ight, born February 2, 1822, died April 13, 1880. In
memory of the simplicity, kindliness, and integrity of his life and of
his unselfish, untiring, and patriotic devotion as a public man, this
monument is erected by the united gifts of all classes in the town he
loved and for which he laboured."

~Steam Engines.~--The first steam engine (then called a fire engine)
used for the purpose of pumping water from coal mines was put up in 1712
by Newcomen and Calley, at a colliery near Wolverhampton, owned by Mr.
Back, the ironwork, &c., being made in Birmingham, and taken hence to
the pit-head. The first of Watt's engines made at Soho, was to "blow the
bellows" at John Wilkinson's ironworks at Broseley, in 1776. Watt's
first pumping engine was started at Bloomfield Colliery, March 8, 1776.
Having overcome the rotary motion difficulties, Watt applied steam to
tilt hammers and rolling mills in 1781, and to corn-grinding mills in
1782; taking out patents in 1784 for the "governor," "parallel motion,"
&c., including also specifications for a travelling engine, though it
was William Murdoch who first made a practical working model of a
locomotive. The first engine worked by steam in this town that we have
record of was put up at same works in Water Street, in 1760.

~Steamships.~--If we do not build steamships in Birmingham, it was James
Watt who proposed the use of screw propellers (in 1770); Wm. Murdoch,
who invented the oscillating cylinder (in 1785); Watt and Boulton, who
furnished engines (in 1807) for the first regular steam picket in
America; and James Watt, jun., who made the first steam voyage on the
sea (October 14, 1817), crossing the Channel in the _Caledonia_, and
taking that vessel up the Rhine.

~Stirchley Street~, about a mile and a quarter north-east of King's
Norton, has a Post Office, a Police Station, a Board School, and a
Railway Station. Notwithstanding these signs of modern civilisation, and
the near proximity of Cadbury's Cocoa Manufactory, Stirchley Street is,
as it has been for many a generation, a favourite country outing place
for weary Brums having a chance hour to spend on change of scene.

~Stocks.~--Putting people in the stocks appears to have been a very
ancient mode of punishment, for the Bible tells us that Jeremiah, the
prophet, was put in the stocks by Pashur, and the gaoler who had charge
of Paul and Silas at Philippi made fast their feet in a similar way.
Whether Shakespeare fear