Co. was started in February 1781, with a capital of L20,000 in
L100 shares. Brasshouse Passage, Broad Street, tells of the site of
another smelting place, the last chimney of which was demolished on
January 27. 1866. The Waterworks Co. bought the site for offices.
Stamped brass came in through Richard Ford in 1769, and the process at
first was confined to the manufacture of small basins and pans, but in a
very few years it was adapted to the production of an infinitude of
articles. Pressed brass rack pulleys for window blinds were the
invention of Thomas Horne, in 1823, who applied the process of pressure
to many other articles. Picture frames, nicely moulded in brass, were
made here in 1825, by a modeller named Maurice Garvey. In 1865 it was
estimated that the quantities of metal used here in the manufacture of
brass were 19,000 tons of copper, 8,000 tons of old metal, 11,000 tons
of zinc or spelter, 200 tons of tin, and 100 tons of lead, the total
value being L2,371,658. Nearly double this quantity is now used every
year. The number of hands employed in the brass trade is about 18,000.

_Buckles_ were first worn as shoe fastenings in the reign of Charles II.
When in fashion they were made of all sizes and all prices, from the
tiny half-inch on the hatband to the huge shoebuckle for the foot, and
varying from a few pence in price to many guineas the pair. The extent
of the manufactures at one time may be guessed from the fact of there
being over 20,000 buckle makers out of employ in 1791-2, when vain
petitions were made to the royal princes to stem the change then taking
place in the "fashions." Sir Edward Thomason said his father in 1780
made 1,000 pair par day, mostly of white metal, but some few plated; by
one pattern, known as the "silver penny," he cleared a profit of L1,000.
The introduction of shoestrings, and naturally so, was much ridiculed in
our local papers, and on one occasion was made the pretext for a
disgraceful riot, the pickpockets mobbing the gentlemen going to and
from one of the Musical Festivals, the wearers of shoestrings being
hustled about and robbed of their purses and watches.

_Buttons_.--The earliest record of button-making we have is dated 1689,
but Mr. Baddeley (inventor of the oval chuck), who retired from business
about 1739, is the earliest local manufacturer we read of as doing
largely in the trade, though sixty or seventy years ago there were four
or five times as many in the busines