eph Pettitt, who died Sept. 9, 1882, in his 70th
year, was a local artist of note, a member of the Society of Artists,
and for many years a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, our local,
and other exhibitions. In his younger years Mr. Pettitt was employed in
the papier-mache trade, a business peculiarly suited to persons gifted
with artistic faculties. His earliest specimens of landscape attracted
attention, and Mr. Joseph Gillott commissioned the painter to furnish a
number of Swiss views for the collection of pictures he had began to
gather. Mr. Pettitt pleased the penmaker, and soon made a name for
himself, his works being characterised by fine colour and broad vigorous
handling.

_Phillips_, Alderman, died Feb. 25, 1876. A member of the first Town
Council, and Mayor in 1844. Mr. Phillips long took active part in
municipal matters, and was the founder of the Licensed Victuallers'
Asylum.

_Pickard_, James.--A Birmingham button maker, who patented, Aug. 23,
1780, the use of the crank in the steam engine to procure rotary motion.
He is supposed to have got the idea from overhearing the conversation of
some Soho workmen while at their cups. The first engine in which it was
used (and the fly-wheel) was for a manufacturer in Snow Hill, and was
put up by Matthew Washborough, of Bristol.

_Plant_.--Mr. T.L. Plant, who died very suddenly in a railway carriage
in which he was coming into town on the morning of August 31, 1883, came
to Birmingham in 1840. As a meteorologist, who for more than forty years
had kept close record of wind and weather, he was well known; his
letters to the newspapers on this and kindred subjects were always
interesting, and the part he took in advanced sanitary questions gained
him the friendship of all. Mr. Plant was a native of Yorkshire, and was
in his 64th year at the time of his death.

_Playfair_, William (brother of the eminent Scotch mathematician) was
engaged as a draughtsman at the Soho Works, after serving apprenticeship
as a millwright. He patented various inventions, and was well known as a
political writer, &c. Born, 1759; died, 1823.

_Postgate_, John.--This name should be honoured in every household for a
life's exertion in the obtainment of purity in what we eat and drink.
Beginning life as a grocer's boy, he saw the most gross adulteration
carried on in all the varieties of articles sold by his employers, and
afterwards being with a medical firm, he studied chemistry, and