B 1 R 



44G 



B 1 It 



the merchants the forms of the numerous articles prepared 

 by brass and iron-founders and other manufacturers. Artists 

 in these several lines have been thus drawn to the place, 

 and the art* themselves are cultivated to a degree of perfec- 

 tion before unknown out of the metropolis. 



The establishment of gas companies gave an impetus to 

 the manufacture of tube* of various descriptions, as well 

 as to the taste of the designer in forming graceful combina- 

 tions for the introduction of the new and beautiful light into 

 shops and houses. 



Some branches of the cotton manufacture have been lo- 

 calized in Birmingham, such as those of webbing for braces 

 and girths, cords, lines, &c., probably on account of the fa- 

 cility with which the requisite machinery could be procured. 



The umbrella trade arose from the demand for the brass 

 furniture of these useful contrivances; which led to an at- 

 tempt to execute orders for the article complete. 



In the nail manufacture, as carried on in Birmingham, 

 machinery is used by which well-formed nails are cut 

 out of sheet-iron, with a rapidity which leaves far behind 

 the swiftest motion of the muscles in snipping paper with 

 scissors. Kails thus cut receive by powerful pressure well 

 formed heads, while a happy application of chemical science, 

 in annealing, gives them a tenacity which almost rivals 

 the productions of the fire and the hammer. A more de- 

 sirable object could, indeed, be hardly conceived than that 

 of finally superseding by improved methods the slavish 

 labour of the nail-block, which still employs, at a rate of 

 wages hardly sufficient tu support life, from 20,000 to 30,000 

 persons in the neighbourhood of Dudley and other places 

 on the north-west side of Birmingham. 



Screws are also formed with beautiful precision without 

 heat, and by a series of mechanical contrivances which re- 

 move the severity of the labour, and render the attention 

 and superintendence of women and children nearly suffi- 

 cient, 



The machine used for the making of button-shanks is 

 another of those aids to human industry in which the most 

 intricate motions, regularly repeated, are successfully imi- 

 tated. A single revolution of the machine cuts the suitable 

 length from the wire, bends it into its proper curves, and 

 gives to its extremities the flattening which is necessary to 

 lix the shank to the surface of the button. 



Of the more ponderous apparatus that of the rolling- 

 mills is the most interesting. In these a vast force is 

 necessary, in order, by simple compression, to dilate into 

 a long and thin sheet the bar or ingot of metal. The 

 action of the steam-engine, the source of motion, the rapid 

 revolution of the large and heavy lly, almost baffling the 

 eye in its efforts to follow its course, and the perpetual whirl 

 of the rollers elongating the hard material presented to 

 them, altogether give to the stranger a striking example of 

 the wonderful power and almost endless application of the 

 force of steam. Steam-engines are now very numerous in 

 Birmingham, the number being about 110, and the total 

 power, technically expressed, is nearly that of 2000 horses. 

 In fact, steam-power is an article produced in great quan- 

 tities for sale. A person who conducts a small manufactory 

 in the vicinity of a principal steam-engine, willingly pays a 

 certain sum as rent in order that he may be allowed to 

 bring into his building a revolving shaft to give motion to 

 his range of lathes, as the work executed by each man is 

 much increased if he be relieved from the labour of turning 

 the wheel. 



Every condensing steam-engine of moderate size pours 

 forth a constant stream of hot water, now suffered to runoff to 

 , sufficient to keep constantly heated to 100 a tank 

 lur containing from 1000 to 2000 cubic feet. A very- 

 trifling outlay would, from such a source, form a system of 

 warm-baths surpassing in the abundant supply of water, and 

 in the price at which it could be obtained, the most splendid 

 bathing establishment* of imperial Rome. The luxury of 

 m-l>:itli might be thus enjoyed at a cost consistent 

 with the means of persons in every class. The use of such 

 would give to the working man, soiled and exhausted 

 with tlic labours of the. day, a feeling of healthy enjoyment 

 of which at present he lias no conception, and' woiili 

 him forth in a fit condition for enjoying rational recreation, 

 or for profiting by those means of instruction which arc 

 offered to him l>y the various existing institutions. (See 

 BtrMtMfAsM ana Us I'trintty, by W. Hawkes Smith, pt. i., 

 p. 15, l.<m<lon. C. Tilt, IH:M.) 



