Manufacture of Gilt Buttons . 
stove, where they remain till the workman is satisfied 
that the solder has melted, and that the shanks are united 
to the button ; after which the edges are smoothed in a 
lathe. 
The next process is what they call dipping ; that is, a 
quantity, consisting of a few dozens, is put into an 
earthen vessel full of small holes like a cullender, and 
thus dipped into diluted nitric acid to clean them from 
dirt and rust. They then, according to the best prac- 
tice, go into the hands of the burnisher, who, in a lathe, 
burnishes the tops, bottoms, and edges, with a hard black 
stone, got from Derbyshire, secured in a handle like the 
diamond of a glazier : this he applies to the button fixed 
in the end of a piece of wood, turned with great veloci- 
ty by means of a treddle with which he works the lathe. 
This is called rough burnishing , and is a modern im- 
provement : it is of great advantage, for it closes the 
pores of the metal opened by the acid, so that the gold 
afterwards to be applied attaches to a smooth surface, 
which otherwise might enter into imperceptible cavities, 
and be closed up in the body of the button by the final 
burnishing. When the buttons come from the burnisher 
they are fit for gilding. This is a very curious opera- 
tion, and truly chemical. 
The first process towards gilding is what they call 
quicking , which is effected as follows Any given 
quantity of buttons, perhaps a gross, is put into an earth- 
en vessel with a quantity of mercury which has been 
previously saturated with nitric acid ; and thus the but- 
tons and mercury are stirred together with a brush till 
the mercury, carried by the affinity of the acid to the cop 
per, adheres to the whole surface of the button. The 
buttons are then taken out and put into what is called a 
basket , though in fact an earthen vessel full of small 
holes, the handle of which the operator holds in his 
