Samuel Thornley, a chemist, was to expand into the manufacture of varnishes and lacquers. It was a humble and brave venture into an industry fraught with danger and frequent accidents.  The high temperatures necessary to 'crack' gums were difficult to control to any exactness so there was a high risk of fire or explosion.  Working conditions were very basic and  formulations were jealously guarded within the trade; for this was a peculiarly mysterious, skilful art. Until about 1750, varnish was a thick viscid substance, normally applied with a sponge - or even the fingers. Brushing varnishes and lacquers speeded up the process of application although it was not unusual to apply upto eighteen coats in order to achieve the quality of finish demanded.

They were troubled times.  Napoleon, having overrun most of Europe, was planning to invade Britain.  Our army was unprepared, the Navy faced the combined fleets of France, Spain and Holland and few thought Britain could survive the onslaught.  Then, on March 3rd, news reached London of a naval victory against Spain (Battle of St. Vincent's Bay 14th February). The new hero of the day was a hitherto comparatively unknown Naval Commodore - Horatio Nelson and renewed pride and patriotism welled through our nation.  Through these momentous times, Britain was led by Pitt the Younger who became Premier at the age of twenty-four; a record, as yet, unbroken. The people were rough and robust, barefisted pugilism and cockfighting were the sports of the man in the street and many were publicly hanged for petty crimes.

Yet culture in Britain had never been higher. The Georgian residences of the elite were graced by elegant style with fine proportions and delicate use of colour. In his book 'The Years of Endurance', Arthur Bryant wrote "It was an age of gold that had the Adam Brothers as it's architects, Hepplewhite and Sheraton as it's cabinet-makers. Outside, a society moved, brocaded, white-stockinged and bewigged. More gracious, more subtle, more exquisitely balanced than any seen on earth since the days of ancient Greece". Many artists and musicians, poets and writers, whose names we honour to this day, enriched the age when George III was King.

At the same time there was a great surge in imaginative invention. Science, engineering and industry were all developing rapidly. Priestley and Jenner, Macadam and Telfer were living in these times; George Stephenson was but a youth. Following quickly upon the invention of spinning and weaving machines, James Watt improved the steam engine - although thirty years were to pass before the first railway. The iron industry was extended by the use of coal for smelting. The potter's wheel, the loom and the press, operated for centuries by hand, now became machines for mass production. Man had become, as Carlyle put it later, a tool-using animal. These developments gave immense impetus to industry and, in almost every trade, thriving manufactories produced goods more abundantly, in greater variety and at cheaper rates.

Samuel Thornley's business thrived in this pioneering era. His policy from the outset was to make only the finest and most durable coatings. New resins were available from all corners of the world, with exotic names like Copal, Kauri, Juniper-Sandarac, Dammar and Congo gums, allowing easier application and quicker drying-times. He visited his customers regularly, travelling about on horseback or by coach. Travel was a hazardous undertaking at the time, the risks encountered on the roads being as great from ruts and potholes as from highwaymen. It was not uncommon for a Birmingham merchant to make his will before setting out on a journey ( 'Early Carriages & Roads' by Sir Walter Gilbey).

In spite of the unsettled conditions caused by the Napoleonic War, Samuel Thornley's business steadily expanded and six years later, in 1803, he took into partnership his brothers-in-law Thomas Knight and R. Sherratt. The title of the firm was altered to Thornley & Knight. As well as coach varnishes and house-painter's varnishes, Thornley & Knight were now making mixing varnishes which the house-painter, who still mixed his own paints, added to his colours when desired to save varnishing afterwards. The painter prepared his paints by laboriously grinding dry colours with linseed, walnut or poppy oil. The ground colours were kept in earthenware jars covered with pigs-bladder skin secured with waxed thread. In earlier years, prior to the availabilty of mixing oils, it was common practice to grind the colours in eggs, milk or honey.

Following an uneasy peace in 1802, the war with France had been renewed and the threat of invasion was causing much alarm and disturbance of trade. But the foundations of the Thornley & Knight business were solid, withstanding the impact of war, as it did many times since. In 1804, a 99 year lease was secured on the Lionel Street premises at an annual rent of £12/17/4. A year later saw the news of a complete and glorious victory at Trafalgar celebrated throughout the land. Britain's control of the seas and her new power of machine production gave her a monopoly of many overseas markets and national prosperity showed signs of recovery, although the war against Napoleon still continued on land. Despite the continuing war, Thornley & Knight enjoyed increasing prosperity and a large extension to the factory was found necessary.

King George III  had suffered recurring bouts of mental illness and in January 1811 his eldest son, also George, was appointed Prince Regent.  The Prince was the antithesis of his father, being licentious and extravagant.  He was, however, a patron of the arts and his architects recreated Regents Park and St Jame's Park, built Trafalgar Square, erected the Hyde Park Arch and elevated Buckingham House to Buckingham Palace.  His father's huge collection of books formed the foundation of the British Museum Library.

