with all the others, each is nevertheless distinguished by some special branch of manufacture. Perhaps the distinctive speciality of Dudley is Wright's Anvil and Vice factory. The anvil business has been carried on by the Wright family for 200 years. They probably have sent more anvils to the United States within this period than all the other English makers put together, and there are few blacksmiths' shops in America in which their name is not well known. During the last year, they turned out nearly 11,000, and also 9,000 vices. The present head of the house, Mr. Peter Wright, introduced, some years ago, a great improvement, for which he obtained a patent. It simply consists in making the anvil of one solid piece of iron; whereas, by the old system, the different parts were made separately and then welded together. This was a difficult and unsatisfactory process, for frequently the weld would not be perfect in some places, and the hammer and sledge would ere long find out the defect, for the anvil would ring like a cracked bell under their strokes, and after awhile the horn or beck would go sheer by the board. The improvement in making them out of a solid block of iron is a very valuable one indeed, remedying all these defects of the old system. To accomplish this, the grains or threads of the iron, as Dr. Johnson would say, are "reticulated" with remarkable complications. To use a
