nds per stone.

_Latten_, the term given to thin sheets of brass, was formerly applied
to sheets of tinned iron.

_Lockmakers_ are not so numerous here as they once were, though several
well known patentees still have their works in the borough. The general
trade centres round Willenhall, Walsall, and Wolverhampton.

_Looking-glasses_.--Messrs. Hawkes's, Sromsgrove Street, is the largest
looking-glass manufactory in the world, more than 300 hands being
employed on the premises. A fire which took place Jan. 8, 1879,
destroyed nearly L12,000 worth of stock, the turnout of the
establishment comprising all classes of mirrors, from those at 2. a
dozen to L40 or L50 each.

_Mediaeval Metalwork_.--Mr. John Hardman, who had Pugin for his friend,
was the first to introduce the manufacture of mediaeval and
ecclesiastical metal work in this town, opening his first factory in
Great Charles Street in 1845. The exhibits at the old Bingley Hall in
1849 attracted great attention and each national Exhibition since has
added to the triumphs of the firm. Messrs. Jones and Willis also take
high rank.

_Metronome_, an instrument for marking time, was invented by Mr. W.
Heaton, a local musician, about 1817.

_Mineral Waters_.--The oldest local establishment for the manufacture of
aerated artificial and mineral waters is that of Messrs. James Goffe and
Son, of Duke Street, the present proprietors of the artesian well in
Allison Street. This well was formed some years ago by Mr. Clark, a
London engineer, who had undertaken a Corporation contract connected
with the sewers. Finding himself embarassed with the flow of water from
the many springs about Park Street and Digbeth, he leased a small plot
of land and formed a bore-hole, or artesian well, to check the
percolation into his sewerage works. After boring about 400 feet he
reached a main spring in the red sandstone formation which gives a
constant flow of the purest water, winter and summer, of over 70,000
gals. per day, at the uniform temperature of 50 deg. The bore is only
4in. diameter, and is doubly tubed the whole depth, the water rising
into a 12ft. brick well, from which a 4,000 gallon tank is daily filled,
the remainder passing through a fountain and down to the sewers as
waste. Dr. Bostock Hill, the eminent analyst, reports most favourably
upon the freedom of the water from all organic or other impurities, and
as eminently fitted for all kinds of aerated waters, soda, potass,