552 



BUTTON MANUFACTURE 



past the other, which is fixed, and both of them containing polished grooves on their 

 corresponding faces. To the movable piece A, fig. 265, motion is given by means of 

 the handle B. In both the grooved pieces, -which are about eighteen inches in length, 

 there are semicircular openings as at a, which, by corresponding once during each re- 

 volution of the hand, admit of the blank e being dropped into the grooves, after which 

 it is carried, revolving as it proceeds, between the pieces of steel, till coming to the 

 hole f, it drops through into a basket. This operation is performed with amazing 

 celerity by a boy, who drops the blanks into the cavity with his left hand, while ho 

 turns the handle with his right : they are now ready to receive the shanks. 



Button shanks are made by hand from brass or iron wire, bent and cut by the fol- 

 lowing means : 



The wire is lapped spirally round a piece of steel bar. The steel is turned round 

 by screwing it into the end of the spindle of a lathe, and the wire by this means 

 lapped close round it till it is covered. The coil of wire thus formed is slipped off, 

 and a wire fork or staple with parallel legs put into it. It is now laid upon an anvil, 

 and by a punch the coil of wire is struck down between the two prongs of the fork, 

 so as to form a figure 8, a little open in the middle. The punch has an edge which 

 marks the middle of the 8, and the coil being cut open by a pair of shears along this 

 mark, divides each turn of the coil into two perfect button shanks or eyes. 



Buttons to be gilded are stamped out from copper (having sometimes a small alloy 

 of zinc), laminated in the flatting mill to the proper thickness. These circular pieces, 

 called blanks, are annealed in a furnace to soften them ; and the maker's name, &c. 

 is struck on the back by a monkey, which is a machine very similar to a pile engine. 

 This stamp also renders the face very slightly convex, that the buttons may not stick 

 together in the gilding process. The burnishing is performed by a piece of haematite 

 or blood-stone, fixed into a handle, and applied to the button as it revolves by the 

 motion of the lathe. 



A great number of the buttons, thus prepared for gilding, are put into an earthen 

 pan, with the proper quantity of gold to cover them, amalgamated with mercury in 

 the following manner : The gold is put into an iron ladle, and a small quantity of 

 mercury added to it ; the ladlo is held over the fire, till the gold and mercury are 

 perfectly united. This amalgam being put into the pan with the buttons, as much 

 aquafortis, diluted with water, as will wet them all over, is thrown in, and they are 

 stirred up with a brush, till the acid, by its affinity to the copper, carries the amalgam 

 to every part of its surface, covering it with the appearance of silver. When this is 

 perfected, the acid is washed away with clean water. This process by the workman 

 is called quicking. 



The old process, in gilding buttons, called the drying-off, was exceedingly per- 

 nicious to the operator, as he inhaled the vapour of the mercury, which is well known 

 to be a virulent poison. In order to obviate this, the following plan of apparatus 

 has been employed with success : The vapour, as it rises from the pan of buttons 

 heated by a charcoal fire, is conducted into an oblong iron flue or gallery, gently 

 sloped downwards, having at its end a small vertical tube dipping into a water cistern 



for condensing the 



. tfis^ mercury, and a large 



vertical pipe for pro- 

 moting the draught of 

 the products of the 

 combustion. By act 

 of parliament 5 grains 

 of gold are allotted 

 for the purpose of 

 gilding 144 buttons, 

 though they may be 

 tolerable well gilt by 

 half that quantity. In 

 this last case, the 

 thickness would be 

 about the 214,000th 

 part of an inch. 



Mr. Holmes of Bir- 

 mingham patented a 

 process which was 

 fully described in the 

 former edition of this 

 work ; a portion of the description is retained, especially such parta of his machinery 

 as appear to be still in use. 



