engender
competition. It is also said that he actually buried money in the
cellar of his house, lest his marvellously rapid accumulation of
wealth should become known.

At length the demand for his pens became so great that it was
impossible to resist the urgent necessity for larger premises and
increased labour. Mr. Gillott, accordingly, removed to Church Street,
and subsequently took other premises, up the yard by Mr. Mappin's shop
in Newhall Street. About the same time, he removed his family to the
house at the corner of Great Charles Street, where the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers had its offices until its recent removal
to London. After a few years, he commenced to build the premises in
Graham Street, where the business has, ever since, been carried on.
At the time the building was erected, there were few "factories,"
properly so called, in the town, and most of the work of the place
was conducted in the low, narrow ranges of latticed-windowed buildings
known as "shopping." Mr. Gillott's was, I think, the first Birmingham
building in the modern factory style. It was admirably planned, and
expensively built. Even, now, when hundreds of factories have arisen,
its solid and substantial appearance externally, and the arrangements
inside, for order, and for the organisation of labour, are not
surpassed by any of its rivals.

As soon as Mr. Gillott's appliances were of sufficient extent to
supply very large quantities, he commenced to advertise extensively,
a practice which he continued during the remainder of his life, and
which his son and successor still follows up in a modified form. I
perfectly remember, more than forty years ago, his advertisements
in tine magazines, and on the cover of the "Penny Cyclopaedia." Like
everything that Mr. Gillott did, they bore the impress of original
thought. After giving his name and address, and a few other
particulars as to his wares, the advertisements went on to say
something like this:

"The number of pens produced in this factory in the year ending
December 31st, 1836, was

250,000 grosses,
or 3,000,000 dozens,
or 36,000,000 pens."

The advertisements invariably had the fac-simile of Mr. Gillott's
signature, as now; a signature better known, perhaps, than any other
in the world, and one with which almost every human being who can
write is perfectly familiar. Of course it will be understood that the
quantities given above are altogether imaginary. It is im