ng made by the firm's own workpeople.

_Sewing Machines_.--The various improvements in these machines patented
by Birmingham makers may be counted by the gross, and the machines sent
out every year by the thousands. The button-hole machine was the
invention of Mr. Clements.

_Sheathing Metal_.--In a newspaper called _The World_, dated April 16,
1791, was an advertisement beginning thus--"By the King's patent,
_tinned copper_ sheets and pipes manufactured and sold by Charles Wyatt,
Birmingham, and at 19, Abchurch lane, London." It was particularly
recommended for sheathing of ships, as the tin coating would prevent the
corrosion of the copper and operate as "a preservative of the iron
placed contiguous to it." Though an exceedingly clever man, and the son
of one of Birmingham's famed worthies, Mr. Charles Wyatt was not
fortunate in many of his inventions, and his tinned copper brought him
in neither silver nor gold. What is now known as sheathing or "yellow"
metal is a mixture of copper, zinc, and iron in certain defined
proportions, according as it is "Muntz's metal," or "Green's patent,"
&c. Several patents were taken out in 1779, 1800, and at later dates,
and, as is usual with "good things," there has been sufficient
squabbling over sheathing to provide a number of legal big-wigs with
considerable quantities of the yellow, metal _they_ prefer. George
Frederick Muntz, M.P., if not the direct inventor, had the lion's share
of profit in the manufacture, as the good-will of his business was sold
for L40,000 in 1863, at which time it was estimated that 11,000 tons of
Muntz's mixture was annually made into sheathing, ships' bolts, &c., to
the value of over L800,000. The business was taken to by a limited
liability company, whose capital in March, 1884, was L180,000, on which
a 10 per cent, dividend was realised. Elliott's Patent Sheathing and
Metal Co. was formed in.1862.

_Snuff-boxes_.--A hundred years ago, when snuff-taking was the _mode_,
the manufacture of japanned, gilt, and other snuff-boxes gave employment
to large numbers here. Of one of these workmen it is recorded that he
earned L3 10s. per week painting snuff-boxes at 1/4d. each. The first
mention of their being made here is in 1693.

_Soap_.--In more ways than one there is a vast deal of "soft soap" used
in Birmingham, but its inhabitants ought to be cleanly people, for the
two or three manufactories of hard yellow and mottled in and near the
town turn out