Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1892-07-09
MANUFACTURING BUTTONS.
AN ARTICLE THAT HAS BECOME A.
NECESSITY TO CIVILIZATION.
invented ONLY $50 Years .ASo-W hat
They Have Done for Costume
Methods ct Manufacture.

* part IN tut "oIiO. SaiO =
scientific man to a Washing
ton Star writer. They
veIe invented only u century and q half
ago.. and vet they have revoiutlouized
clothes. JLtil modern times people de-
lighted IN loose and flowing robes, which
were flung around the body. In days OF
| old the ta,loys and dressmakers paid 20
| attention 10 %''Iit," having regard merely
for the graceful adjustment Of drapery.
All this was changed by buttons. They
we're not worn originally for any useful
| PURPOSE. but merely for ornament. Thus,
if yoa look az, :heir history, you will
| find that the earliest patterns o. them
vert splendid and costly. However, it
vas not long before their utility for fas-
teuing garments came to be realized.
They rendered it possible to make
clothing tit closely TO the body, and s
they brought about q complete alteration
II the theory of costume.
"Buttons have become necessary to
civilization. 1t is difficult to see how
mankind could get along without them
Low. Only savages and the indolent
|CoI}.1s I" tAC I1 AolCP VIVA
them. They are made of every con-
ceiv,b!e material almost, including all
the metals from gold to pewter, pearl,
ivory, tortoise she'll, bone, horn, hair,
india rubber, wood, amber, jet, glass,
porcelain, clay, leather, papler mache,
vegetable ivory, precious stones and all
sorts ot stut,s and cloths. Metal buttons
arn .itl.r of.mpal u,th 1,oS Or caSf
One firm III the United States turns out
6j, UCU, OJO iron backs for covered but
tons every year. Glass buttons are made
by pinching the half soft material il hot
p%incers. The pincers are furnished with
Il die, il it is desired to impress 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 powdered soapstone with
%sillcate OF soda, otherwise known a.
water glass; The mixture is dried and
repulverlzed End the powder is pressed
into molds by machinery. The freshly
molded buttons are baked in a furnace,
dipped IN water glass and again baked
When cool, they are polished 10y being
placed IN rotating barrel of water
Finally they are dried aud given an ad.
ditional polish in a rotating barrel will
soapstone powder. Porcelain button'
are manufactured like small ornamental
articles of earthcn ware. The moistene(
clay is pressed into plaster of pari
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 ar
glazed directly, or, as a preliminary, ar,
adorned with ~colo1s, which are fixed b
further baking N the 'enamel kiln.
The colors are put on by hand paintin;
or by transfer printing BY the latte
process the design is printed from a cop
per plate with a peculiar lux on tissu
paper, which is placed while the i'm
preston is moist OF the biscuit Ware
After th'. ink has had time to dry tn
paper is removed, leaving the design 0
the buttons.
"Mother-of-pear butt ons are cut b
hard with i small revolving circular saw
The work requires great skill, AL impor
tant object being to get as many button
!, as possible out of each shell. If tn
, mother-ot,pe.r' is thick enough, it
. sometimes spi Iuto two layers. Fine,
. Of all pearl buttons are those made fro
) the white edged Necessary shells brough
9 from the East India seas. These shell
! are worth $500 ton in the crude. III
waste mother-of pearl is ground to a fiji
powder, which is mixed with gum
a paste and nodded into buttons of a
I Inferior quality.