THE MUSSEL FISHERY AND PEARL-BUTTON INDUSTRY. 
305 
The number of factories in the various towns in operation in 1897 and 1898 are 
shown in the following table: 
Loca.tion. 
1897. 
[ 1898 (to July 1). 
CompletH 
works. 
Saw 
works. 
Total. 
Conii>lete[ Saw I 
works. 1 works. 
Total. 
3 
5 
2 
28 1 
33 
1 
2 
3 
i 1 
! I 
1 
1 
TrtfTTM 
Towr, 
Town. 
1 
1 
1 
2 
']VI'0W niinoiQ 
1 
i 
1 
1 
1 
lAoitlisbiir*^ Illinois 
1 
1 
1 
^Ti n ri o 
Andalusia Illinois 
Total 
9 
4 
13 
11 
38 
49 
In addition to the foregoing factories along the Mississippi iu Iowa and Illinois, 
to which this report especially relates, in 1898 there were factories at the following- 
places in those States at which mussel shells from the Mississippi were utilized : Cedar 
Rapids, Vinton, and Charles City, Iowa, on the Cedar River; Coralville, Iowa, on the 
Iowa River; West Liberty, in the western part of Muscatine County, Iowa; What 
Cheer, Keokuk County, Iowa; Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa, and Aledo, Mercer 
County, Illinois. Other button factories which get all or jiart of their raw material 
from the Mississippi are reported to be located in Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland and 
Cincinnati, Ohio; Janesville, Wisconsin, aud Omaha, Kebraska. 
The factories at which the finished buttons are made are, as a rule, specially 
constructed 2-story brick buildings of considerable size, having a cost value of $5,000 
to $30,000, whicli sum includes land, buildings, machinery, and general equipment. 
A few of them occuiiy parts of mills or machine shops. Some of the plants at which 
onlj" blanks are sawed are also iu special brick or wooden buildings, but most of the 
“saw works” are in connection with machine shops or in improvised outbuildings of 
private residences, some of the smaller ones being in simple sheds. A single room is 
sufficient for the mere sawing of the rough blanks, but the various steps in the 
manufacture of the complete buttons necessitate a number of rooms and make the 
factory a very elaborate establishment, with the heavier machinery and rougher work 
on the first floor, aud the different finishing processes on tlie upper floor. 
The essential work at all the factories is done by machinery. At all the larger 
and many of the smaller establishments, the motive power, is steam or electricity; 
some obtain their electric power from the city electric plant, some have independent 
dynamos, some have steam engines, and some use the power of adjoining machine 
shops or mills, A gasoline engine, of 2 or 3 horsepower, furnishes the motivity for the 
saws at several of the small works, and foot power is also employed iu a few places. 
BUTTON-MAKING MACHINERY. 
The business of supplying the factories with the necessary special machinery has 
become very important in Muscatine. The facility with which the cutting machines 
may be obtained and their comparatively small cost have been leading factors iu 
the establishment of many of the button factories. At some large machine shops 
F. C. B., 1898—20 
