hat of cutting out or turning, and is performed in
the following manner:--The turner, after fixing a piece of the nut in
the chuck of his lathe, brings a tubular cutter, the face edge of which
is toothed like a saw, to work on the exposed front surface of the nut;
the result is that of a rough button or mould. As these moulds are
rough, they are passed on to another lathe, where they are made smooth,
and then to a third, where the holes are drilled. They are next passed
on to the dyer, who arranges his colours according to instructions
received. It sometimes happens that a mottled appearance is required;
when such is the case, girls are employed to touch them with the colours
required by the aid of camel-hair pencils. The buttons are next placed
in tanks for drying, the tanks being heated by steam for that purpose.

Most of the buttons are polished in lathes by friction from their own
dust, held in the hand of the operative.

Porcelain buttons were invented by Mr. R. Prosser, of Birmingham, who,
in conjunction with the celebrated firm of Minter and Co., made them in
large quantities in the potteries, about the year 1840. They were,
however, soon driven from the market by French manufacturers, who sold a
great gross--that is, twelve gross, each of twelve dozen--for the
ridiculously small sum of elevenpence.

Glass buttons are made by heating canes of glass and pinching them from
the end with pliers, which at the same time answer the purpose of a die.
They are sold very cheaply, as low as twopence a gross, but it is
scarcely possible for any English firm to compete with Bohemia in their
production.

Mother-o'-pearl buttons are made out of pearl shells which have been
imported from the coasts of Macassar, Manilla, Bombay, the archipelago
of the Pacific, the Bay of Panama, and a few other places. Their market
value is not always the same. At the present time it ranges from L8 to
L10 per hundredweight. The blanks are cut out of the shells by a steel
tubular cutter, similar to that used in cutting the vegetable ivory. As
the cutter works its way through a shell, small cylinders of pearl are
disconnected, which are reduced in thickness by splitting into discs, a
little thicker than the button is required to be when finished. These
blanks are finished singly in a turning lathe, by being placed in a
suitable chuck, and having a steel tool applied to its face for
producing the rim and depression in the centre. They are then pa