Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/840

BUTTON. 740 BUTTON (Fr. bouton, bud, button, knob, litei:illy something pushing out, from houtcr, to push; cf. Engl. butt). A term applied to the well-known appendages to dress used either for fastening or for ornament; to a sort of oblong lateh used by joiners and cabinet-makers for fastening the lids of boxes, doors of closets, etc. ; and. in technical language, to the mass of fused metal found at the bottom of a crucible or cupel after fusing or assaying. The use of buttons as an article of dress is a product of modern civilization, as savages em- ploy strings to fasten their clothing together. The tireeks and Romans also employed strings and girdles, the loose, flowing nature of their <;arments not requiring a more secure fastening. Buttons were first fastened to the clothing for ornamental purposes. The next step was the use of loops and buttons, the evolution of the buttonhole coming last of all. Buttons were first c-mi)loyed in Southern Europe in the Thir- teenth or Fourteenth Century, and the manu- facture of buttons in England dates only from the reign of Elizabeth as a trade of any impor- tance. It has undergone several extraordinary changes, produced chiefly by the ever-varying fashions in dress; but also by some simple, though ingenious, inventions, as well as by for- eign competition. In Great Britain, Birniing- ham has always been the principal seat of the button manufacture. What has been called the 'Augtistan Age' of button-making in that <'ity included th.e latter portion of the Eighteenth and the early part of the Nineteenth centuries, when it was the fashion to wear coats 'loaded with innumerable gilt buttons,' and when em- plovers on a moderate scale in this manufacture were making incomes of from £2000 to £3000 a year, and their workmen from £2 to £4 per week. There are, in general, three kinds of buttons: Those whicH are sewed to the garment through holes in the button itself; those which have shanks of metal ; those which have, in place of the metal sliank, a tuft or layer of felt or other cloth. The last two kinds are usually made on the shell plan, there being two plates of metal with a filling of pasteboard or cloth be- tween, each having the edges tuined back, and the one securely pressed into the other by ma- chinery. The face oi the button may be covered with cloth or may be of decorated metal. The back has a hole or collet in the centre, through which the metal shank or cloth tuft is intro- <hiced. The shell button was invented by B. 8an- <lers, a Dane, who. in 1807, moved from Copen- hagen to Birmingham, and there began the manu- facture of biittons. He used a metal shank, and his son introduced the cloth tuft in its place. A further modification of the button was made later, when in place of the tuft a thin layer of cloth was se(nired by a metal plate to the back of the button, which was to be sewed on by means of tliis loose layer of cloth. At the close of the Nineteenth Century the tendency of fashion was to abandon in a considerable degree the shell button, and to return to the older form with two, three, or four holes. Shanks, when used, are often fastened directly to a solid but- ton, especially if it be of metal. Among the other materials which have had a great success in their day, it is found that but- BUTTON. tons made of hoof, under the name of 'horn buttons,' originally introduced more than a half- century ago by E. Bassot of Paris, ere for a good many j-ears most extensively manufac- tured at Birmingham and sent to all parts of the world. The hoofs are first boiled in large kettles and then cut into fragments. These are shaped into buttons, which are then placed under a hydraulic press to stamp various pat- terns on them. Another machine bores the holes, and still another polishes them. An average factory produces from 1500 to 2000 gross per week. Vegetable ivory has long been a favorite ma- terial for the manufacture of buttons, because it is readily dyed and turned in the lathes. (See Attalea.) It is the fruit of a South American palm called the coroza-nut, and re- sembles in appearance true ivory, though some- what softer. The nuts cost in France, in 1809 (according to a United States consular report), from $3.81 to .$5.71 per 100 kilograms (220 pounds). The nuts are first shelled by means of a rotary sheet-iron drmn, provided on the in- terior with sharp, three-edged irons. The nuts are then cut into halves, out of which buttons are bored, or into blocks which are formed into buttons by a shaping machine. The dyeing ))rocess requires much skill and chemical knowl- edge, and each factory has its carefully guarded secrets. The buttons are dried in wire trays, where they are subjected to a certain degree of heat. They are then polished by means of a large, revolving, felt-lined barrel, by polishing stones, and by hand. Metal buttons are a niuuerous class, and in- chide buttons for uniforms, trouser buttons, fancy buttons, which are gilt, stamped, chased, or enameled, and many cheap varieties in iron and other metals. Numerous kinds of compos- ite buttons are also partly composed of metal. Glass buttons form another interesting branch, as do also porcelain buttons. Vulcanite hut- tons have been very extensively made in the United States., As to other materials, a Bir- mingham manufacturer once said it would be easy to write out a long list from which buttons have been made, but very difficult to name one from which they have not been made. In mak- ing metal buttons, circular disks, called 'blanks,' are first cut out of sheet brass or other metal by means of fly-presses, usually worked by girls. The fiy-press consists of a vertical iron screw with a triple thread, to whicii screw is attached a horizontal arm, bend- ing downward at the end to form a handle. A punch attached to the press rises and falls with the motion of this handle, and rapidly cuts out the blanks. W)ien large quantities of one pat- tern are required, a self-feeding, self-acting ma- chine is used, which cuts out the blanks in rows at one blow. After being annealed, the blanks are next made convex by a blow from a stamp. The shanks arc formed of wire by a separate machine, which cuts ofl' pieces and bends them into loops of a required form. When these are soldered on, the buttons are dressed on a lathe. They are then gilded and burnished; some, how- ever, are only lacquered; and some, though gilded, are finished in a dead or frosted style. Livery and other buttons having a device in