Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/680

 660 BIRMINGHAM The quantity of gold ware assayed and marked at the assay office averages 30,000 ounces an- nually; of silverware, 100,000. Large quan- tities are also manufactured and sold without being marked. Large numbers of gold rings are produced, nearly 30,000 wedding rings hav- ing in some years been assayed and marked at the assay office. About 300,000 ounces of sil- ver-plating are consumed yearly. The manu- facture of steel pens is very important. The establishment of the late Mr. Gillott employs 600 workmen and manufactures 1,000,000 gross annually. The whole number of steel pens made yearly in Birmingham is estimated at 900,000,000, consuming 500 tons of steel. Pins and buttons are also made in vast quantities, and several hundred tons of mother-of-pearl are annually consumed in the latter manufac- ture. The manufacture of swords and bayo- nets is also extensively carried on. At Smeth- wick in the vicinity of Birmingham steam en- gines are largely made. Many hands are em- ployed in japanning and electro-plating. An important branch is the manufacture of fancy seals, brooches, clasps, and other trinkets, of what is known as Birmingham gold, as well as of polished steel. There may be mentioned in addition, among the industries of Birmingham, wire-drawing, scale making, railway carriage building, brass founding, iron casting, works in bronze, and manufactures of lamps, metallic bedsteads, gas fittings, leather and wood cases, nails, articles of papier mache, tools, percussion caps, and sewing machines. The machinery employed in the various manufactures is re- markable for the combination of power with delicacy and precision of movement. There are two annual fairs, each lasting three days, one in the spring, the other in autumn. Bir- mingham is first mentioned in Doomsday Book, under the name of Bermingeham. It remained an obscure village for centuries. The first great impetus was given to its growth toward the close of the last century by the introduc- tion of the steam engine and the demand for muskets created by the American revolution and the French wars. A still greater accession of strength and prosperity has been received in the last 40 years from the railway system. Birmingham was constituted a borough by the reform act of 1832, with the privilege of send- ing two members to parliament ; an additional member was given by the act of 1867. The municipal charter was granted in 1838. BIRMINGHAM, a manufacturing village of Connecticut, in Derby township, New Haven county, on an eminence at the junction of the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers, 11 m. "W. of New Haven; pop. in 1870, 2,103. It is neatly laid out, and contains a number of churches and schools, most of which face a handsome public square in the centre of the village. The first considerable pin factory in the United States, established in New York in 1836, was transferred to this place in 1838. There are rolling mills for copper, iron, and BIRNEY steel, factories of carriage springs and axles, bolts, augers, well chains, tacks, and other ar- ticles, and lumber and coal yards. A bridge across the Naugatuck connects Birmingham with Derby, which is a station on the Nau- gatuck railroad, and has steamboat communi- cation with New York. KH! Ill (.ll II. a borough of Allegheny county, Penn., on the S. bank of the Monongahela, about 2 m. above its confluence with the Al- legheny; pop. in 1870, 8,603. It is a suburb of Pittsburgh, with which it is connected by a steam ferry and a suspension bridge 1,500 feet long. It has important manufactories of iron and glass, and several breweries. East Bir- mingham, with 9,488 inhabitants, adjoins it on the east. JtlKYOI, a bill of Perthshire, in the western highlands of Scotland, near the S. bank of the Tay, 14 m. N. N. W. of Perth, 1,324 ft. high. It was anciently included in a royal forest, and is mentioned as Birnam wood in Shakespeare's " Macbeth." It is now destitute of trees. BIRKEE, Old, the capital of the kingdom of Borneo, in central Africa, 70 m. W. of Kuka, on the Komadngu Wauhe; pop. about 10,000. It is said to have formerly had 200,000 inhabi- tants. The ruins of the stone walls by which it was enclosed are still visible. BIB1VEY, James G., an American politician, born in Danville, Ky., Feb. 4, 1792, died at Perth Amboy, N. J., Nov. 25, 1857. He grad- uated at the college of New Jersey in 1812, studied law, and removed early to Alabama, where he practised law at Huntsville, held the office of district attorney, and was a member of the legislature. In 1833 he interested him- self in the organization of a branch of the colonization society for the state of Alabama. Soon afterward, returning to Kentucky, and becoming a professor in the university at Dan- ville, he organized a colonization society there also, of which he became president. In 1834 he espoused the cause of immediate emancipa- tion in a public letter, at the same time eman- cipating all his own slaves, about 20 in num- ber. He subsequently removed to Cincinnati, where he began to issue "The Philanthropist," an anti-slavery newspaper, which met with much opposition. Its office was repeatedly sacked and its presses destroyed by mobs. About the year 1836 he went to New York, as secretary of the American anti-slavery society, and for many years devoted himself to the fur- therance of the object of that society, by let- ters, articles in the press, and public addresses. He took an important part in the organiza- tion of the "liberty party," by which dur- ing his absence in England he was nomina- ted in 1840 for the presidency. Ho was again nominated by the same party in 1844. Previous to this, in 1842, Mr. Birney had be- come a resident of Michigan, where be was disabled, by a fall from his horse not long afterward, from taking an active part in poli- tics. His son, DAVID BELL, born at Huntsville,