BUTTER OF ANTIMONY. 



BUTTON MANUFACTURE. 



470 



was not possible, until recently, to state the quantity of butter exported 

 from the United Kingdom to our colonies and foreign countries, in 

 consequence of the practice at the Custom House of including butter 

 and cheese in the same statement ; but this deficiency has been now 

 amended. The shipments of butter so made are entirely of the pro- 

 duce of Ireland ; the chief customer is Portugal, and next to that is 

 Brazil. 



Understanding, then, that the amount of butter brought from Ireland 

 for consumption in Great Britain cannot now be officially ascertained, 

 we may conclude that all estimates on the subject are merely approxi- 

 mate. Mr. M'Culloch, some years ago, estimated the London con- 

 sumption of butter at about 15,000 tons annually ; but we do not know 

 on what data this estimate was made. The Irish butter-trade at Cork 

 is conducted in a remarkable way. There is committee of members, 

 consisting of buyers, sellers, and factors, to superintend all the dealings. 

 All the butter brought to market is inspected and branded by order of 

 the committee, and is divided into four kinds, according to quality. A 

 sub-committee each morning fixes the price at which each kind of 

 butter shall be sold on that day ; the four kinds differ in value about 

 5s. per cwt. from each other. The butter-buyers are in the habit of 

 advancing money beforehand to the dairy-farmers ; insomuch that 

 sometimes a whole season's produce is paid for before any of the butter 

 is made. In average years, about half a million firkins of butter are 

 branded at Cork. 



The Board of Trade tables in recent years have presented the 

 following figures relating to the import of butter ; 



1856 

 1857 



1858 



513,392 cwts. 

 441,600 

 390,040 



And the following relating to exports (wholly Irish) : 



1856 

 1857 

 1858 



139,548 cwts. 

 110,974 

 112,308 



Various Acts of Parliament were paused in bygone years, with the 

 view of preventing fraudulent practices in the packing of butter ; but 

 this kind of legislative interference is now abandoned. At various times 

 during the present century the duty on imported foreign butter varied 

 from 2*. 9d. to 21. per cwt. The price paid for butter at Greenwich 

 Hospital for about a century past has varied between the limits of 5d. 

 and 1 4rf. per pound. 



BUTTER OF ANTIMONY. [ANTIMONY, TERCHLORIDE OF.] 



BUTTER OF TIN. [TIN, BICHLORIDE OF.] 



BUTTER OF ZINC. [ZiNc, CHLORIDE OF.] 



BUTTERS (in pharmacy) was the name formerly given to certain 

 hydochlorates of the metals, such as antimony, arsenic, bismuth, tin, 

 and /inc. Precipitated sulphur likewise was termed butter of sulphur. 

 These designations are now nearly obsolete. 



BUTTON -MANUFACTURE. This useful little appendage to 

 dress is made of nearly every variety of material. Gold, silver, brass, 

 copper, steel, iron, pewter, mother-o'-pearl, hard wood, bone, ivory, 

 horn, leather, gutta-percha, vulcanised india-rubber, paper, glass, silk, 

 wool, cotton, linen, thread, are all formed into buttons ; and the manu- 

 facture is carried on very largely. 



The varieties of buttons may be reduced to four, namely, 1, those 

 with, shanks ; 2, those without thanks ; 3, those on wire moulds (or rings) ; 

 and 4, buttons ct/cered with silk, cloth, or other material. 



Metal buttons with shanks are generally punched out of a plate of 

 brans having rather less zinc in its composition than ordinary brass. The 

 dics o punched out, after having their edges trimmed to take off the 

 burr, are ready for the shank. The shanks are made of wire by a most 

 ingenious machine invented by Thomason of Birmingham. A coil of 

 wire is placed in the machine, one end of which gradually advances to 

 a point where a pair of shears cuts off a piece of the requisite length ; 

 a stud then presses against the middle of the piece and forces it be- 

 tween the two jaws of a vice into a staple-like form : the jaws com- 

 press it so as to form the eye of the shank ; a little hammer then 

 strikes the end and makes it level ; and another movement finally 

 drops it complete into a box. The shanks being placed upon the disc 

 in tin-in proper position, and kept there by a bent flat strip of iron, a 

 small piece of solder is placed at the foot of the shank. In this state 

 a hundred or more are put upon an iron plate and heated in an oven 

 till the solder runs and fixes the shank. They are then turned sepa- 

 rately in a lathe, the chuck of the lathe being so formed as to allow the 

 buttons to be put in and taken out with great facility. The gilding is 

 performed (or rather icon, before the invention of electro-gilding) with 

 an amalgam of gold and mercury, about the consistence of butter : 

 five grains of gold are sufficient for a gross of buttons. 



