Rocks, 220, 244-248

Ketley, 252

Keuper, 237

Keuper Sandstone, 243

Keuper Marls, 219, 237, 240

King’s Heath, 242

Kinlet, 260

Kinver Edge, 239

Laurentian Rocks, 222

Lea Rock, 222, 258

Lias, 244-247

Lias, Lower, 246

Lias, Upper, 245

Lias, White, 245, 247

Lichfield, 240

Lickey, Quartzite of, 226

Lickey Hills, 213, 218, 226, 228, 236

Lilleshall, 252

Lima Beds, 245

Limestone, Dudley, 261

Lingula Flags, 224

Lingula Flags, Fossils of, 224

Llandovery Rocks, 226, 228, 240

Ludlow Rocks, 228

Malvern Hills, 217, 254

Malvern Hills, Rocks of, 221, 224, 254

Marlstone, 245

Marston Jabet, 257

Mason College, Museum of, 229, 253

Mayhill Sandstone, 227, 240

Mesozoic Rocks, 220

Metamorphism, 256

Midland Plain, 213, 219

Millstone Grit, 230, 234

Mining Statistics, 260-263

Moseley, 215

Mottled Sandstone, Lower, 237

” ” , Upper, 237, 241

New Mine Coal, 231

Nuneaton, 216, 218, 256

Nuneaton, Rocks of, 223, 225

Old Red Sandstone, 218, 221

Ordovician Rocks, 220, 240

Palæozoic Rocks, 216, 236

Pebble Beds, 237, 239, 244

Pentamerus Rocks, 228

Permian Rocks, 220, 235

Permian Sandstone, 235

Permian Breccia, 235

Petrography, 254

Physiography, 213, 216, 238

Pig Iron, 261

Post Glacial Deposits, 253

Post Tertiary Deposits, 248, 253

Park Hill, 234, 259

Primary Rocks, 216-236

Quartzite, Hartshill, 225

” Lickey, 226, 227

Rea, River, 215

Rhætic Rocks, 247

Rhyolites, 222, 258

Rock Formations, Local, 220

Rowley Regis, 214, 233, 250, 259

Rowington, 243

Rubery, 226, 228

Sapcote, 224

Saltley, 215

Sandwell Park, 232

Secondary Rocks, 220

Sedgley, 214, 216, 227, 229

Shinton Shales, 222, 227

” ” Fossils of, 227

Shustoke, 253

Silurian Rocks, 218, 227, 230

Smallheath Park, 242

Sorrel, Mount, 223, 255

Spirorbis Limestone, 230

Square Work, Mining, 262

Steel, 261

Stourbridge, 239

Stockingford Shales, 225

Sutton Park, 215, 239

Swinnerton Park, 260

Tame River, 213, 215

Tamworth, 226, 234

Thick Coal, 231-234, 262

Titterstone Clee Hill, 259

Tremadoc Rocks, 224

Trentham, 241

Trias, 217, 219, 237-244

Triassic Rocks, how formed, 243

Tattle Hill, 226

Walsall, 228, 230, 234, 259

Warwick, 242

Waterstones, 237, 241

Water Supply, 244

Wellington, 217, 252, 258

Wenlock Limestone, 229

Weoley Castle, 249

Wilmcote, 246

Wolverhampton, 251

Woolhope Limestone, 228

Wooton Wawen, 248

Wrekin, 218, 222, 227, 258

” Rocks of, 222, 227

Wren’s Nest, 214, 216, 227

GRAMMAR SCHOOL--

Bill of 1830-31, 30

Branch Schools, 29, 31

Corruption in Management of, 29

First Statutes, 27

Foundation; Revenue, 26

Head Masters, 37

Honours Gained by Pupils, 36

New Scheme for, 33

Number of Scholars, 34

Present Building, 31

Reform Association, 33

Scholarships; Second Building, 28

Gifts to the Town, xvi.

Guinea Gardens, 358

Hollins, Geo., 143

Hospital Saturday, xx.

” Sunday Collection, xx.

Jaffray Suburban Hospital, xix.

Leland’s Visit, 1538, 5

Lench’s Trust, xvi.

