Snuff-boxes.—A hundred years ago, when snuff-taking was the mode, the manufacture of japanned, gilt, and other snuff-boxes gave employment to large numbers here. Of one of these workmen it is recorded that he earned £3 10s. per week painting snuff-boxes at 1/4d. each. The first mention of their being made here is in 1693.
Soap.—In more ways than one there is a vast deal of "soft soap" used in Birmingham, but its inhabitants ought to be cleanly people, for the two or three manufactories of hard yellow and mottled in and near the town turn out an annual supply of over 3,000 tons.
Spectacles.—Sixty and seventy years ago spectacles were sent out by the gross to all part of the country, but they were of a kind now known as "goggles," the frames being large and clumsy, and made of silver, white metal, or tortoise-shell, the fine steel wire frames now used not being introduced until about 1840.
Stereoscopes, the invention of Sir David Brewster, were first made in this town, Mr. Robert Field producing them.
Steel Pens.—Though contrary to the general belief, metallic pens are of very ancient origin. Dr. Martin Lister, in his book of Travels, published in 1699, described a "very curious and antique writing instrument made of thick and strong silver wire, wound up like a hollow bottom or screw, with both the ends pointing one way, and at a distance, so that a man might easily put his forefinger between the two points, and the screw fills the ball of his hand. One of the points was the point of a bodkin, which was to write on waxed tables; the other point was made very artificially, like the head and upper beak of a cock and the point divided in two, just like our steel pens, from whence undoubtedly the moderns had their patterns; which are now made also of fine silver or gold, or Prince's metal, all of which yet want a spring and are therefore not so useful as of steel or a quill: but the quill soon spoils. Steel is undoubtedly the best, and if you use China ink, the most lasting of all inks, it never rusts the pen, but rather preserves it with a kind of varnish, which dries upon it, though you take no care in wiping it."—Though Messrs. Gillott and Sons' Victoria Works, Graham Street, stands first among the pen-making establishments open to the visit of strangers, it is by no means the only manufactory whereat the useful little steel pen is made in large quantities, there being, besides, Mr. John Mitchell (Newhall Street), Mr. William Mitchell (Cumberland Street), Hinks, Wells and Co. (Buckingham Street), Brandauer and Co. (New John Street, West), Baker and Finnemore (James Street), G. W. Hughes (St. Paul's Square), Leonardt and Co. (Charlotte Street), Myers and Son (Charlotte Street), Perry and Co. (Lancaster Street), Ryland and Co. (St. Paul's Square). Sansum and Co. (Tenby Street), &c., the gross aggregate output of the trade at large being estimated at 20 tons per week.
Stirrups.—According to the Directory, there are but four stirrup makers here, though it is said there are 4,000 different patterns of the article.
Swords.—Some writers aver that Birmingham was the centre of the metal works of the ancient Britons, where the swords and the scythe blades were made to meet Julius Cæsar. During the Commonwealth, over 15,000 swords were said to have been made in Birmingham for the Parliamentary soldiers, but if they thus helped to overthrow the Stuarts at that period, the Brummagem boys in 1745 were willing to make out for it by supplying Prince Charlie with as many as ever he could pay for, and the basket-hilts were at a premium. Disloyalty did not always prosper though, for on one occasion over 2,000 Cutlasses intended for the Prince, were seized en route and found their way into the hands of his enemies. Not many swords are made in Birmingham at the present time, unless matchets and case knives used in the plantations can be included under that head.
Thimbles, or thumbells, from being originally worn on the thumb, are said by the Dutch to have been the invention of Mynheer van Banschoten for the protection of his lady-love's fingers when employed at the embroidery-frame; but though the good people of Amsterdam last year (1884) celebrated the bicentenary of their gallant thimble-making goldsmith, it is more than probable that he filched the idea from a Birmingham man, for Shakespeare had been dead sixty-eight years prior to 1684, and he made mention of thimbles as quite a common possession of all ladies in his time:
"For your own ladies, and pale-visag'd maids,
Like Amazons, come tripping after drums,