BIRMINGHAM 39 BIRNEY cent's Hospital, Hillman Hospital, Mercy Home, Jefferson Co. Almshouse, and the Boys Industrial School. Birmingham has been called the "Pittsburgh of the South." Every year 70 per cent, of the entire tonnage of Alabama is hauled in and out of the city. There are over 400 mining and manufacturing plants of va- rious kinds, blast furnaces, coke ovens, steel plants, rolling mills, cement facto- ries, chemical works, hollow ware facto- ries, corn and flour mills, sash factories, agricultural implements, packing com- panies. Its manufactures are over one- sixth of the total for the State. History. — Birmingham was incorpo- rated as a city in 1871 with a population of less than 1,000. Its noticeable de- velopment began in 1880 and its remark- able progress may be said to date from 1890. In 1896 its two largest iron and steel corporations began selling pig iron for export at prices as satisfactory as those obtained on domestic orders; "^nd since then it has had a larger develop- ment in the iron and steel industry than any city S. of Pittsburgh. Pop. (1890) 26,178; (1900) 38,415; (1910) 132,685; (1920) 178,270. BIRMINGHAM, a city of England, on the Rea river near its confluence with the Tame, in the N. W. of Warwickshire, with suburbs extending into Stafford- shire and Worcestershire' 112 miles N. W. of London, and 97 S. E. of Liverpool. It is the principal seat of the hardware manufacture in Great Britain, produc- ing metal articles of all kinds from pins to steam engfines. It manufactures fire- arms in great quantities, swords, jew- elry, buttons, tools, steel pens, locks, lamps, bedsteads, gas fittings, sewing ma- chines, articles of papier mache, railway carriages, etc. The quantity of solid gold and silver plate manufactured is large, and the consumption of these metals in electroplating is very great. Japanning, glass manufacturing, and glass staining or painting form important branches of industry, as also does the manufacture of chemicals. At Soho and Smethwick in the vicinity of the city are the famous works founded by Boulton and Watt, who there manufactured their first steam en- gines, where gas was first used, plating perfected, and numerous novel applica- tions tried and experiments made. Among the public buildings are the Town Hall, a handsome building of the classic style, the Free Library, commenced in 1861, the central portion of which was burnrd down in 1879, when the irre- placeable Shakespeare library, and the collection of books, prints, etc., bearing on the antiquities of Warwickshire, were destroyed; the Midland ^n^titute and Public Art Gallery, the Council House, etc. There are statues of the Prince Consort, James Watt, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Nelson, Dr. Priestley, Rowland Hill, Sir Joshua Mason, and others. The finest ecclesiastical building is the Ro- man Catholic Cathedral, a noble Gothic structure. The principal educational es- tablishments are Queen's College, pro- viding instruction in theology, medicine, and arts; a Roman Catholic college (at Oscott) ; the Royal College for Medicine, Arts, Engineering and Law; the Mason Scientific College, founded by Sir Joshua Mason, 1875, opened 1880, now Birming- ham University; and the Free Grammar School, founded by Edward VI., etc. The Reform Act of 1832 made Birmingham a Parliamentary borough with two mem- bers; the act of 1867 gave it a third; while the Redistribution Act of 1885 di- vided it into seven divisions, each send- ing one member to Parliament. Bir- mingham is known to have existed in the reign of Alfred, in 872, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) by the name of Bermengeham. Another old name of the town is Bromwycham, a form still preserved very nearly in the popular local pronunciation, Bx'umma- gem. Pop. (1919) 861,585. BIRNAM, a hill in Perthshire, Scot- land; once thickly wooded, and made fa- mous by Shakespeare in "Macbeth." It has a magnificent outlook down the Tay valley. Height, 1,580 feet. BIRNBAX7MER WALD, a plateau in the duchy of Carniola, Austria-Hungary. Here, near the Fugidus, Theodosius de- feated Arbogast and Eugenius in 394 A. D. It also includes the Roman mili- tary post Ad pirum. BIRNEY, DAVID BELL, an Ameri- can military officer, born in Huntsville, Ala., May 29, 1825; son of James Gil- lespie Bimey; studied law in Cincinnati, and, in 1848, began practice in Phila- delphia. At the outbreak of the Civil War he entered the Union army; in the summer of 1861 was commissioned Colonel of the 23d Pennsylvania Volun- teers; and was promoted Major-General, May 23, 1863. He distinguished himself in the battles of Yorktown, Williams- burg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. He died in Philadel- phia, Pa., Oct. 18, 1864. BIRNEY, JAMES GILLESPIE, an American statesman and publicist, born at Danville, Ky., Feb. 4, 1792. Though a Southern planter, he emancipated his slaves and became a pi-ominent anti- slavery leader in the South, proprietor and editor of the anti-slavery journal,
