84 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



CHOICE OF SHELLS FOR PARTICULAR LINES. 



Particular sorts or sizes of shell will work up most economically for particular sizes 

 and grades of buttons. Accordingly, much discretion may be exercised in the apportion- 

 ment of shells to the most appropriate uses, having in view the market demands to be 

 supplied. A shell may be cut entirely into one size of blanks by one cutter, or the good 

 blanks, the button blanks, may be cut out at one machine, while the remainder is passed 

 directly, or after a lapse of time, to another cutter for taking out the tips. In other cases 

 the shell is first worked for a few large blanks, and subsequently more completely used for 

 smaller sizes. In this respect a large factory has a certain advantage over the small, 

 independent cutting shop, since the latter must cut whatever shells are on hand into the 

 particular lines for which the market is calling, while the larger factory may select 

 from the bins the shells suited to the temporary needs, or may return to the bins, if 

 desired, the partly cut shells. The detached cutting plant, on the other hand, may 

 have an advantage in the saving of freight charges on useless shells. 



The assignment of the shells for particular lines depends upon the judgment of the 

 foreman or manager alone; but a proper quantity and quality of output and the elimi- 

 nation of unnecessary waste are contingent upon efficient labor in the cutting room. 

 It will be of value in this connection to give some details of shop management, especially 

 as observed in plants marked by the economical use of shells. 



SHOP MANAGEMENT. 



Disregarding minor differences, the shop management is, in brief, as follows: Bach 

 button cutter is assigned a machine, but is expected to furnish certain tools. The shells 

 are weighed out to him, and he is assigned the proper line. Cutters with the best records 

 may be favored with the most desirable lines. At certain intervals he turns in the 

 blanks which he has cut and receives pay at so much per "count". The count, or 

 ''gross," as it was formerly called, is not the ordinary gross of 12 dozen, but an arbi- 

 trary and long-established unit of 14 dozen.*^ Since it would be impracticable to 

 count the entire output of each cutter, his blanks, after shaking to remove chips and 

 dust, are turned out into a tub on the scales and the gross weight recorded. A handful 

 may then be taken at random to weigh out a given small unit in the pan of a balance 

 scales. The buttons from the pans are then counted individually on the tg,ble, those not 

 acceptable (for defects previously mentioned) being discarded from the count. 



The manner of count in different factories is divergent. In one, all blanks are 

 counted as of the same value ; in another, the blanks under four lines but over two lines 

 in thickness are counted two for one. The latter plan is based on the fact that the thin 

 blanks can be cut rapidly, and, although usable, are of relatively little value in manu- 

 facture. The former plan, that of giving the same count to tips as to good blanks, is 

 simply "an acceptance by the manufacturer of responsibility for the shape of the 

 shell." 



a Thus we find that, in the language of button manufacture, neither the unit of xneasure, the line, nor the unit of coimt for 

 blanks, the gross, corresponds to the common usage. The line is adopted from European practice and represents one-fortieth 

 of an inch. The gross of i68 was originally based on an allowance for breakage and other losses in the manufacture of the blank 

 into buttons. The terms although unfortunate, are matters of custom and are imderstood by all immediately concerned. 



