Sunday morning globe., 1901-09-15
pearl BUTTONS.
An Important Mississippi River In
duStry
WHICH is FLOURlSHING.
An Interesting Article on These Very Rsces-
sau and Useful Appondages Of Ladies',
Misses, and ChIIdronS Wearing Apparel,
eC.-The Button Factory Output and An
nua Increase

The fresh water pearl button indus
try Of the Mississippi valley has
proven a good investment. This indus.
try dates from the arrival in Iowa Of
an inventive and enterprising German
named j. +. Boepple, inventor of a
saw which would cut a neat, round
pearl button from the supposedly
worthless Mississippi River mussel
she'll Ten years ago the Mississippi
valley was without a single button fac
tory, but to-day few good-sized towns
along the great rivers bank are with
out one or more thriving button fac
tories. In Muscatine, alone there are
no less than a dozen factories, employ
ing together 1000 hands and paying
out in wages each week $4,000 The
amount of rough shells used each week
in these factories will reach 175 tons,
and the weekly output is about 98,-
600 buttons.
The digging Of the rough mussel
shells is, Of course, the initial act in
button making This is done by many
fishermen at the many different points
where are found beds Of the sluggish
clam along the Mississippi. The fish
ermen have sheet-iron tanks at conve-
nient places on shore, filed with boil
ing water, in which the mussels are
boiled 10 or IS minutes, i'm order to
kin them and permit the extraction Of
the feshy part. This accomplished,
the shells are loaded into sacks and
sent by steamer to the button factO-
ries. Sometimes large scows are load
ed with shells at a camp and towed to
the factory town by a tug. Shells are
also sold on the shore to buyers for
local button makers or for factories in
the East. One large boiling-out shed
at LeClaire, Ia, is 40 feet square and
has three furnaces, on which are placed
large boiling pans, each holding 20
bushels Of mussels.
The mussel shells, as purchased
from the fishermen, are hauled to the
factories and stored in sheds. Pre-
paratory to being used the shells are
sorted by sizes. Usually three sizes
Of "niggerheads" are recognized An
other preliminary step is the soaking
of the sorted shells in barrels of fresh
water from three to six days to render
them less brittle. Even when only "a
few hours out Of the water the shells
become brittle and dry and 1t is neces-
sary that they be used while wet, as
otherwise they crumble or split under
the saw The next step is the cutting
or saving of the blanks" Each cut
ter has a pile of selected shells at
hand. The shells are usually held with
pliers while being cut, but some saw
yers have the hand gloved or mittened
and use no pliers or pinchers. A fine
Jet Of water plays upon the shell, as
the saw revolves, in order to prevent
the formation of dust and to keep the
shell cool. The dust is very irritating
to the respiratory passages and eyes
of the cutters.
The saws are made Of fat steel strips
about inches wide, and Of various
lengths, corresponding to the sizes Of
the buttons. These strips, after being
provided with fine teeth, are accurately
bent into a cylindrical form and fitted
into heavy iron holders, the latter be-
ing adjusted to a lathe in which they
revolve on a horizontal axis As the
blanks are cut they pass through the
saw and holder and drop into a box
beneath the saw.
From the cutting machines the
blanks are taken to weigher and re-
corder who credits each man with the
gross number he cuts. In all branches
of the button industry a gross is con-
sidered as consisting of IA dozen in
stead of -, in order to make allow
ance for the imperfect or defective but
tons that are likely to be produced at
every stage from the cutting of the
blanks to the sewing Of the finished
buttons on cards.
When the larger buttons are cut
from the shell il is passed along to
man who cuts a smaller size In this
way a she'll is cut several times, not
a particle of it being wasted Most
factories cut seven sizes-14, 16, IS. 90
22 "a, and 26-"line' buttons Cline be-
ing the technical term Of measure
ment) Some however, have machines
for cutting 40, so and even 60-line but
tons, but these are seldom used.
The buttons being cut they are dried
I'm sawdust, and are then put in the
distributor and automatically sorted
/ into piles according to their thickness.
There are nine different thicknesses.
The last chapter Of the factory, which
does not "fnish' the buttons, is TO
/ place the blanks in large sacks and
these in boxes in which they are ship.
| ped to Eastern markets.
/ The next step in the making Of the
/ complete button is the dressing or
| grinding of the back of the blank to
make an even surface. To accomplish
/ this each blank must be held against
| a revolving emery wheel.
turning or facing is the next
/ step. This, also, Is done by emery
wheels, and gives to the front Of the
button its form, including a central de-
/ preston. This is followed by drilling
two or four holes for the thread. I'm
proved machines have come into use
Of late which will do all this work
without the aid of the human hand six
times as fast All that Is necessary to
do is to drop the buttons by the bushel
into a cylinder and the machine does
the rest.
The button IS now complete, with
the exception Of the polishing process;
this brings out the natural luster
which has been lost in grinding. The
buttons are placed in mass In large