_Pickard_, James.--A Birmingham button maker, who patented, Aug. 23, 1780, the use of the crank in the steam engine to procure rotary motion. He is supposed to have got the idea from overhearing the conversation of some Soho workmen while at their cups. The first engine in which it was used (and the fly-wheel) was for a manufacturer in Snow Hill, and was put up by Matthew Washborough, of Bristol. _Plant_.--Mr. T.L. Plant, who died very suddenly in a railway carriage in which he was coming into town on the morning of August 31, 1883, came to Birmingham in 1840. As a meteorologist, who for more than forty years had kept close record of wind and weather, he was well known; his letters to the newspapers on this and kindred subjects were always interesting, and the part he took in advanced sanitary questions gained him the friendship of all. Mr. Plant was a native of Yorkshire, and was in his 64th year at the time of his death. _Playfair_, William (brother of the eminent Scotch mathematician) was engaged as a draughtsman at the Soho Works, after serving apprenticeship as a millwright. He patented various inventions, and was well known as a political writer, &c. Born, 1759; died, 1823. _Postgate_, John.--This name should be honoured in every household for a life's exertion in the obtainment of purity in what we eat and drink. Beginning life as a grocer's boy, he saw the most gross adulteration carried on in all the varieties of articles sold by his employers, and afterwards being with a medical firm, he studied chemistry, and devoted his life to analysing food and drugs. Coming to this town in 1854, he obtained the assistance of Mr. Wm. Scholefield, by whose means the first Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry was appointed; the revelations were astounding, but it was not till 1875 that anything like a stringent Act was passed whereby the adulterators could be properly punished. The author of this great national benefit was allowed to die almost in poverty, uncared for by his countrymen at large, or by his adopted townsmen of Birmingham. Born October 21, 1820, Mr. Postgate died in July, 1881. _Ragg_, Rev. Thomas.--Once a bookseller and printer, editor and publisher of the _Birmingham Advertiser_, and author of several works, one of which secured for him the goodwill of the Bishop of Rochester, who ordained him a minister of the Established Church in 1858. He died December 3rd, 1881, in his 74th year, at Lawley, Salop, having been perpetual curate thereof from 1865. His parishioners and friends subscribed for a memorial window, and a fund of a little over £200 was raised for the benefit of the widow, but a very small part thereof went from Birmingham.