Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1892-05-25
Buttons aud Their Making.

Buttons have played n great part in
the world" said scientific man to a Str
writer. "They were invented only cen
tury and halfago, and yet they hayerev-
olutionized clothes. Until modern times
people delighted in loose aud flowing
robes, which were flung around the body.
In days of old the tailors and dressmak-
ers paid no attention TO eft" having re-
gard merely for the graceful adjustment
of drapery. All this was changed by
buttons They were not worn originally
for any useful purpose, but merely for or
nament Thus, if you look up their his.
tory, YOU will find that the..carliest.s pat
terms of them were splendid and costly,
However, twas snot long before their
utility for fastening'garments came. to be
realized. They rendered it possible to
make clothing fit closely to the body, and
so they brought about a complete altera-
in the theory of costume.
Buttons have become necessary to
civilization. 1t is difficult to see how
mankind could get along without them
now. Only savages and the indolent
peoples of the orient dispense with them.
They are made of every conceivable ma
teriaI almost, including all the metals
from gold to pewter, pearl, ivory, tor
toise shell, bone, horn, hair, iudia rubber,
wood, amber, jet, glass, porcelain, clay,
leather, papier mache, vegetable livery,
precious stones and all sorts of stufis and
cloths Metals buttons are either stamp
ed with dies Tor cast. One firm in the
United States turns out 65000,000 iron
backs for covered buttons evory year.
Glass buttont are made by pinching the
halfsOft material in hot pinchers. The
pinchcrs are furnished with die, il it is
desired to impress design on the but
tons. Wooden button molds come large
ly from the south of France, where plen-
ty of wood suitable for the purpose grows.
Common shirt buttons are made by
mixing finely powdered soapstono with
slicate of soda, otherwise known as wa
ter glass. The mixture is dried and re-
pulverized and the powder is pressed into
molds by machinery. The freshly mold
ed buttons are baked in 4 furnace, Dip
ped in water glass and again baked
When cool, they are polished by being
placed in rotating barrel of water. FL
nally they are dried and given an addi.
tionaI polish in rotating barrel with
soapstone powder Porcelain buttons are
manufactured like small ornamental ar
ticles of earthen ware The moistoned
clay is pressed into plaster OF paris molds,
and the buttons thus nodded, after being
dried on boards, are given first firing and
baking in the biscuit oven. At this stage
the baked buttons are called 'biscuits.'-
Then they are glazed directly, or, as a pre-
limnary, are adorned with colors, which
are fixed by further baking in the enamel
kiln The colors are put on by hand paint
ing or by transfer printing BY the latter
process the design is printed from a copper
plate with a peculiar ink on tissue paper,
which is placed while the impression is
moist on the biscuit ware. After the ink,
has had time to dry the paper is removed,
leaving the design on the buttons.
Mother pearl buttons arc cut by hand
with small revolving circular saw The
work requires great skill, an important OBJ
ject being to get as many buttons as posi-.
bic out Of each she'll If the mother-ofpearl
is thick enough, it is sometimes split into
two layers Finest Of all pearl buttons arc
those made from the white edged Macassar
shells brought from the East India seas
These shells arc worth $500 ton in the
crude. The waste mo;her-of-pearl is ground
10 fine powder, which is mixed with gum
to form paste and nodded into buttons Of
an inferior quality"