The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1892-07-13
MANUFACTURING BUTTONS,
AN. ARTICLE THAT HAS BECOME A
NECESSITY TO CIVILIZATION.
Invented Only 100 Years Ago-what
They Have Done for Costume
Methods of Manufacture.

MctnOuS OF manutaCture.
((D UTToNS have played great
x part in the world" said a
scientific man to a Washing
ton Star writer. "They
were invented only a century and half
ago, and yet they have revolutionized
clothes. Until modern times people de-
lighted in loose and flowing robes, which
were flung around the body. In days OF
old the tallors and dressmakers paid no
attention to "ft," having regard 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 ornament. Thus,
if you look up their history, you will
find that the earliest patterns of them
were splendid and costly. However, it
was not long before their utility for fas-
tening garments came to be realized.
They rendered it possible to make
clothing fit closely to the body, and so
they brought about complete alteration
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 con-
ceivable material almost, including all
the metals from gold to pewter, pearl,
ivory, tortoise shell, bone, horn, hair,
india rubber, wood, amber, jet, glass,
porcelain, clay, leather, papier mache,
vegetable ivory, precious stones and all
sorts of stuffs and cloths. Metal buttons
are either stamped with dies or cast.
One firm in the United States turns out
5000, ,0O0 iron backs for covered but
tons every year. Glass buttons are made
by pinching the half soft material in hot
pincers. The pincers are furnished with
a die, if it is desired to impress design
on the buttons. Wooden button molds
come largely from the south of France,
where plenty of wood suitable for the
purpose grows.
Common shirt buttons are made by
mixing finely powdered soapstone with
silicate Of soda, otherwise known as
'water glass The mixture is dried and
repulverized and the powder is pressed
into molds by machinery. The freshly
nodded buttons are baked in q furnace,
dipped in 'water glass and again baked.
When cool, they are polished by being
placed in rotating barrel of water.
Finally they are dried and given an ad-
ditional polish in a rotating barrel with
soapstone powder. Porcelain buttons
are manufactured like small ornamental
articles of earthen ware. The moistened
clay is pressed into plaster of paris
molds, and the buttons thus nodded, af
ter being dried ON boards, are given
first firing and baking in the 'biscui,
oven.' At this stage the baked button,
are called biscuits Then they are
glazed directly, or, as preliminary, are
adorned with colors, which are fixed By
further baking in the 'enamel kiln.
The colors are put on by hand painting
or by transfer printing By the lattei
process the design is printed from a cop
per plate with peculiar ink on tissue
paper, which is placed while the i'm
preston 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 -of-pearl buttons are cut by
hand with a small revolving circular saw.
The work requires great skill, an impor.
tant object being to get as many buttons
as possible out of each shell. If the
mother-of-pearl is thick enough, it is
sometimes split into two layers. Finest
of all pearl buttons are those made from
the white edged Macasary shells brought
from the East India seas. These shells
are worth $500 ton in the crude. The
waste mother-of-pearl is ground to a fine
powder, which is mixed with gum to
paste and nodded into buttons of an
inferior quality"