[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.