BUTTONS. .The materials of which buttons are made arc very various, and this variety gives rise to a subdivision somewhat akin to that which marks many other departinents of manufac tures. Besides the well known gilt but tons, plain and figured, there are plated, silk, florentine, and other covered but tons—pearl, horn, shell, bone, wood, glass, and porcelain buttons, and proba bly many others. The two latter-named varieties are made at the works where either glass or porcelain articles are ma nufactured ; but the rest are produced chiefly at Birmingham, the different ma nufacturers producing their respective varieties.
The number of females to which the manufacture gives employment is very large, and the nimbleness with which most of the processes are carried on by them is truly remarkable.
We may first select a common gilt button, and follow it through its pro cesses of manufacture. The material of which these are made is sheet copper, or a mixed metal of which copper is a compo nent part. From these sheets, "blanks" or circular pieces are cut out, a trifling degree larger than the intended size of the button. This is done by means of small presses, of which there is a large number in every factory, devoted to one or other of the different kinds of button. The press for cutting the "blanks" has a eircular•eutter orpunch, worked by a lever or handle ; a female holding a sheet of metal in one hand and the lever of the press in the other, cuts the blanks with surprising rapidity, shifting the copper after each cut in order to expose a new part of the surface, and causing the punch to descend after each adjust ment.
Whatever be the form or nature of the button, this preliminary punching of the blank is almost always observed ; but beyond this, many varieties occur. The common flat gilt buttons for coats are flat on both sides, and consist of but one thickness of metal, which is punched out in the form of a blank. But there are many kinds of livery buttons, small glo bular buttons for boys' dresses, and other kinds, which are convex on the outer surface ; and this convexity has to be given to them after the blank is cut. Again, of those which are convex, some are of one thickness only, presenting . at the back the concave side of the same piece of metal which is convex in front ; while others (called "shell" buttons) are hollow, and made of two pieces of metal—one for the front and the other for the back. In this latter case, there are two blanks or circular pieces punched out separately • one called the "shell ," and the other the "bottom." The shell,
as well as convex buttons generally, is pressed to a convex shape by a machine similar in principle to the punching press, but having a curved polished sur face to act upon the metal, instead of a punch. One female will stamp twelve gross in an hour, or nearly thirty per minute.
The rawness of the edge is removed by turning each button slightly in a lathe, to give regularity of surface.
To bring both parts of the shell button together, they are pressed in a die and punch, so peculiarly adjusted that the edge of the shell becomes bent over and lapped down upon the bottom, securing the two together in a way at once firm and neat without the employment of any solder, rivet, or other mode of fastening. The device, or letters on buttons, is given by steel dies, and a stamping press simi lar in construction with the wood-cut. The shank, of a button is in some re spects more remarkable even than the blank, partly on account of its manufac turing arrangements—strange as they will appear to most persons. It might well be supposed that in large factories where five or six hundred persons are employed in making buttons, the pro duction of the bit of twisted wire which forms the shank, would at least form one of the departments. Yet this is not the case : the button-makers are not shank makers ; the hitter branch being carried on by a sr holly distinct class of manufae timers, of whom there are three or four in Birmingham. The reason seems to he, that the machinery employed is so costly and intricate, and the value of each shank when made so extremely minute, that nothing less than making for a great many button-makers could pay for the maintenance of a regular establishment ; so that the button-makers, as a body, can buy the shanks cheaper than make theta, Thus does the commerce of manufac tures adjust and regulate itself, when left to seek its natural channels. The shanks are made of brass wire, and vary from eight to forty gross per pound weight. In the beautiful machine now employed for their manufacture, a coil of wire is so placed that one end gradually advances towards a point where a pair of shears cut off a short piece; a stud then presses against the middle of the piece, and forces it between the two jaws of a kind of vice in a staple-like form ; the jaws then compress it so as to form the eye of the shank ; a little hammer next strikes the end to make it level ; and lastly, an other movement enables the shank to drop into a box quite ready for use. Some English firms manufacture two hundred million shanks per year.