Thomas Thalric Harman

“ If you are journeying, the Railway Passengers' Accident Co, will be glad to guarantee your family a solatium in case you and your train come to grief, and though it is not more than one in half-a-million that meets with an accident on the line, the penny for a ticket, when at the booking office, will be well expended. Do you employ clerks, there are several Guarantee Societies who will secure you against loss by defalcation. ”

“ Iron Rods.—Among the immense number of semi-religious tracts published during the Civil War, one appeared (in 1642) entitled "An Iron Rod for the Naylours and Tradesmen near Birmingham," by a self-styled prophet, who exhorted his neighbours to amend their lives and give better prices "twopence in the shilling at the least to poor workmen." We fancy the poor nailers of the present time would also be glad of an extra twopence. ”

“ You can insure your own life, or your wife's, or your children's or anybody else's, in whose existence you may have a beneficial interest, and there are a hundred others ready to receive the premiums. ”

“ Shop-keepers and others will do well to insure their glass against breakage, and all and everyone should pay into a "General Accident" Association, for broken limbs, like broken glass, cannot be foreseen or prevented. ”

“ Sir Thomas Holte (the first baronet) is traditionally reported to have slain his cook. He brought an action for libel against one William Ascrick, for saying "that he did strike his cook with a cleaver, so that one moiety of the head fell on one shoulder, and the other on the other shoulder." The defendant was ordered to pay £30 damages, but appealed, and successfully; the worthy lawyers of that day deciding that though Sir Thomas might have clove the cook's head, the defendant did not say he had killed the man, and hence had not libelled the baronet. ”

“ This quantity in 1842 was turned out of the 130 Staffordshire furnaces alone, though the hot-air blast was not used prior to 1835. Some figures have lately been published showing that the present product of iron in the world is close upon 191⁄2 million tons per year, and as iron and its working-up has a little to do with the prosperity of Birmingham, we preserve them. Statistics for the more important countries are obtainable as late as 1881. ”

“ These mains were connected with a ten-inch main from a heavily-weighed gasometer at the Windsor Street works of the Birmingham Gas Company, which was reserved for the sole use of the illumination. It took forty men three days to put up the scaffolding, but the whole work was finished and the scaffolding removed in a week. It was estimated that the consumption of gas during the period of illumination reached very nearly three-quarters of a million of cubic feet; and the entire expense of the illumination, including the gas-fittings, was somewhat over six hundred pounds. ”

“ The history of Birmingham inventors has yet to be written; a few notes of some of their doings will be found under "Patents" and "Trades."
Iron.—In 1354 it was forbidden to export iron from England. In 1567 it was brought here from Sweden and Russia. A patent for melting iron with pit coal was granted in 1620 to Dud Dudley, who also patented the tinning of iron in 1661. The total make of iron in England in 1740 was but 17,000 tons, from 59 furnaces, only two of which were in Staffordshire, turning out about 1,000 tons per year. In 17S8 there were nine blast furnaces in the same county ”

“ It is left for our future local antiquarians to institute a search along the track in the Park, but as in scores of other spots Roman and British remains have been found, it seems probable than an effort of the kind suggested would meet its reward, and perhaps lead to the discovery of some valuable relics of our long-gone predecessors. ”

“ In 1789 it was proposed that the inmates of the workhouse should be employed at making worsted and thread. Our fathers often tried their inventive faculties in the way of finding work for the inmates. ”

“ Under "other countries," in the table below, are included Canada, Switzerland, and Mexico, each producing about 7,500 tons a year, and Norway, with 4,000 tons a year:—
The first four countries produce 88.4 per cent. of the world's iron supply; the first two, 64.3 per cent.; the first, 43 per cent. The chief consumer is the United States, 29 per cent.; next Great Britain, 23.4 per cent.; these two using more than half of all. Cast iron wares do not appear to have been made here in any quantity before 1755; malleable iron castings being introduced about 1811. ”