PEARLS AND PEARL FISHERIES. 
425 
UTILIZATION OF UNIO- SHELLS FOR BUTTONS. 
The valuable possibilities of using Unio shells in making buttons have at last 
attracted attention, and an important industry is developing. A correspondent of the 
St. Paul (Minn.) Dispatch, under date of November 13, 1897, gives au extended account 
of the shell-button manufacture at Muscatine, Iowa, where already a number of facto- 
ries are in operation. No dates are specified; but the statement is made that it was 
begun within a few years past by Mr. Boepple, a German, who recognized the possi- 
bilities of such an industry and established a factory at Muscatine, soon employing 
200 operatives, besides a number of outside people gathering shells from the Missis- 
sippi River at that point. The enterprise proved profitable, even under an unfavorable 
tariff, and several other factories were established; but since the recent protective 
legislation has gone into effect the business is increasing largely. Eleven or twelve 
factories are now in operation, running 300 saws and employing 1,500 people. One of 
these was working on double time, to fill orders for 20,000 gross of buttons for the “holi- 
day trade” of 1897. The business is already an important element in the prosperity 
of the town; and as the supply of shells is enormous it is expected to increase in 
extent. Other works exist in Iowa, at Davenport and Sabula, and at Cedar Rapids, 
on the Cedar River. There are also eastern factories referred to, that cut the shells 
into “blanks” — i. e., unfinished disks — and send them to Muscatine to be polished and 
perforated. 
The shells have been heretofore gathered by men and boys wading in the shallow 
water, and working from boats in the deeper parts with rakes provided with a wire 
net or basket. Now, however, one boat has been built for steam-dredging, and 
another is under construction. The dredge will take up a ton of shells in au hour, 
and the steam will be used to cook the animals and clean the shells — a process now 
slowly conducted in small furnaces. As the gathering can not be carried on in winter 
when the river is frozen, prices rise in the autumn. Several species are capable of 
being used, of which two are particularly mentioned; these are “nigger-head” shells, 
which have risen with the approach of winter from 35 cents per 100 to 70 cents, and 
“sand” shells, which have advanced correspondingly from $1 to $2 per 100. 
If the myriads of shells destroyed by the pearl-hunters could only be gathered 
and sent to the factories, or if cutting-works could be established in the districts 
affected by the “pearling” fever, much of this fine material could be utilized. On the 
other hand, the development of a large demand for shells by this industry and the 
introduction of steam-dredges to gather them by the ton from water too deep for the 
pearl-hunters to deal with, threaten within a few years’ time to obliterate the Unio 
fauna largely, if not wholly, from our waters. 
Following are some statistics in regard to the pearl-button business: 
Selling price-list: First quality: 16 line, 48 cents per gross; 18 line, 51 cents per gross; 20 line, 55 
cents per gross; 22 line, 60 cents per gross; 24 line, 65 cents per gross; 23 line, 70 cents per gross. 
Second quality: 16 line, 40 cents per gross; 18 line, '3 cents per gross; 20 line, 47 cents per gross; 
22 line, 52 cents per gross; 24 line, 57 cents per gross; 26 line, 62 cents per gross. 
Third quality : 16 line, 27 cents per gross ; 18 line, 30 cents per gross; 20 line, 36 cents per gross ; 22 
line, 37 cents per gross; 24 line, 41 cents per gross; 26 line, 45 cents per gross. 
