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time in extolling its virtues. The oldest extant catalogue of the firm
devoted its greater part to the merits of the new ventilator. Indeed, a
flair for advertising characterises the efforts of both brothers.
The practice of publishing letters of recommendation
from satisfied customers was largely used in the first catalogue. Among
those reproduced in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, can be found
testimonials from a Lecturer on Anatomy, the President of Her Majesty's
Pharmaceutical Society, and Secretary of the Foundling Hospital, various
business houses, solicitors, parsons and others, and nearer home, the
Southwark Literary Institution, who passed a resolution bearing testimony
to the beneficial effect of the Sheringham's Ventilator placed in the
News Room of the Institution by Messrs. Hayward free of charge but not, we
imagine, without an eye to the main chance.
Perhaps the most interesting letter came from the
pen of George Cruikshank, illustrator of the works of Dickens and other
popular writers. "From the nature of my profession," he wrote from his
home in Hampstead, "I have been, as it were, shut up in a room for the
greater part of my life, and have thus been made fully sensible of the
importance of a constant supply of fresh air without the risk of
taking cold; and so far as my experience goes (and I have given much
attention to this subject), I have little hesitation in asserting that an
efficient ventilation may be established upon your principle, in any sort
of building, without danger to the occupants."
The Great Exhibition had given an impetus to all
sorts of improvements in domestic appliances, among them cooking stoves
and grates designed to provide the same benefits as older methods but
with greater ease and economy. Robert Henly had patented a kitchen range
which the brothers adapted and improved. This later became one of their
most favoured manufactures and survived for many years as the Union
Range, taking its name from the street in which it was made. Other
types such as Wolfaston's Patent Radiating and Reflecting Register Stove
were also taken over from Henly and sold in large numbers. Meanwhile,
the Haywards were
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