Gutta Percha was not known in Europe prior to 1844, and the first specimens were brought here in the following year.  Speaking tubes made of gutta percha were introduced early in 1849.

Gymnasium.—­At a meeting held Dec. 18, 1865, under the presidency of the Mayor, it was resolved to establish a public gymnasium on a large scale, but an present it is non-existent, the only gymnasium open being that of the Athletic Club at Bingley Hall.

Hackney Coaches were introduced here in 1775.  Hutton says the drivers of the first few earned 30s. per day; those of the present day say they do not get half the sum now.  Hansom Cabs, the invention, in 1836, of the architect and designer of our Town Hall, were first put on the stands in 1842.

Half-Holiday.—­Ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, used to be the stint for workpeople here and elsewhere.  A Saturday Half-holiday movement was begun in 1851, the first employers to adopt the system being Mr. John Frearson, of Gas Street (late of the Waverley Hotel, Crescent), and Mr. Richard Tangye.  Wingfields, Brown, Marshall & Co., and many other large firms began with the year 1853, when it maybe said the plan became general.

Handsworth.—­Till within the last thirty or forty years, Handsworth was little more than a pleasant country village, though now a well-populated suburb of Birmingham.  The name is to be found in the “Domesday Book,” but the ancient history of the parish is meagre indeed, and confined almost solely to the families of the lords of the manor, the Wyrleys, Stanfords, &c., their marriages and intermarriages, their fancies and feuds, and all those petty trifles chroniclers of old were so fond of recording.  After the erection of the once world-known, but now vanished Soho Works, by Matthew Boulton, a gradual change came o’er the scene; cultivated enclosures taking the place of the commons, enclosed in 1793; Boulton’s park laid out, good roads made, water-courses cleared, and houses and mansions springing up on all sides, and so continuing on until now, when the parish (which includes Birchfield and Perry Barr, an area of 7,680 acres in all) is nearly half covered with streets and houses, churches and chapels, alms-houses and stations, shops, offices, schools, and all the other necessary adjuncts to a populous and thriving community.  The Local Board Offices and Free Library, situate in Soho Road, were built in 1878 (first stone laid October 30th, 1877), at a cost of L20,662, and it is a handsome pile of buildings.  The library contains about 7,000 volumes.  There is talk of erecting public swimming and other baths, and a faint whisper that recreation grounds are not far from view.  The 1st Volunteer Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment have their head-quarters here.  Old Handsworth Church, which contained several carved effigies and tombs of the old lords, monuments of Matthew Boulton and James Watt, with bust of William Murdoch, &c., has been rebuilt and enlarged, the first stone of the new building being laid in Aug, 1876.  Five of the bells in the tower were cast in 1701, by Joseph Smith, of Edgbaston, and were the first peal sent out of his foundry; the tenor is much older.  The very appropriate inscription on the fourth bell is, “God preserve the Church of England as by law established.”