The principal staple machines of the workshops are the 



stain]), the press, the lathe, and the draw-bench. Th 

 stamp and press are used to multiply copies of a given form 

 engraven on a die, or to cut out pieces of metal of similar 

 size and shape : the former, by the sudden blow of ;. 

 MMOding Weight ; the latter, by tlie gradual but nun 

 fectivc descent of the die, urged by a screw worked round 

 by a long and loaded arm. 



The hahr is well known as the instrument used in turn- 

 ing, or producing, by the action of a sharp chisel or cut' 

 tool on the rapidly revolving material, correctly cir. 

 forms ; and it is most extensively in use in smoothing and 

 polishing the various metallic wares. An ingenious addi- 

 tion renders the lathe applicable to the production of avml 

 form;'. 



The action of the draw-bench is to elongate a piece of 

 metal, while an equable thickness i-. pn-ciu-.!. by forcibly 

 drawing it through a small hole in a steel-plate. Thi-> is 

 not only useful in the wire manufactory, but also in the 

 lengthening of tubes ; in regulating the surfaces of \ 

 cylindrical and other continuous figures, as the bodies of 

 candlesticks, pencil-cases. Sic. ; and in giving uniform 

 folds, or moulded curves to strips of metal for various pur- 

 poses. 



With these few contrivances to assist the file, the hammer, 

 and other hand-tools, the skilful workman produces the in- 

 finitely varied fabrics of ornament and utility for which the 

 town is so much celebrated. 



It is not difficult to obtain access to most of the manu- 

 facturing establishments in Birmingham, and the visilur, in 

 the course of his researches, is equally delighted by the 

 power and precision of the machinery employed in 

 branches, and by the ingenuity of hand which is still required 

 in others. 



The working population of Birmingham has rapidly in- 

 creased within a few years, and now composes the great 

 bulk of the inhabitants. A reference to the parochial ac- 

 counts shows, that out of a total of 30,600 assessments, 

 ) 6,000, or a large half, arc composed of those which are rated 

 at jf. per annum and under ; and 8060, or more than ano- 

 ther fourth, from 5/. to 8/. 



Education. Charities. In the ' Twentieth Report of 

 the Commissioners for Inquiring into Charities' (dated 1'Jth 

 July, 1828), 114 folio pages ore devoted to the charities 

 of Birmingham. We avail ourselves of this to give some 

 account of the establishments for education. 



Free Grammar -School. The Free Grammar-School was 

 founded and chartered by Edward VI., in the fifth year 

 | of his reign, ' for the education, institution, and in- 

 : lion of boys and youths in grammar.' Tho government nf 

 j the school and the management of the revenues were \ 

 I in twenty discreet and trusty men of the town and parish, 

 who were in the first instance nominated by the crown, but 

 were empowered to fill up the future vacancies which might 

 occur in their own body. They were constituted a body 

 corporate, with power to have and receive of the king or 

 others lands and other possessions for the purposes of the 

 charity. The school was then endowed by the king with 

 the property of the dissolved religious establishment called 

 the Guild of the Holy Cross, which was to be held in 

 common soccage at a rent of 20. per annum. Th. 

 vernors were to nominate the masters, and, in concur- 

 rence with the bishop of the diocese, were from time t.i 

 time to make written ordinances for the government of 

 the school. It would be tedious to recapitulate the minor 

 details in the history of this establishment, und we shall 

 therefore merely describe its state in 1828; only pre\ ; 

 mentioning that since 1676 a sum has been M-I apart to 

 furnish exhibitions at Oxford or Cambridge, lor scholars 

 chosen from the more advanced pupils of li. 

 amount appropriated to this purpose, and the number of the 

 exhibitions, have been altered from time to time: but since 

 1796 the number has been ten, at 35/. each. The succes- 

 sive regulations made by the governors appear \ 

 rally to have been framed with the view of adapting tint 

 establishment as nearly as possible to the changing < 

 of the community. The income of the charily c-lati-s, 

 winch consist of numerous houses and other buildn 

 the town, erected for the most part under building 1 

 granted for long terms of years, and of pasture -gr- 

 and gardens adjacent to the town, amounted in fsJ7 to 

 .'t.'tl-l/. 14s. \d. ; and it was then calculated that, through the 

 expiring of leases, it would become about 9000/. by the year 

 1840, nd about ll.OOO/. by 1850. The actual income 



