is faid that he suffered a third repulfe, by ftating that the works were in the township of Greenfield, inftead of Holywell, or vice verfa. The building reverted How the affair ended I cannot learn. into the hands of the heirs of the leffors. granted a leafe of it, in 1758, to Mr. Champion, partner and agent in the Wormley company, near Bristol, who there calcined black-jack. He was the first who engaged in fuch a concern in this country, and probably in Great Britain, which he carried on under the protection of a patent. A PIN-MILL was built in 1764, for the ufe of James Eden, pin-maker, who occupied it about two years, and then failed. The next occupier was Mrs. Chambers, who converted it into a coarse-paper mill, and continued the use of it till 1783, when it fell into the hands of the cotton-company, which turned it into a fmithy: and, finally, three corn-mills, formed with the above the fum of the works upon the ftream, in my early days. The lower of these two, reckoning from the well, was pulled down. In the year 1766 began the memorable epoch in the annals of our famous stream, when the late Mr. Patten of Warrington, and Co. built the first battering-mill for copper and brass. In about ten years from that time, Mr. John Smalley, now deceased, introduced the first manufacture of cotton. By his fucceffors, and by the great copper-companies, those behemoths of commerce, our little Jordan was foon drunk up. By their skill and industry they succeeded, to the benefit of the state, and to their private emolument. Tho. Williams, Cc 2 PIN-MILE. THREE CORN- FAMOUS EPOCK OF COMMERCE. PARYS MINE Williams, efquire*, that useful and active character, with unparalleled fpeed, covered the lower part of the ftream, or that next to the fea, with buildings ftupendous in expence, extent, and ingenuity of contrivance. Thefe great works are under the firm of the PARYS MINE COMPANY. The buildings were completed in the year 1780, and held under leafe from Sir Pyers Moftyn, bart. owner of the whole ftream, excepting a small part. To Mr. Samuel Williamfon, chief agent of this part of the works, I am indebted for the account of the works carried on here. These are entirely confined to the manufacture of copper. In this department is a great forge for heating the cakes of copper, previously to their being beat into pans, or rolled into fheathings, &c. &c. The wheels and machinery are fet in motion by the water from a large pool, parallel to the road, which is filled from the stream, and let out by another channel to effect its purposes. THESE may be called the great magazines for the fupply of the: royal navy with the various neceffaries in copper, fuch as fheathings, bolts, and nails. Some of the bolts are twenty feet long, and fo hardened by rolling and battering, as to be capable of being driven almost to their heads, in the entrance forward, and. run abaft of the ships where the beds of timber are the thickest; which work is facilitated by boring with an auger two-thirds of the length. SOME of the nails are a foot in length, and from that fize to that of a fadler's tack. RUDDER bands and braces are here made of an enormous * Member for Marlow. fize; fome, defigned for the largest first-rates, weighed one ton fourteen hundred. THE number of men employed in these works is ninety-three. This is intended when they are in full employ: the fame must be understood of all the reft. THE head of water to this mill is about twenty-one feet and a half, and the fuperficial furface of the pool about 112,028 feet. THE trade of thefe works is not confined to the royal navy. The merchant fhips are from hence fupplied with confiderable quantities of fheathing, bolts, and nails, as are many of the ships in the fervice of the East India Company. FROM hence braziers are furnished with copper veffels of all kinds, and the materials for all the copper branches of their bufinefs. THE works on this river are fupplied with their copper from the Parys mine and Mona mine companies; the ore of which is smelted chiefly at Ravenhead, and Stanley, in Lancashire. THE Cornish ores are smelted at Swanfey, Neath, Bristol, and in Cornwal. THE Duke of Devonshire's ores, at Whiston, in Derbyshire. THE number of veffels immediately employed by the copper. companies on this river, to convey the feveral manufactures, or the materials to and from Leverpool, and the other places connected with them, amount to between thirty and forty, from thirty to fifty tons burden. MR. WILLIAMS has, befides the works on the Holywell stream, two near Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, upon as large a fcale as thofe in Greenfield. There are alfo in this kingdom others be longing THE COMPANY'S BRASS MELTING- longing to different proprietors, at Congleton and Macclesfield, in Chefbire, at Swanfey, and Brifiol, and in Cornwal, and a number in the vicinity of London. I MUST not be filent on the fubject of the most beautiful coin or token in ufe by this great company, as it exceeds in elegance any which has been yet emitted. On one fide is the head of a Druid, emblematic of the ifle of Mona, the antient feat of the venerable order, and which now produces the material of the coin. On the reverse is the cypher of Parys mountain, with a promiffory legend to pay one penny, or one half-penny, as it happens to be, in London, Anglefey, or Leverpool, to bearer on demand. VAST quantities of these coins are counterfeited at Birmingham, and may be had by public order in any number. ABOVE these works is a great cluster of vaft square chimnies, the discharge of the tremendous volumes of thick black fmoke, rifing from the making of brafs. These are the brafs meltinghouses belonging to the Greenfield copper and brafs company, under the direction of Mr. Donbavand, where they have fix large melting houses with twenty-four fires, each fire contains nine pots, with metal, fluxes, &c. Here they make plate-brass for the purpose of being manufactured at their battery-mills, plate-brass for wire for the pin-manufacturers, and ingot-brafs for the various founders, &c. At this place they have a mill, places to calcine, buddle, and grind the lapis calaminaris, &c. for the purpose of making brafs; alfo a copper forge, not used at present: the head of water is about 21 feet, fuperficial furface of the pool about 23,664 feet. The number of the men employed in these works, is about fifty. The materials for the making of brafs brafs are all at hand. The copper fhot and clippings are from the adjacent works, the calamine from our own mines, and the charcoal from our woods. The art of making brafs in early times, is mentioned before at pp. 123, 124. The first patent for the calamine stone, and the use thereof, was granted to William Ilumfrey, and Christopher Shutz, dated the 17th of September, 1565, at which time the long loft art in these kingdoms began to revive. IN digging the foundation for the brafs melting-houses, Mr. Donbavand difcovered an antient Roman hypocaust, furnished with various flues, with the fuperincumbent tiles of a fine red color. These artificial hot baths and fweating-rooms were the greatest luxuries of the Romans. This proves that they had a stationary fettlement in this place, probably of merchants concerned in the mineral works, which they certainly had on the adjacent mountains, of which I have given an account in p. 122 of this book. NOT far from this work, on the eaft-fide of the river, is the great manufactory of brass wire of every denomination. Alfo here are drawn the square materials for making copper nails, which are formed by the common process of beating and heading. This work has a head of twenty-three feet, which is capable, by means of an extenfive pool, that may be formed above, of having a very large work built on the now vacant spot. AT a small distance to the fouth, a moft magnificent cottonwork foars, like the tower of Babel, above all the lower buildings. I fhall here only fay, that about ten weeks before its completion, nothing but a void appeared before me: at the expiration of that fpace, in another ride I took, I cannot express my aftonishment at feeing the enormous mafs rifen, as if by magic, out of the ground. HYPOCAUST. WIRE-WORK. COTTON-WORK. |