button made separately, and the indentations, cuts, or ornaments by small steel hobs cut on the outer circumference. They are polished by means of rottenstone, when eyes are inserted. The back of the button is perforated with an under-cut aperture, and the metal eye, with the end reduced very thin, being introduced, is tapped slightly, which expands the thin metal and prevents its removal.

At one period only the white portions of the shell were used, the other parts being rejected. With the alternations of fashion, dark shell buttons have been introduced, and those portions of the oyster which were previously rejected—that is, the outer portions of the shell-are now of considerable value. The manufacture of buttons of various kinds, in Birmingham alone, gives employment to 400 women, who are assisted by children. Men being generally employed to correct the tools and attend to the machinery.

Wire-drawing and Working. (Exhibitors 322, 332, 334, 336, 337, 353.—The rough and rude bar of iron is transformed in about a couple of minutes into a round wire rod, 100 times the length of what it originally was; and after repeated annealings and cleansing by immersion in pickle, to take the scales off, and after being passed through various holes in a steel plate, it is gradually reduced in size till it becomes almost as fine as a human hair.

The construction of plates for wire-drawing is an operation of considerable nicety, requiring the utmost delicacy of adjustment in the tools with which the holes are drilled. The art of drawing wire exceedingly fine appears to have been first effected at Nuremberg, by Anthony Fournier, in 1570; and gold and silver wire was first made in that city in 1592, by Hagelsheimer, who appears to have brought the art from Italy, and employed it for weaving and embroidering silk.

Up to the present time the process of drawing exceedingly fine wire has been most perfectly performed on the

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JEWELLERY.-MEDAL DIES.-WOOD SCREWS. [Class XXII.

Continent. The very fine holes for the production of the wire used in paper machines, and similar kinds of apparatus, producing a net with 22,000 meshes, is still purchased abroad.

Jewellery. (Exhibitors 294, 966, 299.)-These are peculiarly examples of the great staple of Birmingham. The contributions of this class are not large, but they will be found, for the most part, well deserving attention. The exhibition consists of chains, bracelets, armlets, fingerrings, pins, and studs. Some choice examples of filigreework show the degree of perfection to which this class of manufacture is brought in this country. Pencil-cases, penholders, seals, keys, &c., complete this group.

A selection of these articles and other gold and silver work will be found in the Gallery, to which, in its proper place, attention will be directed.

Medal Die-sinking and Coining. (Exhibitors 264, 271, 273, 310.)—Dies are formed out of steel laid in some cases in iron. Small handle tools are used for cutting the matrix; the workman uses a glass the better to examine the progress of his work. The inscription is introduced by punches. Hardening of a medal die is accompanied by risk. The production of a medal after a die is sunk is an easy matter, and is accomplished by means of a large screw-press, on the top of which is fixed horizontally a balance-wheel; the blank which forms the medal is turned smooth if of block tin, and introduced into the die. Motion is imparted to the fly-wheel, which carries down with it the obverse die of the medal, imparting to the metal the impress thereof; if the medal is made of some harder metal it must have a few annealings, and a sum of blows to bring it well up.

Wood Screws. (Exhibitors 316, 318.)-These are made from iron wire; the head is raised in a die by pressure; the worming is effected by a screw, which traverses the back of the spindle, and forces the clams containing the

blank or uncut iron forward against small cutters, which rip or cut out the thread. Slitting is done by small circular saws.

Cut Nails. (315.)-These are made from sheet-iron, which is cut into strips, and is held before the chisels, operated upon by power, which nip off so much in width as is required to make a nail. A pair of grips lay hold of the piece of iron as it is disconnected, while a blow with a horizontal hammer completes the manufacture of the nail by flattening the head.

Pins. (Exhibitors 278, 335.)-Some improvements have been made in pin-making. The heads are now in general solid, not formed by two revolutions of wire as formerly. The wire is drawn by the ordinary process; is straightened by being drawn between a series of studs; is cut to lengths sufficient to form two pins pointed, in small revolving files. The rough outside being first removed by a coarse file, the wire is then smoothed by another: heading is effected after the manner described in nail-making, viz., by a horizontal hammer. Whitening is done by boiling them in tin solution; they are then dried out, selected, and papered up.