White metal buttons, such as those on soldiers' dresses, are cast in 

 moulds, containing ten or twelve dozen, and the shanks are placed in 

 the moulds previous to canting, so that when the buttons are cast the 

 shanks are fixed at the same t 



Mother-o'-pearl buttons are cut out of the pearl shell by means of a 

 small cylindrical saw, that is, a tube of steel with its edge cut into 

 teeth. This tubular saw has a pulley on the tube, and is made to 

 revolve rapidly after the manner of a lathe ; the shell is pressed up 



against it, and thus the circular disc for the button is quickly cut out 

 of the shell. The discs are turned in a lathe ; and if the shell be 

 thick, two are produced by splitting it. As the shanks cannot be 

 soldered in, and they would not look neat if riveted through the 

 button, a hole is turned about half way through, the hole being wider 

 at the bottom than at the top, or, as it is called, dovetailed. The 

 stem of the metal shank is just the size of the smallest part of the 

 hole, and the stem is made a little hollow by drilling a conical hole up 

 it, so as to leave the metal very thin at the edges. The shank being 

 now put into the dove-tailed hole, a slight blow with the hammer 

 spreads the thin edge of the stem under the dove-tailed edge of the 

 hole ; and thus the shank is firmly fixed. Mother-o'-pearl buttons are 

 sometimes ornamented with eccentric circles, flutes radiating from 

 the centre, &c., all of which are executed in the lathe by means of 

 an eccentric chuck and slide rest. 



Buttons without shanks are made of mother-o'-pearl, wood, bone, 

 metal, &c., the metal ones being stamped and the rest turned. They 

 have four boles through which the thread is passed to fix them on the 

 garment. These holes are stamped in metal buttons, but they are 

 drilled in those which are made of other materials. The holes are 

 drilled while the buttons are in the lathe ; four long drills are made 

 to converge towards the button, and thus the four holes are all drilled 

 at once. 



Buttons on wire moulds are merely wire rings covered with thread 

 by machinery which entwines the thread over the ring from its 

 centre. 



Covered buttons. Although many beautiful specimens of metal 

 buttons have been produced by the manufacturers, still metal buttons 

 may be said to be in great measure superseded by covered buttons. 

 The stimulus being thus given, a great deal of ingenuity has been 

 shown in the manufacture of covered buttons, and a number of patents 

 have been obtained for the inventions : the following two plans will 

 give a general idea of the principles of their construction. In one plan 

 a metal disc is punched out of thin iron plate, which by subsequent 

 punches has its edges turned up and then bent a little inwards : this is 

 done to form the body of the button. Another smaller disc, capable 

 of lying within the edges of the above, has a round or oval hole in the 

 centre : this is to form the back. A circular piece of the stuff called flo- 

 rentine is then wrapped round the larger disc, and the edges are brought 

 over and pressed into the hollow ; the smaller disc or back is pressed 

 into its place, and the turned-up edges of the face being compressed on 

 the back, the whole becomes firmly fixed together; and the cloth pro- 

 truding through the hole in the back affords the means of fixing it to 

 the garment. In the other plan, which produces a very neat button, the 

 disc for the body is left flat, and the back is a small circular disk with 

 a round hole in the centre, but the outer edge is cut into eight sharp 

 triangular points like a little star. These points are bent to a little less 

 than a right angle to the disc, so that the points incline a little in- 

 wards. Besides these two metal discs, three pieces of paper and two 

 pieces of cloth are nece&sary, so that the button cousists of no less than 

 seven separate pieces, which are put together in the following order : 

 1st. On the piece of florentine which forms the outer covering is laid 

 a piece of paper of the same size ; on this the iron disc forming the 

 body ; on this another piece of paper the same size as the body ; on 

 this another piece of paper crumpled up into a little pellet to help to 

 form the shank ; on tin's a piece of coarse cloth ; and finally the metal 

 back. In putting on the back the florentine is gathered up over the 

 whole of the materials, and then the points of the back are pressed into 

 it ; and as the points of the back are bent a little inwards (as was 

 mentioned above), the consequence of the pressure is, that as they 

 enter the cloth they bend more and more inwards, and thus form 

 eight little hooks which very neatly and effectively hold the whole 

 together. The little paper pellet makes the cloth protrude through 

 the hole in the back, and forms the cloth shank by wlu'ch it is attached 

 to the coat. Almost the whole of these processes were originally per- 

 formed by punches of various forms ; but a patent was afterwards secured 

 for a most ingenious machine to do the whole of the work. By placing 

 two plates of iron, a roll of florentiue, a roll of cloth, and three rolls of 

 paper, and by setting the machine in motion, the whole of the seven 

 parts of the button are cut out, put in their respective positions, and 

 combined together into a perfect button. 



A very beautiful and perfectly novel steel button was some years 

 ago produced by Mr. Barton of the Royal Mint. It was intended for 

 court dresses, being far too delicate and too expensive for ordinary 

 purposes. By means of most accurate dividing machinery, a number 

 of groups of fine lines are engraved on the button, the graving point 

 being the splinter of a diamond : the machine is so accurate, that 

 10,000 lines can be drawn within the inch. The groups of lines may 

 be disposed in triangles or hexagons, after the manner of a honeycomb, 

 or in any other form at the option of the artist, or the lines may be 

 made to cross each other in any direction. The pattern is comparatively 

 of little importance, the beautiful effect being produced by the brilliant 

 reflection of the light, which exhibits all the colours of the rainbow 

 (on the principle of Newton's rings) in playful clouds like mother-o'- 

 pearl, or in intense colour like the ruby or the emerald. This inven- 

 tion, however, never came extensively into use. 



A singular method was introduced a few years ago, of imitating 

 covered cloth buttons by a layer of flock, such as is used in paper 



