PLATE CXXXIV,

STANDARD LAMP,

BY WINFIELD OF BIRMINGHAM.

From our notice of Plate XLIII., our readers will have been enabled to appreciate the excellenceof Mr. Winfield’s productions, of which the object engraved is a highly-favourable specimen, as well as tocomprehend the leading processes involved in the brass toy-trade of Birmingham . In connexion withPlate XCVIII., we adverted to the history and progress of the trade of that locality, and then ex-pressed our intention to allude in some detail to the numerous and varied manufactures of the town. Ourlimits will, however, preclude us from entering upon this extensive field, except in the most general manner,referring such of our readers as desire much information in small compass to the excellent little guide to theBirmingham workshops, prepared by Mr. W. C. Aitken, on the occasion of the visit of her Majesty’sCommissioners for the Great Exhibition to that town.

Our historical notices will have shown that smiths, cutlers, and nailers, were the earliest class of workmenemployed in Birmingham ; and that its extensive fancy and miscellaneous trade is of comparatively recentdate. The manufacture of nails is still extensively carried on. Wrought-iron nails are made in the surroundingvillages, by the hand of the workman, from quadrangular rods, and the trade affords a scanty maintenanceto from 20,000 to 30,000 persons; whilst, since the year 1813 , cut nails have been produced by steam-powerin the town itself to an amazing extent. Messrs. Scholefield, in the year 1849 , turned out no less than40 , 000,000 in one week.

The manufacture of guns is, perhaps, amongst the most extensive carried on at Birmingham . Introduced,as we have before stated, in the reign of William III. , it did not attain much importance till the beginningof the present century, when the great demand for fire-arms, arising from the war with France, gave an immensestimulus to the manufacture. In the year 1804 , 5000 stand of arms were made monthly in the town; and in1810 , the number had increased to the extraordinary amount of 30,000 monthly; a rate of supply which continuedtill the Peace of Paris, justifying the common assertion, that they were produced at the rate of one in everyminute. The proof-house for testing gun-barrels was established by Act of Parliament in 1813 ; and, byguaranteeing the excellence of the Birmingham goods, greatly promoted the manufacture. It may, however,be observed, that there is no such trade as a gun-maker, or, at all events, no gun-manufactory in the town; thearticles having to travel from one factory to another, to the number of more than twelve, before their differentparts are completed and put together.

The extensive trade in buckles being superseded by the fluctuations of fashion, its place was supplied byan increased manufacture of metal buttons; which, for many years, enjoyed much public favour. Mi. JohnTaylor, who died in 1775 , introduced the gilt button-trade, and is said to have accumulated a foitune of200 , 000 /. So great was the variety of these articles, that in 1781 their value varied fiom thieepence to 140guineas per gross; and so great was the skill of the manufacturers, that, at a latei period (in 1818 ), thieepennyworth of gold was made to cover a gross of buttons. We may add, as an illustration of the beautifulmachinery employed in the trade, that a single revolution of the machine for making button-shanks, cuts thesuitable length from the wire, bends it into its proper curves, and gives to its extremities the flattening which