SIR EDWARD THOMASON'S MEMOIRS DURING HALF A CENTURY. VOL. I ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS M.DCCC.XLV. PREFACE. A book without a preface is an anomaly. Custom demands a preface, even though it be as brief as the motto of the Author's crest, "Deo non fortuna ;" and every writer finds, at least when his book is finished, if not before, the benefit and expediency in the paying the tax, and of availing himself of the opportunity thereby afforded to apologize for the omission and commission, inasmuch as he may have erred, and tp. çonciliate, as far as possible, by a statement of what he intended should ensue, the favourable judgment of his fellow townsmen upon what he has actually accomplished! If the Author has at all succeeded in the object at which he aims, he flatters himself that the Work may be found (with deference be it, however, spoken) instructive and useful to the young and rising manufacturers of the great commercial town of Birmingham, comprising those whose ambition and taste lead them to improve their works and resources by inventions protected by patent right; and the ambition of others, who seek for honours to be conferred by their Sovereign for improvements which application and study may have developed in the production of inventions novel and useful in science and the arts! In the line of manufactures in which the Author was engaged for upwards of forty years, and which was con fined to the highest class of the metallic arts, he is animated with the hope that he has succeeded in many inventions calculated to reflect some credit on the inventor, and in which opinion he conceives himself borne out by his having been honoured with the Order of Knighthood from his own Sovereign, as well as having been honoured with more than thirty distinguished tokens of approbation from Foreign Potentates, of decorative orders of knighthood, gold medals of merit, diamond rings, diamond snuff-boxes, and other foreign specimens of art for, which: gratifying compliments he begs to avail himself of a line here to express his ever lasting gratitude The Authored for a period of twenty years, for eight Foreign Governments, the honourable appointment of Vice-Consul for the town of Birmingham, which regularly introduced him to foreigners of the highest distinction to princes, nobles, ambassadors, professors, &c.; thereby laying a foundation for a correspondence somewhat unique, and which may be found useful and instructive to the rising manufacturers of his native town. The Author avails himself of these documents to enable him to arrange a series of events during so long a period, and to form therefrom a publication calculated, it will be said, to gratify the ambition of the Author; but he humbly hopes it may be held amusing and instruc |