LIBRARIES--

Byron, Cervantes, & Milton Collections, 73

Early, 65

Free, 69

” Rate Unlimited, xiii.

Shakespeare Memorial, 73

Suburban, 74

Sunday Opening, 74

Lunar Society, 75

Magazines, 78, 79

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES--

Ammunition, 199

Arc Lighting, 184

Assay Office, 177

Assayed Wares (Table), 178

Automatic Machinery, 173

” Shaping, 173

” Turning, 173

Bedsteads, 178

Bit, or Doctor, 175

Brassfoundry, 180

Block Paper, 179

Boiler Plate, 179

Britannia Metal, 202

Bullion Trade, 181

Buttons (Pearl), 181

Canal Traffic, 151

Cast Iron Ware, 181

Cementation, 171

Champlevé process, 204

Chilled Castings, 170

Classification of, 152

Clocks, 183

Cloisonné, 203

Cobalt, 201

Coinage, 182

Colouring, 176

Copper, Prices of, 180

Dealers and Merchants, 156

Dependent Manufactures, 155

Dipping, 176

Doctor, or Bit, 175

Drawing Through, 174

Electric Lighting, 183

” ” Town Hall, 184

Enfield-Martini Rifle, 174, 196

Fire Clay, Stourbridge, 206

Fish Hooks, 200

Gas Holders, 180

German Silver, 201

Glass, Crown, 202

” Flint, 186

” Plate, 202

” Sheet, 202

Gold Cutting, 176

Goods Traffic, 151

Hydraulic Machinery, 187

Hinges, 187

Hollow Ware, 181

Implements and Tools, 155

Jewellery, 187

Artistic Progress, 189

Bullion used, 188

Charges, 188

Chemistry, 189

Distribution, 190

Labour and Wages, 188

Mechanical Conditions, 189

Precious Stones, 190

Prices, 190

Lacquering, 176

Lapping, 176

Lighthouse Apparatus, 191

Locks, 193

Magic Lantern Slide Painting, 193

Martini-Henry Rifle, 196

Matchets, 206

Measuring Rules, 193

Mercury Gilding, 206

Military Arms, 194

Mint, Birmingham, 183

Monkey, or Spirit, 175

Nails (cut), 199

Needles, 200

Nickel, 201

Papier Mâché, 202

Parasols, 210

Pewter, 202

Pins, 200

Plate Duty (Table), 178

Plated Wares, 203

Press Tool Work, 172

Processes, 156

Refrigeration, 204

Rifles, 194

Rolling, 171

Rolling Cross, 171

Rope Making, 204

Salt, 206

Sand Blast, 176

Scratch Brushing, 176

Shaping, 173

Soldering, 175

Spinning, 174

Spirit, or Monkey, 175

Stamping, 172

Steel Pen Trade, 205

Swords, 206

Tin Plate Ware, 206

” (Waste), 208

Tools, 208

Tube Drawing, 171

Tubes, Taper, 172

Umbrellas, 210

Watch Manufacture, 210

Welding (Gas), 180

Wire Drawing, 171

” Mattresses, 179

” (Steel), 212

” Working, 211

_Materials used_--

Acids, 158

Alloys, 170

Bessemer Process, 169

Button Lac, 168

Carnubia Wax (Brazil), 168

Carozo Nuts, 168

Casting, 170

Chemicals, 152, 159

Chili Bars, 170

Copper, 170

Cow Hair, 168

Cryolite, 167

Dye Stuffs, 164

Gums, 161

Gum Animi, 168

” Kourie, 168

Istle, 168

Kittool, 168

Lard Oil, 168

Lead, 170

Leather and Fabrics, 162

Lemon Peel, 168

Metals, 157

Metals and Alloys, 169

Mica, 160, 168

Nitrate of Soda, 167

Oils, 161

Ores, 156, 169

Piassava, 168

Pigments, 160

Stones, 160

Talc, 165

Varnishes, 162

Woods, 163

Mason, Sir Josiah, 45

MASON SCIENCE COLLEGE--

Connection with Queen’s College Academic Board, 51

Cost and Endowment, xviii.

