Planes.—Carpenters' planes were supplied to our factors in 1760 by William Moss, and his descendants were in the business as late as 1844. Messrs. Atkins and Sons have long been celebrated makers, their hundreds of patterns including all kinds that could possibly he desired by the workman. Woodwork is so cut, carved, and moulded by machinery now, that these articles are not so much in demand, and the local firms who make them number only a dozen.
Plated Wares.—Soho was celebrated for its plated wares as early as 1766; Mr. Thomason (afterwards Sir Edward) commenced the plating in 1796; and Messrs. Waterhouse and Ryland, another well-known firm in the same line, about 1808, the material used being silver rolled on copper, the mountings silver, in good work, often solid silver. The directory of 1780 enumerates 46 platers, that of 1799 96 ditto; their names might now be counted on one's finger ends, the modern electro-plating having revolutionised the business, vastly to the prosperity of the town.
Puzzles.—The Yankee puzzle game of "Fifteen," took so well when introduced into this country (summer of 1880), that one of our local manufacturers received an order to supply 10,000 gross, and he was clever enough to construct a machine that made 20 sets per minute.
Railway Waggon Works.—With the exception of the carriage building works belonging to the several great railway companies, Saltley may be said to be the headquarters of this modern branch of industry, in which thousands of hands are employed. The Midland Railway Carriage and Waggon Co. was formed in 1853, and has works of a smaller scale at Shrewsbury. The Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Waggon Co. was originated in London, in 1845, but removed to Saltley in 1862, which year also saw the formation of the Union Rolling Stock Co. The capital invested in the several companies is very large, and the yearly value sent out is in proportion, more rolling stock being manufactured here than in all the other towns in the kingdom put together, not including the works of the railway companies themselves. Many magnificent palaces on wheels have been made here for foreign potentates, Emperors, Kings, and Queens, Sultans, and Kaisers, from every clime that the iron horse has travelled in, as well as all sorts of passenger cars, from the little narrow-gauge vehicles of the Festiniog line, on which the travellers must sit back to back, to the 60ft. long sleeping-cars used on the Pacific and Buenos Ayers Railway, in each compartment of which eight individuals can find sleeping accommodation equal to that provided at many of the best hotels, or the curious-looking cars used on Indian railways, wherein the natives squat in tiers, or, as the sailor would say, with an upper and lower deck.
Ropemaking is a trade carried on in many places, but there are few establishments that can equal the Universe Works in Garrison Lane, where, in addition to hundreds of tons of twine and cord, there are manufactured all sorts of wire and hemp ropes for colliery and other purposes, ocean telegraph cables included. Messrs. Wright introduced strain machinery early in 1853, and in the following year they patented a rope made of best hemp and galvanised wire spun together by machinery. On a test one of these novelties, 4-1/4in. circumference, attached to two engines, drew a train of 300 tons weight. To supply the demand for galvanised signalling and fencing cords, the machines must turn out 15,000 yards of strand per day.
Rulemaking, though formerly carried on in several places, is now almost confined to this town and the metropolis, and as with jewellery so with rules, very much of what is called "London work" is, in reality, the produce of Birmingham. Messrs. Rabone Brothers are the principal makers, and the boxwood used is mostly obtained from Turkey and the Levant, but the firm does not confine itself solely to the manufacture of wood rules, their steel tapes, made up to 200ft in one length, without join of any sort, being a specialty highly appreciated by surveyors and others.
Saddlery.—One of the oldest local trades, as Lelaud, in 1538, speaks of "lorimers" as being numerous then. That there was an important leather market is certain (Hutton thought it had existed for 700 years), and we read of "leather sealers" among the local officers as well as of a "Leather Hall," at the east end of New Street. The trade has more than quadrupled during the last 25 years, about 3,000 hands being now engaged therein, in addition to hundreds of machines.
Screws.—In olden days the threads of a screw had to be filed out by hand, and the head struck up on the anvil. The next step was to turn them in a lathe, but in 1849 a Gerimn clockmaker invented a machine by which females could make them five times as fast as the most skilful workman, and, as usual, the supply created a demand; the trade for a few years received many additions, and the "screw girders," as the hard-working lasses were called, were to be met with in many parts of the town. 1852, 1,500 hands were employed, the output being from 20 to 25 tons per week, or 2,000,000 gross per year. Gradually, however, by the introduction and patenting of many improvements in the machinery, the girls were, in a great measure, dispensed with, and their employers as well, Messrs. Nettlefold and Chamberlain having, in 1865, nearly the whole trade in their hands, and sending out 150,000 gross of screws per week. Nearly 2,000 people are employed at Nettlefold's, including women and girls, who feed and attend the screw and nail-making machines. Notwithstanding the really complicated workings of the machines, the making of a screw seems to a casual visitor but a simple thing. From a coil of wire a piece is cut of the right length by one machine, which roughly forms a head and passes it on to another, in which the blank has its head nicely shaped, shaved, and "nicked" by a revolving saw. It than passes by an automatic feeder into the next machine where it is pointed and "wormed," and sent to be shook clear of the "swaff" of shaving cut out for the worm. Washing and polishing in revolving barrels precedes the examination of every single screw, a machine placing them one by one so that none can be missed sight of. Most of the 2,000 machines in use are of American invention, but improved and extended, all machinery and tools of every description being made by the firm's own workpeople.
Sewing Machines.—The various improvements in these machines patented by Birmingham makers may be counted by the gross, and the machines sent out every year by the thousands. The button-hole machine was the invention of Mr. Clements.
Sheathing Metal.—In a newspaper called The World, dated April 16, 1791, was an advertisement beginning thus—"By the King's patent, tinned copper sheets and pipes manufactured and sold by Charles Wyatt, Birmingham, and at 19, Abchurch lane, London." It was particularly recommended for sheathing of ships, as the tin coating would prevent the corrosion of the copper and operate as "a preservative of the iron placed contiguous to it." Though an exceedingly clever man, and the son of one of Birmingham's famed worthies, Mr. Charles Wyatt was not fortunate in many of his inventions, and his tinned copper brought him in neither silver nor gold. What is now known as sheathing or "yellow" metal is a mixture of copper, zinc, and iron in certain defined proportions, according as it is "Muntz's metal," or "Green's patent," &c. Several patents were taken out in 1779, 1800, and at later dates, and, as is usual with "good things," there has been sufficient squabbling over sheathing to provide a number of legal big-wigs with considerable quantities of the yellow, metal they prefer. George Frederick Muntz, M.P., if not the direct inventor, had the lion's share of profit in the manufacture, as the good-will of his business was sold for £40,000 in 1863, at which time it was estimated that 11,000 tons of Muntz's mixture was annually made into sheathing, ships' bolts, &c., to the value of over £800,000. The business was taken to by a limited liability company, whose capital in March, 1884, was £180,000, on which a 10 per cent, dividend was realised. Elliott's Patent Sheathing and Metal Co. was formed in.1862.