formed of polished brass and ruled with such fine lines that light was reflected in prismatic colours. Some buttons have fetched enormous prices, even when made of what is now a common material. Mother-of-pearl buttons have been sold at a guinea each. In 1790 Henry Clay of Birmingham patented a method of manufacturing buttons of slate or slit stone; and, in 1800, Joseph Barnett intro duced a button with two shanks or other fastenings on one
button.Such was the origin of the button industry in England, and other nations have not been behind. The Scientific American gives the following account of its commencement in the United States:—
" The first manufacturer of buttons in this country was Samuel "Williston. While he was dragging along as a country store keeper, his eyes having failed him while studying for the ministry, his wife bethought her that she could cover by hand the wooden buttons of the time, and thus earn an honest penny. From this the couple advanced in their ambition until they had perfected machinery for covering buttons, the first employed in this country. From this sprang an immense factory, and then others, until Samuel Williston made half the buttons of the world. His factories are still running at Easthampton, coining wealth for the proprietors. .... He is now (1871) between seventy and eighty years of age, is worth five or six millions, and has given four hundred thousand dollars to Easthampton for a seminary and for churches ; two hundred thousand dollars to South Hadley Female seminary ; and two hundred thousand dollars to Amherst College, besides lesser gifts."
The factories of Samuel Williston & Co., above referred to, at Easthampton, Massachusetts, were established about the year 1848, and give employment to about 250 opera tives. The annual cost of the materials used is estimated at $75,000, and the value of the produce exceeds $200,000. The button manufacture is also carried on extensively in New York and Philadelphia, and at Waterbury (Conn.). Buttons are also imported extensively. There are five im porters in New York (1876). Joel Hayden of Haydenville began to make flexible buttons in the States in the year 1834.
Other countries have not been backward in this branch of industry. Bohemia, particularly at Prague and the neighbouring towns, is the great seat of the glass button manufacture, and great numbers are made in France. The porcelain button manufacture has been taken possession of by France, Minton and Co., the celebrated Staffordshire firm, who worked the invention of R Prosser of Birming ham, having been driven out of the field by the good work, attended by greater cheapness, of the foreign makers. There is one factory at Milan, and great numbers of the cheaper kinds of buttons are made in the Rhenish provinces of Prussia. Vienna has suppressed the competition of English makers in some kinds of pearl buttons. Its opera tions in this branch are of a most extensive character, quite rivalling those of Birmingham.
" Button making," says the Birmingham Directory for 1777, "was originally a very tedious and expensive process. The button consisted of one solid piece of metal ; and the ornaments upon the face of it were the- work of an engraver. To obviate this, the press, stamp, and engine for turning the moulds were invented. This led to other improvements, the bones and hoofs of animals were introduced into the manufacture ; by these various means the prices of buttons were reduced." In the manufacture of covered buttons the sheet-iron is first scaled by the use of acids, and then cut into proper shape and size by a machine. The neck or collet of the button is japanned after having been stamped and cut. The hollow between the neck and shell is filled in with brown paper or button board. When the parts are put together they are pressed, which brings them into shape and con solidates them.
to the subject here, to describe in detail the various modes in which the numerous forms of buttons are manu factured, especially as it would require elaborate illustra tion. We must, therefore, confine ourselves to noticing some of the special and more recent patents, referring the reader to works where he can obtain such further informa tion as he may require. In 1840 Joseph Parkes took out a patent for improvements in the manufacture of covered buttons made by dies and pressure, by the application of horn as a covering material. Harris s patent for improve ments in horn buttons and their dies was obtained in April 1841. This invention related to applying flexible shanks to horn buttons, a mode of ornamentation by inlaying the front surfaces, and also gilding or silvering their surfaces, and to a mode of constructing dies so as to facilitate the process of engraving, the die being also so formed that the horn or hoof employed could not be expressed outside the circumference of the button. Hugh Willoch s patent, dated 5th May 1874, related to a button with a removable head to enable the shank to pass through the button hole. The head is hollow and is partly filled with caoutchouc. It is perforated to admit the shank top, a short transverse bar which, on being turned one-fourth round, falls into an internal groove in the material of the button head, and is retained in that position by the elasticity of the india-rubber. Empson and Palmer s patent, dated 4th July 1874, refers to improvements in linen buttons, and is also applicable to buttons covered with other fabrics. They are composed of a front and back shell, with a bar formed across the face of a raised concentric circle from the back shell (which is all the metal that need be visible in the finished button), the shells permitting ample room for the covering fabrics to be gathered in and held between them. They are considered to resist the injury common to linen buttons during the processes of washing, mangling, and ironing. Tylor s patent, of 13th July 1874, relates to polishing ivory, bone, and similar buttons in a revolv ing drum with revolving brushes inside. Harrison s inven tion (8th September 1874) consists in arranging the pierc ing tools, so that the thread holes for the buttons are made in the pierced metal in front of the shaping and cutting- out tools, and the metal around the groups of piercings is shaped or " domed," and cut out. The result is that at each descent of the compound tool three or more groups of the thread holes are pierced in the sheet metal, and three or more finished buttons are made. The piercings in the sheet metal made by the last descent of the compound tool form the thread holes of the buttons made by the next descent of the said compound tool. When the thread- holes of the button are made in a central depression, a shaping tool for making the said depression is placed between each piercing tool and cutting-out tool. This invention is also applicable to the manufacture of washers, rings, links for chains, and other like articles from sheet- metal. The patent of G. F. Champorez of Berlin, Prussia, relates to improvements in the manufacture of steel or iron and steel dies, and to certain contrivances for producing the same, the said dies being in depression or relief, with out recourse to the hitherto universally employed engrav ing tool. Cole s patent (10th February 1875) relates to a composition for dress-fastenings generally, consisting of black composition of equal parts by weight of gas tar or tar varnish, whiting or chalk or clay, and lamp black or vegetable black. For a coloured composition transparent varnish, or the waste refuse of it, is substituted for gas tar or tar varnish, and a powdered pigment of the required colour is added. The materials should be thoroughly mixed and converted into a plastic, pasty mass, which is
consolidated and hardened by rolling and drying. To give
