Metal buttons are a numerous class, and in clude buttons for uniforms, trouser buttons, fancy buttons, which are gilt, stamped. chased, or enameled, and many cheap varieties in iron and other metals. Numerous kinds of compos ite buttons are also partly composed of metal. Glass buttons form another interesting branch, as do also porcelain buttons. Vulcanite but tons have been very extensively made in the United States. As to other materials, a Bir mingham manufacturer once said it would be easy to write out a long list from which buttons have been made, but very difficult to name one from which they have not been made. In mak ing metal buttons, circular disks, called 'blanks,' are first cut out of sheet brass or other metal by means of fly-presses, usually worked by girls. The fiy-press consists of a vertical iron screw with a triple thread, to which screw is attached a horizontal arm, bend ing downward at the end to form a handle. A punch attached to the press rises and falls with the motion of this handle, and rapidly cuts out the blanks. When large quantities of one pat tern are required, a self-feeding, self-acting ma thine is used, which cuts out the blanks in rows at one blow. After being annealed, the blanks are next made convex by a blow front a stamp. The shanks are formed of wire by a separate machine, which cuts ell' pieces and bends them into loops of a required form. When these are soldered on, the buttons are dressed on a lathe. They are then gilded and burnished; sonic, how ever, are only lacquered; and some, thought gilded, are finished in a dead or frosted style. Livery and oilier buttons having a device in strong relief are stamped by a die placed in a stamping-press. See DIES.
Buttons with holes, when of pearl-shell, bone, wood, or ivory, are cut with a tubular saw, turned separately in a lathe, and drilled. When of metal the blanks are punched, then stamped in (lies to the required form ; the holes are punched and finished smooth, so as to round the sharp edges that would otherwise cut the thread. Glass buttons are usually made by taking a rod of glass of any color, softening the end by heat, and pressing it into a mold, each half of xvhieh is fixed to one limb of a pair of pincers. The shank is placed in a hole in the mold be fore the melted glass is inserted.
The manufacture of pearl buttons was intro duced into the United States about 1855. The raw material at first came from China, and entered free of duty. In Bohemia and else where such buttons are manufactured in fam ilies and by the poorer classes often as a house industry in which all members of the family can engage, the smaller children sewing the buttons on cards. In Austria, France, and Germany the work has largely been done by convicts. The shells are brought from the Red and Mediter ranean seas, and there is said to be great danger that the beds will he exhausted, as it takes them twenty years to mature.
During the last decade of the Nineteenth Century the manufacture of pearl buttons in the United States received a great impetus, owing to the discovery of fresh-water mollusks in the Mississippi River admirably adapted to this use. Of the 400 species of mussels found in the river, several varieties are suitable for button manufacture, but the best is the Quad rule rbena, or `nigger-head.' which has a very thick shell, a black or dark-brown outside skin, and a glistening white interior. The fishing is conducted throughout the year, even in the coldest weather. tinder the ice, when shells are in best condition, being less brittle. On account of the shallowness of the river, fishing is ex tremely easy, and is carried on so unceasingly, even (luring the spawning season, that unless measures are taken to regulate the matter. the banks will inevitably be exhausted. Another enemy to the life of the mollusks is the sewage pollution of the river. After the shells are purchased from the fishermen. they are soaked in barrels of fresh water from three to six days, to render them less brittle. They are next sawed into blanks with saws formed by steel strips bent hito tubular form. A fine spray of
water plays on the shell. to keep it cool and lessen the dust, which is very irritating to the respiratory organs. The back of the button is then ground. to remove the skin and even the surface, and the front is polished and the pression made by means of an emery wheel. The holes are then drilled, and the buttons are ready for sorting, carding, and packing. The manufacture of buttons in the Mississippi Val ley began at Muscatine. Iowa, in 1890. it is now the principal business along a section of the river over 200 miles in length, extending from Fort Madison, Iowa, to Sabula, Iowa. in 1898, 7000 tons of mussels were used, at a cost of $72.000: the manufactured output consisted of 2.250,000 gross of buttons, at a market value of 3500,000. The unit of measure in button manufacture is a line, or one-fortieth of an inch, and it is stated that—in the United States at least—the cost of manufacture varies pretty directly with the diameter or number of lines of the button. The whole subject of the pearl button industry of the Mississippi Valley was investigated in 1899, by the United States Fish Commission, from whose reports much informa tion concerning the industry can be obtained.
An interesting account of the development of the button industry in the United States will be found in Bulletin No. 172 of the Twelfth Census of the United States. It is here stated that brass buttons were manufactured in Philadel phia as early as 1750, and, soon after, the manu facture of hard-wood buttons was begun by Benjamin Randolph in the same city. The first button-factory in Waterbury. Conn.. which city is now the centre of the metal-button industry, was established about 1800. The manufacture of covered buttons by machinery instead of by hand was begun in 1827 by Samuel Williston, of East hampton, Mass. Horn buttons were made as early as 1312, the hoofs of cattle forming the raw material. Vegetable-ivory buttons have been made in the United States since 1S59. and this branch now ranks third in the button industry. Various kinds of composition buttons have been made since the industry was started at Newark, N. J., in 1S62, where a button resembling veg etable ivory was produced from certain fossil and vegetable gums, combined with finely coin minuted carbonate of lime, feldspar, or mica. Composition buttons are now made of many ma terials, among them the Irish potato. which, when combined with certain aeid•:, becomes as hard as stone. Other materials are the casein from skim milk, blood, and brown sea-weed. Prior to 1900. 348 patents for button-machines and 1355 for the making of buttons had been issued by the United States Patent Office. A unique branch of the button industry is the manufacture of campaign and society buttons, and of buttons on which photographs are repro duced. These are usually made from celluloid.
The centres of the different branches of the button industry in the United States are as fol lows: Bone buttons, Pennsylvania ; brass but tons, Connecticut, New York; cloth buttons. Massachusetts; composition buttons. Pennsyl vania, New- York; fresh-water pearl-button blanks. Iowa. Illinois: fresh-water pearl but tons, New York. Iowa. Pennsylvania: horn but tons. Connecticut; ocean-pearl buttons, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania; paper buttons, New Hampshire; tin buttons. New Jersey; veg etable-ivory buttons, Yew York. ,Ilassachusetts, New Jersey. In 1850, according to the Census Bulletin named above, 59 button-making estab lishments in the United States had an output valued at 3964,359, while in 1900 the 233 estab lishments reported valued their productions at $7.695,910. The value of imported buttons de clined from $2,176,046 in 1891 to $600,982 in 1900.
In China a knob, or so-called button, is worn in the hat as a sign of rank, there being nine ranks, each of them signified by the material of which the button is made. The highest rank is indicated by a ruby; second by a coral: third, a sapphire; fourth, lapis lazuli; fifth, crystal; sixth, white stone; seventh. plain gold; eighth and ninth, differently marked gold.