d, were utilised in the last years of the eighteenth,
and early years of the nineteenth century--Steam, Gas and Electricity.

In one series of the workshops of this same establishment, a considerable
manufacture of genuine silver plate is carried on, and it is curious to find
mechanics engaged in hammering out or chasing plate, using exactly the same
tool that was employed in the fifteenth century, or perhaps in Roman times.
No improvement has, or, as it would appear, can be, effected; all superiority
now, as then, depending on the workmen.

A great deal of ornamental work, of a stereotype character, is done by
stamping instead of chasing. The steel dies for this purpose form a very
costly stock in trade. A single pair of dies for a sacramental cup will
sometimes cost 150 pounds.

Among the modern improvements, we must not fail to note the patent seamless
teapots of Britannia metal, and white metal, electrotyped--capital things for
bachelors, the spouts are not likely to melt off on the hob.

The show rooms of this establishment contain, in addition to the ordinary
contents of a silversmith's shop, a number of exquisite copies in gold,
silver, and bronze electro-plate of cups and vases of Greek and Etruscan
execution, and of chased work by Benvenuto Cellini, and other master
goldsmiths of the fifteenth century.

The Messrs. Elkington have doubled their trade since the Birmingham
Exhibition in 1848, and there is reason to believe that, instead of
displacing labour as was anticipated, this invention has increased the number
and the wages of the parties employed.

* * * * *

The Britannia Metal manufacture is closely allied to the plate trade; an
ingenious improvement, well worth examination, has recently been introduced
by Messrs. Sturgis of Broad Street, by which teapots are cast whole, instead
of having the spouts and handles soldered on.

* * * * *

The Gilt Toy and Mock Jewellery Trade, once one of the staple employments of
Birmingham artizans, has dwindled away until it now occupies a very
insignificant place in the Directory. Bad cheap articles, with neglect of
novelty and taste in design, ruined it. In cheap rubbish foreigners can
always beat us, but the Birmingham gilt toy men made things "to sell" until
no one would buy.

* * * * *

FOX AND HENDERSON'S MANUFACTORY.--The London works conducted by Messrs. Fox,
Henderson, and Co., who have become known to all the world by their rapid and
successful