168 



BUTTON. 



Pickling. 



Button- the oven, and while warm are thrown into aquafor- 

 niakmg. t j s an j watcr (called pickle). This raises a black 

 oxide upon the surface of the metal ; and in this state 

 the edges of the buttons are turned in the same man- 

 ner as the metal buttons before described ; but as the 

 blanks are sufficiently smooth, it is unnecessary to 

 turn the face or back, and they only require to be 

 dipped cold into a second pickle, composed of nitric 

 acid and water, weaker than the former, to remove 

 the black scale. After this, instead of the polishing 

 which metal buttons undergo, they are burnished in 

 the lathe, to render the surface smooth, and close up 

 the pores of the metal previous to gilding. The bur- 

 nishing is performed by a hard black stone, called 

 blood-stone, fixed into a handle, and applied to the 

 button as it revolves by the motion of the lathe. 

 The blood-stone is of the class haematites, a peculiar 

 species of iron ore. It is found occasionally in the 

 gravel and alluvial mixtures on the surface of various 

 places in r.nd near Derbyshire, viz. Ashborr.e, New 

 Haven, Spoonden ; at Norris Hill and Ashby Wolds 

 in Leicestershire ; in the dry courses of the under- 

 ground rivers above Ham in Staffordshire; and at Boy- 

 thorp in Nottinghamshire. 



Gilding. 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 



Quickmg. j nto an j ron i ac il e} an( j a sma ll quantity of mercury 

 added to it ; the ladle is held over the fire, till the 

 gold and mercury are perfectly united. This amal- 

 gam being put into the pan with the buttons, as 

 much aqua fortis, 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 cop- 

 per, 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 is by the workmen called 

 quicking. 



Bryingoff. The silvered buttons are now put into a large fry- 

 ing-pan, which is placed on a fire, and is continually 

 shaken, to heat them equably ; which soon occasions 

 the mercury to appear as if melting. When this ap- 

 pearance takes place, the buttons are put into a cap 

 made of felt, like a large cap without a brim, and are 

 stirred about with a brush, to spread the gold con- 

 tained in the mercury equally over all the surface, 

 while the latter is so hot as to be nearly volatile. The 

 buttons are now returned to the pan, and the heat 

 causes the mercury to fly off in vapour ; the buttons 

 beginning to turn yellow, from the gold discovering 

 itself as the mercury dries off. The buttons are a 

 second time worked in the cap during the process, 

 and returned to the pan to complete them. Some- 

 times they will not dry off completely in the pan, 

 small spots remaining white on the buttons ; but these 

 are removed by putting the buttons into a cylindrical 

 copper box with a lid, which is laid on a small char- 

 coal fire, and turned round by a pair of tongs, to 

 heat all parts equally. When taken from this box, 



the gilding is finished, the buttons being of a fine yel- 

 low colour, but without any polish. This is given 

 by burnishing them in a lathe, the spindle of which 

 revolves with an immense velocity. A button is slip- 

 ped into a chuck which exactly fits it; a blood-stone, 

 fixed in a handle like a glazier's diamond, is dipped in 

 water, and being applied to the button as it revolves, 

 brings it to a polish in an instant. The button does 

 not fit the chuck so accurately as to prevent it frum 

 slipping out by the action of the burnisher, if the 

 workman did not apply his fore-finger to the oppo- 

 site side of the button, to keep it in. He has a piece 

 of soft leather sewed round his finger, to obviate the 

 effects of the friction ; and this leather being wetted 

 with water, prevents the blood- stone from attracting 

 the gold, as it would otherwise do. A second finer 

 blood-stone is next applied, and this finishes them. 

 When the workman removes his finger, the button 

 drops out of the chuck ; but if it is not perfectly 

 burnished, he can return it in an instant without 

 stopping the lathe. The buttons pass through the 

 hands of three workmen to burnish them : The first 

 burnishes the back ; the next burnishes the edge, for 

 which purpose his lathe has a chuck something like 

 a vice, which receives the shank ; and he is obliged 

 to stop the lathe every time before he puts in the but- 

 ton. The third workman polishes the face, in the 

 manner above described, which finishes them, if they 

 are plain gilt buttons. 



Some of these buttons are afterwards ornamented 

 with concentric circles, of an appropriate pattern, de- 

 scribed on the face. This is done in the lathe, by 

 applying a milling tool. The milling tool is a small 

 steel roller, having the intended pattern engraved 

 on its periphery. It is held in a simple slide rest, 

 which makes the circles on the next button that is 

 done of the same size as those of the preceding one. 

 Some, gilt buttons are ornamented by milling on the 

 edge, which is done in the same way, and by a simi- 

 lar machine to that which is used for milling the edge 

 of coins. Double gilt buttons are gilt twice over, in 

 the manner before described. 



The process of gilding buttons, or the drying off, 

 is exceedingly pernicious to the operator, as he in- 

 hales the vapour of the mercury, which is well known 

 to be a violent poison. In order to obviate this, the 

 following apparatus, Fig. 9, has been employed with 

 success, by Mr Mark Sanders, an eminent button- 

 manufacturer at Birmingham, for drying off buttons, 

 and at the same time preserving the mercury evapo- 

 rated in the process. It is thus described in the Phi- 

 losophical Magazine, vol. ix. : A hearth or fire- 

 place, of the usual height, is to be erected ; in the 

 middle of which, a capacity for the fire is to be 

 made : but instead of permitting the smoke to ascend 

 into the top A, made of sheet or cast iron, through 

 which the mercury is volatilised, a flue for that pur- 

 pose should be conducted backwards to the chimney 

 B. An iron plate, thick enough to contain heat suf- 

 ficient to volatilise the mercury, is to cover the fire- 

 place at the top of the hearth C. There must be 



Button- 

 making. 

 s/~ 



Buruish- 



ing. 





Drying off 

 apparatus. 



PLATE 

 CVll. 

 Fig. 9. 



* By act of parliament, five grains of gold are allotted for the purpose of gilding 144 buttons ; though they may be toler- 

 ably well gilt by half of that quantity. In this last case, the thickness would bo about the 214,000th part of an inch. See 

 !)r Thomas Young's Natural Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 378. ED. 



