MANUFACTURE OF WEDDINGRINGS IN BIRMINGHAM.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2622, 4 June 1877, Page 3

MANUFACTURE OF WEDDINGRINGS IN BIRMINGHAM.

The manufacturers who actually con. fine themselves to the making ©fweddingrjngs are comparatively few in number. It is an easy-going arid a pleasant trade, and so fine are the profits that all transactions are strictly for cash only. Birmingham makers supply mostly the wants of the -United Kingdom end the British Colonies, but. many European nations make their own matrimonial yokes. There ire, in all, about twenty-

four different makes of rings, and three qualities of gold. 'I lie Scotch and Irish people like usually a cheap quality; while in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the North of .Rutland heavy cosily, rings ore wanted. Wedding-riucn .''re of two orders —the " round " and the " broad " sort —in which the band of gold is flat and displayed. There is thus a little fashion even in these simple matters, and in different parts of .Knglnud broad or round rings are in rogue. Popular la.ste is ill favor of broad rings as the most showy, but round rings for the very 'swell people. The quality of the wed-ding-rings must be irreproachable "carat," and it may happen that a few sovereigns find their way into the melting pot. : At the manufactory I inspectfd, I learnt that a bar of gold of the value of £600 lasted some five or six days, and was estimated to tuake from 90 to 100 dozens of rings. On the average some 60 to 70 dozens of rings are sent away from here evory week. Think of this awful fact, dear ladies, that every ring represents one marriage!.' Truly a wholesale making of fetters that bind more.closely than the prison chains. As much confidence must be placed in the workmen, old: and trusty servants are employed, and for them work is always found, if the demand be great or small. Christmas!; is a tremendous time for weddings, and ihon the makers work ''double tides "-for some three weeks previously, sometimes toiling nearly all night. Easter and Whitsuntide are also favoured periods for the commission of matrimony, but Christmas is best loved |of all. Tolerably even though the trade is, slack seasons jiffect it; then, of course, j prudent men do not rush headlong into matrimony. The prices of rings range from a'few shillings to several pounds. There are terribly vulgar bridei vho will have the most, massive and costly rings, fearful to behold ; and occasionally opulent male snobs take a fancy to have a plain gold ring of appalling proportions, as an instance, doubtless, of par-venue-success and wealth. The fashionable ring is a neat thing of three to four pennyweights. Apart from the trade orders, there are many curious private customers who come to the manufactory for the one single gold circlet that is to mark one of this life's great contracts. Often the working girl—soon to be a bride —buys her own ring herself, and no matter how poor or ragged she may be, the ring must be of undoubted quality. A slight return to drink, or " luck money' 1: on the purchase is held to be productive of good, and many superstitions prevail among the poorer customers. One bride elect came back tearfully with her purchase to have it exchanged. The ring was accursed^ having been tried: on by some thoughtless girl ere the bride had worn it. The omen was held to be indicative of the worst luck." Many, indeed, are the strange fads and fancies connected with this magic circle. Often a girl who has scraped up her little savings to buy an elaborate ring, will change it put of jealousy for a heavier one, if some companion bride-elect has made a more massive purchase. . .'";

Shall we enter the magic laboratory wherein pledges, matrimonial are confectioned? Ti'uly an alchemist's study. A small dingy workshop, fitted with a few benches for some half dozen workpeople, and the ordinary rotary polishing wheels, blow - pipes, reflecting glass bottles, and so on. Here on the first floor is the melting furnace; through a small aperture the gold bar or bag of sly sovereigns is dropped into the meltingpot. The gold, having been duly melted, is trken to the mill to be rolled. It? is then annealed. By this time the precious metal is as black as. sheet iron, and the raw material ol wedding-rings, as it lies in the workshop, resembles nothing -so much as sections of nail-rod' iron, or pieces of flattened telegraph wire. Gold; indeed .not if you know it! .The.nail: rod gold has now to : be drawn through a machine something . after the. wiredrawing principle. An end of. a black gold rod is made fast in the machine, and . comes out twisting tightly on" the drum of the machine like a rope round a windlass. It is drawn round or flat as may be required, and appears after the highly attenuating process its own natural color, the impurities of the annealing having been rubbed off. The links that are to" lead-to—let us hope—' much "linked sweetness," having been thus _ "long drawn out" themselves, are: cut into short strip's of: the length of wedding-rings of all x sizes, and sent to receive the official stamp, by which internal cabalistic design unbelievers know that the articles are "hall marked, 1' | and so above suspicion. The ; embryo ! rings now present a rough appearance, and are of a dull yellow tint. The remaining processes are very simple. The little sections are hammered.roughly round, and the ends joined, then.beaten into the complete circle, and so, rough, coarse, and dull, are handed, over to the, gifted being who is. to produce the last magical change, and transform';the dull, brassy looking circlet into the trim,, neat* shining symbol of wedlock, all ready for the nervous digit af the. tremulous bride. The ring is fixed in the revolving wheels; away goes the. said wheel at a good speed i the polishing instruments—of hard stone —are deftly,.applied, and,- heyj presto! soon the wheel stops, and out comes the ring as bright and clean as a new pin. In this almost primitively simple workshop^ these half dozen' work-people turn out weekly agoodly number of rings. Of a truth, the making them is as simple as may be. . The artisans are checked at various stages by the weight of gold given out to them. A certain quantity of gold is weighed out, and should produce so many strips through the drawing machinel At different stages of the manufacture the materials are weighed, and the final result should be so many manufactured rings. A special tub is vprovided for the workpeople to wash their hands in on leaving work, and this tub yields auriferous harvests.

The show-rooms of the wedding-ring maker are simple in the extreme. One small office suffices, and a couple of dolls' chests o,f drawers contain the samples of his quaint trade. To my fancy it is a most charming business, so clean, so easy, and—most "potent of all facts —so strictly on the "cash principle." When we remember the enormous credits common to the jewellfry trade in general, this " trade rale " is remarkable, especially as the whole process of making and finishing the wedding-ring is so very simple. But it is, I believe, religiously adhered to.—Birmingham Daily Mail.