204

BUTTON MANUFACTURE.

.owing manner: — The gold is put into an iron ladle, and a small quantity of mer-cury added to it; the ladle is held over the fire, till the gold and mercury are per-fectly united. This amalgam being put into the pan with the buttons, as muchaquafortis, diluted with water, as will wet them all over, is thrown in, and they arestirred up with a brush, till the acid, by its affinity to the copper, carries the amalgamto every part of its surface, covering it with the appearance of silver. When this isperfected, the acid is washed away with clean water. This process by the workman iscalled quicking.

The old process in gilding buttons, called the drying off, was exceedingly perniciousto the operator, as he inhaled the vapor of the metxury, which is well known to bea violent poison. In order to obviate this, the following plan of apparatus hasbeen employed with success. The vapor, as it rises from the pan of buttons heatedby a charcoal fire, is conducted into an oblong iron flue or gallery, gently sloped down-wards, having at its end a small vertical tube dipping into a water cistern, for condensingthe mercury, and a large vertical pipe for promoting the draught of the products of thecombustion.

Plated buttons are stamped by the fly-press, out of copper-plate, covered on one sidewith silver at the flatting-mill. The copper side is placed upwards in stamping, andthe die or hole through which they are stamped is rather chamfered at its edge, to makethe silver turn over the edge of the button. The backs are stamped in the samemanner as the gilt buttons. The shanks are soldered on with silver solder, and heated oneby one in the flame of a lamp,- with a blow-pipe urged by bellows. The edges are nowfiled smooth in the lathe, care being taken not to remove any of the silver which is turn-ed over the edge. They are next dipped in acid, to clean the backs, and boiled in creamof tartar and silver, to whiten them; after which they are burnished, the backs beingfirst brushed clean by a brush held against them as they revolve in the lathe. The modeof burnishing is the same as for gilt buttons.

Button shanks are made by hand from brass or iron wire, bent and cut by the follow-ing means:—

The wire is lapped spirally round a piece of steel bar. The steel is turned round byscrewing it into the end of the spindle of a lathe, and the wire by this means lappedclose round it till it is covered. The coil of wire thus ftfrmed is slipped off, and a wirefork or staple with parallel legs put into it. It is now laid upon an anvil, and by »punch the coil of wire is struck down between the two prongs of the fork, so as to forma figure 8, a little open in the middle. The punch has an edge which marks the middleof the 8, and the coil being cut open by a pair of shears along this mark, divides eachturn of the coil into two perfect button shanks or eyes.

r improved con

of one of MS

to constitute the

ilmes, of Birmingham , obtained in May, 1833, a patent for anof buttons. J'tg. 185 represents the outside appearance

improved shanks, as raised or formed out of the disc of metal which