Stamped Brass. (Exhibitors 261, 263, 274, 353, 356, 362.) These specimens consist of window cornices, curtainbands, cornice-pole ends, all of which are made out of sheet-metal by stamping, a process which may be described as practised thus:-A steel die, having what is to be raised in relief sunk in the reverse, is placed under a stamp, between the upright rods in which a heavy mass of metal works up and down, by means of a cord passing over a pulley, to which it is attached. The die is fastened by four screws to the bottom of the stamp. To the hammer is attached the force or counterpart. The plate of metal to be raised is laid thereon, the hammer is raised, falls, and produces an indentation; repeated blows, and the substitution of "forces," more prominent as the relief advances, is introduced, until every detail of the die is marked. The metal is annealed between each blow. The cleansing

up is the same as is employed in punching cast brassfoundry. Another exemplification of the use of stamped brassfoundry will be found in the stamped work for gasfittings, and the contributions of metal produced by rolling tubes, &c. Metal, when to be rolled, is cast in ingots, and is laminated by being passed through iron rolls, which revolve by steam-power. Brass or copper tubes are formed from thin sheets of metal, cut to the proper width, and rendered concave in the entire length; brought into a tubular form by being pulled through steel holes. The edges are then held together by wire; solder and borax mixed are laid along the seam, and fused by being passed through an air-furnace. The extra solder is then cleansed off by filing, and the tube drawn again through a steel hole, when the whole is said to be finished.

Needles and Fish-hooks. (Exhibitors 329, 330, 331, 334, 335.)-Needles are manufactured from steel wire. The wire is cut into lengths sufficient to make two needles; these are collected into bundles, and straightened by a peculiar process; the grinder takes a number of these pieces in his hand, and causing them to rotate on a grindstone, points them; he next reverses the ends and effects the same result. They are then cut in two, flattened on the end, and eye-punched either by children or machinery ; the roughness is removed, and the eye smoothed by filing. The process can be examined in the Department of Machinery in Motion, needlemaking being carried on during the day by a very nice small machine. They are then tempered in quantities, and polished by being gathered together and made to traverse a horizontal hearth or table, and some abrasive substance lubricated with oil being introduced amongst them: scouring, winnowing, and sorting then follows.

Guns and Swords will form the subjects of distinct consideration.

[97]

CLASS XXII. PART 2.-SHEFFIELD. IRON AND GENERAL HARDWARE.

SITUATION OF SHEFFIELD.-Passing out of the Section devoted to Birmingham, and walking westward past the Area devoted to Furni ture, we reach that department, between the Pillars L. M. N. O., 17 to 20, which is devoted to the characteristic Manufactures of this important town.

ONE branch of manufacture carried on in Sheffield has been very greatly extended during the last few years, until it has now become of considerable importance-this is the conversion of iron into steel; a process which is performed to the extent annually of many thousand tons, a considerable part of which is exported in an unwrought form. The town of Sheffield in 1835 contained 56 furnaces for converting iron into steel; besides which there were 62 establishments, containing 554 furnaces for melting steel. The original conversion of the metal into blistered steel occasioned the use of about 12,000 tons of coal in the form of coke, and the subsequent processes required about 81,000 tons in addition. The various manufactures of cutlery and plated goods carried on in the town, consumed about 200,000 tons, and 38,000 tons were the estimated allowance for the working of steam-engines, of which there were then 74, of the aggregate power of 1,353 horses. If to these quantities are added 184,000 tons as fuel for household purposes, it will appear that the entire consumption of coal in Sheffield amounted in 1835 to 515,000 tons, the whole of which was taken from collieries in the immediate vicinity of the town. Five-sixths of the iron used for manufacturing purposes in Sheffield is of foreign production; only 2,000 out of 12,000 tons consumed in the year is of British origin. Since the improvements in British iron a very much larger quantity of our own iron