Evening star., 1919-11-30
IKE pretty much every other ar
ticle Of everyday use, few per-
4 sons know anything about but

lhE pretty much every other ar
ticle Of everyday use, few per-
IL sons know anything about but
tons. preferring very often to
look into such subjects as the effect
or Leninism on the rise and fall of
RUSSIAN opera or the lack Of hu-
midity and humanity as contributing
causes of the falling off Of births and
deaths on the desert of Sahara. 1t
Will be surprising to know that but
tons are made from such queer things
as nuts, potatoes, hoofs, horns, blood,
porcelain, skin, milk, shells, glass and
seaweed, as we'll as various kinds of
metals.
Buttons are children of civilizations
The citizens usually designated as
savages use string to fasten their
clothes together. Tho Greeks and
Romans got along with merely a gir-
die, the flowing, sheet like nature Of
their garments not requiring any
thing more certain in the nature of
fastening.
Buttons were first used on clothing
Tor ornamental purposes. This was
soon followed by loops and buttons.
The evolution of the buttonhole came
last of all. Buttons We're first used in
southern Europe in the thirteenth or
fourteenth century.
Ihe manufacture Of buttons, so far
as 1t might be referred to as an in
dustry. was commenced in England
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
pronounced changes Of dress since
that period have naturally produced
Very1ng changes in button manufac-
ture. inventions and foreign compe-
ution have likewise had their effect.
birmingham. England, has always
been the great button manufacturing
center Of Europe.
Brass buttons were made in Phila-
deiphia as early as 1850. A few years
ater BENJAMIN Rudolph began maxi
ing wooden buttons in that city. A
button factory was started at Water
bury' Conn.,, in 1900. That city has
SINCE become the center Of metal but
ton manufacturing of this country.
The manufacture Of covered buttons
by machinery instead of by hand was
begun In 1927 by Samuel Williston at
East Hampton. Mass. Horn buttons
were made in this country as early as
1872. the hoofs and horns of cattle
forming the raw material.
Vegetable ivory buttons have been
made In the United States since 1859.
This branch now ranks third in the
button industry.
Various kinds Of composition but
tons have been made at Newark. N.
since 1852. where button resembling
vegetable ivory was produced from
certain FOSSIL and vegetable gums
combined with finely comminuted
carbonate of lime, feldspar or mica
Composition buttons are being man
ufactured from various materials.
among them tho Irish potato, which,
when combined with certain acids, be-
comes as hard as stone. Other mate
rials arc casein from skim milk, blood
and from brown seaweed.
Vegetable ivory ia ono Of the most
popular materials for the making Of
buttons. 1t is made from the fruit Of
a South American palm called the
coroza nut. and really resembles pure
ivory, though. OF course. considerab bly,
softer. They are easy to manufacture
on account of their susceptibility to
dye and the ease with which they
can be turned in q lathe. These nuts
are shelled In rotary iron drum, ar
ranged with sharp throe-edged irons
in tho interior. The nuts are then
halved. out Of which the buttons arc
bored. The dyeing is done by expert