of dirt in the special shed? It is the
sweepings of the Birniingham manufactories.

What economy! In ail goldsmiths' shops
every effort is made to save all the filings, and
ther minutest dust of the metals used. The
floors are swept, and everything recoverable
is picked up. Yet the imperceptible loss is
so valuable to the refiners, that they pay, and
pay high, for the scrapings, sweepings, and
pickings of the work-rooms. A cart load of
dirt is taken from a fork-and-spoon
manufactory to the refinery, and paid for on the
instant; and the money thus received is one
of the regular items in the books of the
concern. Perhaps it pays the wages of one of the
workmen. Another establishment receives two
hundred pounds a-year for its sweepings. It is
worth noting these methods in concerns which
are flourishing, and which have been raised to
a prosperous condition by pains and care;
less flourishing people may be put in the
way of similar methods. For instance, how
good it would be for farmers if, instead of
thinking there is something noble in disregard
of trifling economy, they could see the
wisdom and beauty of an economy which
hurts nobody, but benefits everybody! It
would do no one any good to throw away
these scattered particles of precious metal,
while their preservation affords a maintenance
to many families. In the same way, the waste
of dead leaves, of animal manure, of odds
and ends of time, of seed, of space in hedges,
in the great majority of farms, does no
good, and gives no pleasure to anybody;
while the same thrift on a farm that we see
in a manufactory would sustain much life,
bestow much comfort, narrow no hearts, and
expand the enjoyments of very many.

We must take care of our eyes when the
ovens are opened—judging by the scarlet rays
that peep out, here and there, from any small
crevice. Prodigious! What a heat it is,
when, by the turn of a handle, a door of the
furnace is raised! The roasting, or calcining,
to get rid of the sulphur, is going on here.
The whole inside—walls, roof, embers and all—
are a transparent salmon-colour. As a shovel,
inserted from the opposite side, stirs and
turns the burning mass, the sulphur appears
above—a little blue flame, and a great deal of
yellow smoke. We feel some of it in our
throats. We exclaim about the intensity of
the heat, declaring it tremendous. But we
are told that it is not so; that, in fact, ' it is
very cold—that furnace; " which .shows us
that there is something hotter to come.

The Refiner's Test is pointed out to us;—a
sort of shovel, with a spout, lined throughout
with a material of burnt bones, the only
substance which can endure unchanged the heat
necessary for testing the metals. Of this
material are made the little crucibles that we
see in the furnaces, which our conductor
admits to be " rather warm." There they are,
ranged in rows, so obscured by the mere heat
which confounds everything in one glow,
that their circular rims are only seen by being
looked for. Yet, one little orifice, at the back
of this furnace, shows that even this heat can
be exceeded. That orifice is a point of white
heat, revealed from behind. We do not see
the metal in the crucibles; but we know that it
is simmering there.

One more oven is opened for us—the assay
furnace, which is at a white heat. As the
smallest quantities of metal serve for the
assay, the crucibles here on the scale of
dolls' tea-things. The whole concern of that
smallest furnace looks like a pretty toy: but it
is a very serious matter—the work it does,
and the values it determines.

The metals, which run down to the bottom,
in the melting furnaces, are separated (the
gold and silver by aquafortis), and cast, in
moulds, coming out as ingots; or, in fragments,
of any shape they may have pleased to
run into. Some of the gold fragments are of
the cleanest and brightest yellow. Others, no
less pure, are dark and:brownish. They
are for gilding porcelain. Lastly, we see a
pretty curiosity. In the counting-house, a
little glass chamber is erected upon a coin
with an apparatus of great beauty—a pair of
scales, thin and small to the last degree,
fastened by spider-like threads to a delicate
beam, which is connected with an index,
sensitive enough to show the variation of the
hundredth part of a grain. The glass walls
exclude atmospheric disturbance. Behind the
rusty-looking doors were the white glowing
crucibles; within the drawers was the yellow
gold; and, hidden in its glass house, was the
fairy balance.

Now, we will follow some of the gold and
silver to a place where skilled hands are
ready to work it curiously.

First, however, we may as well mention, in
confidence to our readers, that our feelings are
now and then wounded by the injustice of the
world to the Birmingham manufacturers. We
observe with pain that the very virtues of
Birmingham manufacture are made matters of
reproach. Because the citizens have at their
command extraordinary means of cheap
production, and produce cheap goods accordingly,
the world jumps to the conclusion, that the
work must be deceptive and bad. Fine gentlemen
and ladies give, in London shops, twice
the price for Birmingham jewellery that they
would pay, if no middlemen stood, filling their
pockets uncommonly fast, between them and
the manufacturer; and they admire the solid
value and great beauty of the work; but, as
soon as they know where the articles were
wrought, they undervalue them with the term
"Brummagem." In the Great Exhibition
there was a certain case of gold-work and
jewellery, rich and thorough in material and
workmanship. The contents of that case
were worth many hundred pounds. A gentleman
and lady stopped to admire their contents.
The lady was so delighted with them
that she supposed they must be French. The