Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-04-08
SECRET OF A BUTTON.
WHAT ONE MIGHT TELL IF 1T
COULD TALK OF HOME.
sights at a Manufactory-rhe Method Of
Cutting Outflow the Dies Are Made
The Perfect Article An Important
Factcs Of Commerce.
How buttons Are Made.

To use the expression, mot worth. a
button,' which is often applied to an
object apparently worthless, is certainly
depreciating an article that is an inn
portant factor of commerce, and the
making Of which gives bread to many
thousands of people. Even though the
shadow of fashions frown fall at pres
ent over the button, it is anything but
an insignificant article.
The ancients do not appear to have
made use of the button, except, perhaps,
to fasten the drapery Of women's tunics
on the shoulder or arms; or to connect
the two square pieces of the tunic near
the neck.
Brass buttons were frequently used
by the soldiers to fasten a kind of cloak
on the right shoulder. In England, they
were worn probably more for ornament
than use in the tenth century; they
were generally made Of gold or silver,
and We're Of foreign manufacture. The
button, then, Is a comparatively recent
Introduction into common USE.
The dies for stamping metal buttons
are rated among the highest objects of
the die-sinker's and medalist's art. In
a large button mandatory you will e
ranges of shelves or pigeon-h0les COW
ering both sides Of the rooms, each
filled with dies, hundreds in number.
And upon each n what care and
thought have been spent, what ingenu-
ity and knowledge, what skill Of eye
and hand! In itself it is a curious arti-
Gle, q single die occupying a man from
two to three days to a month, according
to his ability and the fineness Of the pat
tern to be wrought.
To think Of 1000 in a year produced
hxy di~< x,e on v,,,n1, nffo,.k n nd ohj1ifHy op11
remember that b%utton-dies are among
the highest productions of the art, a u
not but elevate ones respectfor buttons.
The first step to take then in follow
ing throughout the history of a button,
says the Chicago Tribune, will be to find
out what is this steel die SO much heard
Of and SO seldom seen, except by those
who go to seek it. 1t is a block Of metal,
round or square, as may happen, four or
five inches in height and rather smaller
at the top than at the bottom. The steel
selected must be Of moderately fine
grain and uniform texture, and when
polished must show no spots or patches
under a magnifying glass. After being
forged into rough blocks the size and
shape mentioned the steel is made rs
soft as possible by. careful annealing-
being immersed in a pot of coarsely
pounded animal charcoal, then heated
to a cherry red and allowed to cool
gradually.
Nexti it is "faccdu up" fatty and smooth
ly in a lathe, and the engraver takes it
in hand. He first sketches his pattern
upon it from the drawing before him
with a pencil. Then he begins engrav-
ing with the hard, sharply pointed steel
engraving ~tools-gently, for it is always
easy to cut away more, but impossible
to restore the minutest chip when the
stroke has gone toe deep. He works
out the images of the pattern, diverse
and reverse, i'll intaglio for the upper
matrix, and embossed or in bas-relief
for the lower. When, after repeated
impressions upon clay from time to time
they are found correct, the matrices are
ready to be hardened.
This process is simple enough when
plain steel is to be operated upon, but
is critical when a delicate engraving is
to be preserved intact. Any defect in
the mode of conducting it may ruin the
labor of many weeks. 1t resembles the