l6 A brief Account of thg 



The copppr, properly alloyed, is firft taken to a rolling 

 ifnill, and reduced between iron rollers to a proper thicknefs 

 for the button. The fheets of copper are then brought to the 

 button manuta(^1ory, and cut into circular pieces of the fize of 

 the intended button by means of a fly-prefs. In this ftate 

 they are called blanks, and refemble halfpence and farthings 

 Worn fnioolh bv long circulation. 



The (lianks, which are made with wonderful facility and 

 expedition by means of a very curious machine, are then fe- 

 cured to the bottom of each button by a fmall iron crank, 

 and a fmall quantity of folder and refin applied to each. 

 Thus they are placed on a fheet of iron, containing about a 

 grofs, and introduced into a very hot ftove, where they remain 

 till the workman is fatisfied that the folder has melted, and 

 that the flianks are united to the button ', after which the 

 edges are fmoothed in a lathe. 



: The next procefs is what they call dipping-, that is, a quan- 

 tity, confifting of a few dozens, is put into ah earthen vefTel 

 full of fmall holes like a cullender, and thus dipped into di- 

 luted nitric acid to clean them from dirt and ruft. They 

 then, according to the beft pradice, go into the hands of the 

 burniflier, who, in a lathe, burnidies the tops, bottoms, and 

 edges, with a hard black ftone, got from Derbyfhire, fecured 

 in a handle like the diamond of a glazier : this he applies to 

 the button fixed in the end of a piece of wood, turned with 

 great velocity by means of a treddle with which he works 

 the lathe. This is called rough burnijhing^ and is a modern 

 improvement: it is of great advantage, for it clofes the pores 

 of the metal opened by the acid, fo that the gold afterwards 

 to be applied attaches to a fmooth furface, which otherwife 

 mijrht enter into imperceptible cavities, and be clofed up in 

 the body of the button by the final burniiliing. When the 

 buttons come from the burniflier they are fit for gilding. 

 This is a very curious operation, and truly chemical. 



The firft procefs towards gilding is what they call quickingy 

 which is eflc^ied as follows: — Any given quantity of buttons, 

 perhaps a grofs, is put into an earthen vcflel with a quantity 

 pf mercury which has been previouily faturated with nitric 

 acid \ and thus the buttons and mercury are ftirred together 



with 



