The New Student's Reference Work/Manchester (England)

Manchester, a city in Lancashire, England, lies on the east bank of the Irwell, 31 miles east of Liverpool. Sixteen bridges, besides railroad viaducts, join it to Salford on the opposite bank, which really is a part of Manchester. Manchester is the center of the largest manufacturing district in the world. It is surrounded by a circle of suburban cities, and within a few miles is a second ring of cities with populations ranging from 10,000 to 50,000. Thirty miles from Manchester is a third cluster of towns and cities, most of them engaged in manufacture. Manchester and Salford have 11 parks, containing 300 acres. The free reference-library contains over 250,000 volumes, and there are six branch libraries. Chetham Library, founded in 1653, contains 40,000 volumes, many of them rare and very valuable. It was the first free library in England. The “Old Church,” built in 1422, is a fine Gothic structure. The magnificent town-hall is a Gothic, triangular building, costing $5,250,000. The hospital, the royal infirmary, was first used in 1755. Other buildings of note are the royal institution, the royal exchange, the free-trade hall and the assize courts. Victoria University and, especially, the Technical School are well known.

Manchester was the first town to introduce, about the middle of the 18th century, the factory-system, where large numbers of men work together, in place of the older method of men working in their homes. In 1756 Bridgewater Canal was constructed, which joins Manchester to the coalfields of Lancashire and salt-mines of Cheshire, and makes an outlet to the sea. In 1830 Manchester had the first perfect railroad in operation. In 1887-91 a great ship-canal was built at a cost of $28,750,000, which made Manchester an inland seaport. There are 750 industries carried on, but the great business is cotton-manufacture, and in and around Manchester are located two thirds of the cotton-mills of Great Britain and Ireland. Manchester University in 1906 had a teaching faculty of 190 in number, with a student attendance of 1,153. Population 716,354. See Saintsbury's Manchester.

MANCHESTER ROYAL INFIRMARY AND PICCADILLY FROM QUEEN'S HOTEL