Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1892-07-07
WHOSE cor -.
What They Have Done -.
Methods or ~"s'umes---

What They Have Done
Methods OF Manufacture.
"buttons have played n oraot -
In the world" said a scientific mar ),
a washington Star writer. err
were invented only a century ana /.
half ago, and yet they have revo,n.ia.
ized clothes. Until modern TIM.
people delighted i Moose and eowine
robes, which were flung around ~.
body. In Gays of old the tailors W..
oressmakers paid no attention :,
mt" having regard merely for IN,
graceful adjustment Of dranerv a"
TINS was changed by buttons IT,
were not worn originally for am
useiui purpose, but merely 20,
ornament. Thus, il You LOOT m'
their history, you will find that ,hi
earliest patterns of them were sp,en.
did and costly. However, il was1o
long before their utility for fastenina
garments came TO be realized. Tbey
rendered il possible to make clotbin.
nj closely to the body, and so thew
brought about a complete alteration
In the theory of costume.
Buttons have become necoOsouu
mankind. 1t is difficult to see how
civilization could get along without
them now. Only savages and the
indolent people of the orient d,a
pense with,them. They are made .,
every Conceivable smaterial almost
including all the metals from gold 10
pewter, pearl, ivory, tortoise shell
bone, horn, hair, india rubber. wood
amber, Jet, glass, porcelain, CLAW
leather, papier machie, vegetable
ivory, precious stones, and all sorts
OF stuffs and cloths. Metal buttons
are either stamped with dies or casts.
One firm in the United States turns
out 65,Oo0,ooO iron backs for covered
every year. Glass buttons
buttons are made by pincbing
the half-soft material i'm hot
pincers. The pincers are furnished
with a die, il il is desired to press a
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 powered s~oapstone
with silicate of soda, otherwise
known as water glass; The mix
ture is dried and repulverized and
the powder is pressed into moulds by
machinery. The freshly nodded
buttons are baked in a furnace.
dipped in water glass and again
baked. When cool they are polished
by being placed in a rotating barrel
of water. Finally they are dried and
given an additional polish i'm a
rotating barrel with soapstone
powder. Porcelain buttons are
manufactured like small ornamental
articles of e%arthenware. The
moistened clay is pressed into plaster
of paris molds, and the button thus
nodded, after being dried on boards.
are given a first firing and baking in
the biscuit Oyen.' At this stage the
baked buttons are called biscuits
Then they are glazed directly, or, as
a 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
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-of-pearl buttons are cut
by hand with a small revolving
circular saw. The work requires
great skill, an important 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 Macassar
shells brought from the East India
These shells are worth $500 a
ton in the crude. The waste mother
of-pearl is ground to a fine powder,
which is mixed with gum to form a
paste ard nodded into buttons of
inferior qnality."