One of the most curious of all these patents is one for fixing the umbrella to the hat somewhat after the fashion of the thatched Indians of whom one reads in books of travel. =Watch Manufacture.=--[R. L. BRAGGE.]--The “watchmakers” of Birmingham of forty or fifty years ago were rather repairers than makers, though there was scarcely a part of the mechanism of a watch which they were not at times obliged to make. Of these watchmakers, S. Allport, of Bull Street, was considered to take the lead. There were also T. Warwick, in Colmore Row; Birley, in High Street, and others. At this time the highest class watches were made in London. Liverpool also had a reputation for goods of high quality. Coventry, however, enjoyed a larger industry than either of the other centres named. The first earnest and persistent effort to include watch manufacture as a Birmingham industry was made by Messrs. Hodgkins and Booth, who commenced about 1843, and continued till 1850, when Messrs. Betts and Fairfax succeeded to the business. Messrs. Charles Wood and Sons, of Bath Street and of St. Paul’s Square, not long afterward gained a reputation as manufacturers of high quality watches. Mr. W. Ehrhardt, in 1873, erected a large manufactory for production of watches according to modern ideas, and the English Watch Company (Limited) have also erected extensive ranges of shopping in Villa Street. Exclusive of “jobbers,” there are probably about 600 to 700 artisan watchmakers employed in the town, about 30 per cent. of whom are females; some 500 of these are employed at the two large manufactories just mentioned. It is probable that nearly 700 watches per week are turned out in Birmingham. Birmingham watches have a good reputation, and there is not a “duffer” watch turned out from one year’s end to another. One singular feature of the trade is that the name of the maker rarely appears on a watch--manufacturers generally put on the names of their customers. Many large export houses have adopted fictitious names, under which a certain pattern watch has attained a reputation that makes the name a valuable property. A large Colonial trade is done on these lines. Messrs. Dennison, Wigley, and Co., manufacture watch cases, employing about 100 hands, making the cases for American companies. These cases as well as many Swiss ones pass through the Birmingham Assay Office, and are afterwards sent abroad for the movements to be fitted in. Since this practice prevailed, it is obvious that the Assay Office returns are no index of the number of watches made in this town. Almost the only branch of this trade which is not localised is the enamelling and painting of the dials. Watch glass making is scarcely practised in this country, nearly the whole supply of the watchmaking world coming from the Continent.