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.