Liberty to vary Course of Instruction, 48

Library, 52

Non-theological and Non-political Character of, 48

Objects, Foundation Deed, Trustees, 46

Town Council represented on; Opening of, 50

Magazines, 78, 79

Mechanics Institute, 77

Metallurgical Classes, 57

Meteorological Observatory, 57

MIDLAND INSTITUTE--

Canon Kingsley’s Address: Formation of Classes in Laws of Health, 55

Formation of Teachers’ Board, 58

Government of, 53

New Buildings of, 55

Objects and Origin, 52

Removal of School of Art; Expansion of Metallurgical Classes, 57

Union of Teachers and Students, 56

Voluntary Classes, 54

Municipal School of Art, xviii., 61

Murdock, W., 133, 141

Music, 141

Musical Festivals, 82, 142

Newspapers, 79, 361

Newman, Cardinal, 113, 133

News Rooms, 68, 69

Old Houses, 6, 118

Orphanages, xvii., xix.

Osler, A. F., 76

Pamphlets, 78

Painting, 127

Parks & Recreation Grounds, xii.

Philosophical Institutions, 76

Picture Exhibitions, 76, 133

Portraits, 133

Post Office Growth, xv.

Priestley, Dr., 66, 107, 140

Prince Rupert’s Raid, 7

Printers and Booksellers, 8

QUEEN’S COLLEGE--

Abolition of Religious Qualification, 42

Charity Commissioners’ Scheme for, in 1867, 41

Collegiate System, 40

Connection with Mason College, 44

Decay of, 41

Foundation of, 37

Original character of, 39

Scholarships: Present condition of, 44

Strict Church of England character of, 38

Various Departments and Chairs, 42, 43

Sanatorium, 90

School of Art Building, xviii.

Foundation and Progress, 61-63

School Board Scholarships, 60

School of Medicine, 77

Sculpture, 135

Society of Arts and Exhibitions, 76

Soho Circle, 11

Soho Works, 10

Statues, 139

Sunday Lectures, 358

Technical School, 59

Theatres, 362

Town Council & Committees, 21

Town Hall, 119

Watt, James, 141

Women’s Hospital, 92

Wyatt, John, 9

ZOOLOGY--

Birds, 275

Accipitres, 275

Alectorides, 280

Anseres, 283

Columbæ, 279

Fulicariæ, 280

Gallinæ, 279

Gaviæ, 281

Herodiones, 282

Limicolæ, 280

Odontoglossæ, 283

Passeres, 276

Picariæ, 279

Pterocletes, 279

Pygopodes, 282

Steganopodes, 282

Tubinares, 282

Fishes, 285

Abdominal Malacopterygii, 286

Acanthopterygii, 286

Apodal Malacopterygii, 288

Chondropterygii, 289

Subbrachial Malacopterygii, 288

Insects, 293

Introduction, 266

Coleoptera, 294

Lepidoptera, 301

Mammals, 269

Carnivora, 270

Cheiroptera, 269

Insectivora, 270

Pachydermata, 273

Rodentia, 271

Ruminantia, 272

Microscopic Fauna, 305

Annelida, etc., 309

Arachnida, 305

Crustacea, 306

Entomostraca, 306

Hydrozoa, 309

Infusoria, 309

Insecta, 305

Polyzoa, 307

Rhizopoda, 310

Rotifera, 307

Spongida, 309

Mollusca, 289

Conchifera, 290

Gasteropoda, 291

Reptiles, 273

Anoura, 274

Ophidia, 274

Sauria, 273

Saurophidia, 273

Urodela, 274

Printed by Hall and English, High Street, Birmingham

[Illustration:

GEOLOGICAL SKETCH-MAP

OF THE

BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT.

By CHAS. LAPWORTH, LL.D., F.G.S.

J. Bartholomew, Edinr.

HALL & ENGLISH, LITHRS., BIRMINGHAM.

FOUNDED ON THE MAPS OF H.M. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, AND EMBODYING THE

RESULTS OF THE RECENT RESEARCHES OF MIDLAND GEOLOGISTS.]