down as £1,900,000. The Annuities are redeemable by a Sinking Fund in 85 years. For their portion of the mains, service pipes, works, &c. formerly belonging to the Birmingham and Staffordshire Company, the Walsall authorities pay the Corporation an amount equivalent to annuities valued at £1,300 per year; Oldbury paid £22,750, Tipton £34,700 and West Bromwich £70,750.
Gas Fittings.—Curious notions appear to have been at first entertained as to the explosive powers of the new illuminator, nothing less thin copper or brass being considered strong enough for the commonest piping, and it was thought a great innovation when a local manufacturer, in 1812, took out a patent for lead pipes copper-coated. Even Murdoch himself seems to have been in dread of the burning element, for when, in after years, his house at Sycamore Hill changed owners, it was found that the smaller gas pipes therein were made of silver, possibly used to withstand the supposed corrosive effects of the gas. The copper-covered lead pipes were patented in 1819 by Mr. W. Phipson, of the Dog Pool Mills, the present compo being comparatively a modern introduction. Messengers, of Broad Street, and Cook, of Caroline Street (1810-20), were the first manufacturers of gas fittings in this town, and they appear to have had nearly a monopoly of the trade, as there were but three others in it in 1833, and only about twenty in 1863; now their name is legion, gas being used for an infinitude of purposes, not the least of which is by the gas cooking stove, the idea of which was so novel at first that the Secretary of the Gas Office in the Minories at one time introduced it to the notice of the public by having his dinner daily cooked in a stove placed in one of the office windows. An exhibition of gas apparatus of all kinds was opened at the Town Hall. June 5, 1878, and that there is still a wonderful future for development is shown by its being seriously advocated that a double set of mains will be desirable, one for lighting gas, and the other for a less pure kind to be used for heating purposes.
Gas Works.—See "Public Buildings."
Gavazzi.—Father Gavazzi first orated here in the Town Hall. October 20, 1851.
Geographical.—According to the Ordnance Survey. Birmingham is situated in latitude 52° 29', and longitude 1° 54' west.
Gillott.— See "Noteworthy Men."
Girls' Home.—Eighteen years ago several kind-hearted ladies opened a ho se in Bath Row, for the reception of servant girls of the poorest class, who, through their poverty and juvenility, could not be sheltered in the "Servants' Home," and that such an establishment was needed, is proved by the fact that no less than 534 inmates were sheltered for a time during 1883, while 232 others received help in clothing, &c., suited to their wants. The Midland Railway having taken Bath House, the Home has lately been removed to a larger house near the Queen's Hospital, where the managers will be glad to receive any little aid that can be rendered towards carrying on their charitable operations.
Glass.—In the reign of Henry VI, the commonest kind of glass was sold at 2s. the foot, a shilling in those days being of as much value as a crown of today. The earliest note we can find of glass being made here is the year 1785, when Isaac Hawker built a small glasshouse behind his shop at Edgbaston Street. His son built at Birmingham Heath on the site now occupied by Lloyd and Summerfield. In 1798 Messrs. Shakespeare and Johnston had a glasshouse in Walmer Lane. Pressed glass seems to have been the introduction of Rice Harris about 1832, though glass "pinchers" (eleven of them) are named in the Directory of 1780. In 1827 plate-glass