In 1815, laurel-wreathed coaches cantered through villiage and market town bearing news of Wellington's victory at Waterloo. So came the final defeat of Napoleon and the end of the bitter struggle between Britain and France. The cost of that war was £800 million and the aftermath brought a slump in industry and commerce which precipitated much unemployment and extreme distress. In Birmingham, according to Hutton, war "...caused about 500 tradesmen to fail, stagnated currency, thinned the inhabitants and left, in the town, about 1,200 empty houses". The progressive expansion of the T & K business suffered a temporary check. However, by 1820 when George IV came to the throne, conditions were gradually becoming more favourable to the arts and to the trade. By now the products of Thornley & Knight included various carriage varnishes, house-painters' varnishes, cabinet varnish, copal varnish for fine paintings, mixing varnishes, shellac, linseed and other oils. To this list were added the supply of dry colours for the painter who still, of course, made up his own paints. The population of the country had increased dramatically; it was estimated that there were about 2.5 million houses in existence. Demand for the painter was increasing though his pay was still limited by statute to 16 pence per day. With beer at two pence a pint, the tradesman would sometimes use this beverage to stain bare wood. A grimmer use for beer and other alcoholic liquors was their use by surgeons to intoxicate patients undergoing surgical operations! The principle of anaesthesia by the inhalation of gas was discovered in 1824 by Henry Hill Hickman(1800-1830) but his theories were not put into practice until after his death. His grandson, C A Thompson(1857-1949), became a long-serving Director of Thornley & Knight. King George IV died in 1830 and was succeeded by William IV.

It is not certain when the company first started to manufacture ready-mixed paints, but a sales ledger of 1835 includes references to paints in the following colours: white, sky blue, chocolate, green, drab, red and stone. Around that time, Rawlinson invented a colour mill for 'artists requiring their colours to be ground to a very high degree of fineness'. This machine enabled the production of paints in larger quantities and revolutionised the industry.

Edward Thornley, a son of the founder and a partner in the company, was tragically burnt to death in 1835 at the age of 33. The unfortunate accident occurred whilst he was varnish-making - a hazardous process even to this day. His younger brother Samuel jnr was subsequently partnered with the company.

The reign of King William IV was short-lived, succumbing to pneumonia in 1837. He died heirless, having no legitimate offspring - but was the father of ten illegitimate children! His niece, Victoria, ascended the throne at a time that heralded the dawn of the railway age.  It brought with it many opportunities for expansion of national trade, including a new and considerable demand for varnishes and lacquers. The builder and other tradesmen no longer had to rely on the local supply of raw materials or transportation by limited capacity horse-drawn waggons over roads that were little more than cart tracks.    Business travellers could now journey in relative comfort and safety. By 1851 there were over 3.5 million houses in Great Britain, an increase of one million in thirty years.   Ever since the end of the eighteenth century and then with postwar acceleration, the economic base of England had begun to shift from agriculture, controlled by wealthy aristocrats (the landlords), to manufacture, controlled by new-money industrialists. The war against France had fueled a surge: "A race of merchants and manufacturers and bankers and loan jobbers and contractors" was born, remarked Cobbett. Factories and mills invaded the countryside, pumped small towns into burgeoning cities, and cities into teeming metropolises. In 1800 only London—with about ten percent of the entire population of England and Wales—had more than a hundred thousand people. By 1837, when Victoria was crowned, there were five such cities, and London was growing by as much as twenty percent a decade. Even more staggering was the growth of the new industrial cities of the north.  Birmingham's population increased fourfold in fifty years, to 170,000 in 1837. Cobbett had earlier denounced these developments as "infernal," and many of his contemporaries, alarmed by the new concentrations of people and their demands for wages, food and housing, feared a repetition of the mob violence seen in France. 

In this age of acceleration, the British Empire was expanding, too. Economically and politically, it had become the preeminent world power. The American colonies had been lost, but Canada and the West Indies remained and Australia, New Zealand and India marked a global reach. British forces subjugated natives, defeated rival French ambitions, and held the Turks and Russians in check, while the East India Company, originally a trading organization, gradually assumed administrative control of the subcontinent, even to the point of collecting taxes to protect British interests.

Even before the Industrial Revolution, tens of thousands of people from adjoining counties flooded into Birmingham to escape the squalor and poverty of rural life. Some will have experienced no improvement in the overcrowded slum conditions they found there but, significantly, few opted to return to whence they came. Birmingham in the 18th and 19th centuries may have been vile, but other industrial cities were even worse (some wag claimed that had Friedrich Engels lived in Birmingham instead of Manchester communism might never have happened!)

At least Birmingham offered a wide range of prospective trades (some sources talk of 2,000), the natural drainage of the town also helped to keep hygiene at a (barely) tolerable level and thus reduce the risk of epidemics. Despite that, it cannot be denied that life in Brum in those times was no picnic.  In 1872 an organisation called Children's Emigration Homes was formed to "rescue" poverty-stricken youngsters. In the 22 years that followed, the population of Birmingham was reduced by 2,139 of the mites, shipped abroad, mostly to Canada, divided from their families and possible siblings—often forever. Despite being at the complete mercy of their new 'parents' many will, no doubt, have indeed gone to a better life.