olding in her hand a sheet of zinc or
iron, about two feet long, and four inches broad. This she passes rapidly
under the press if worked by hand, and still more rapidly if worked by steam,
punching and cutting at the rate of from fifty to sixty disks in a minute. As
they are cut they fall into a receptacle prepared to receive them. The
perforated sheets are sold to the founder to be melted up, and made into
other sheets. In other rooms younger women are engaged in cutting up
Florentine cloth, or other outside covering material, paste board and calico.
Of these a young woman can punch 57,000 a-day, and of metal, 28,000 a-day.
The upper discs are submitted by another set of girls to presses from which
each receives a blow that turns up an edge all round, and reduces it to the
exact size of the button. The lower disk is punched for the shank to come
through, stamped with the maker's name, or the name of the tailor for whom
the buttons are made, and coated with varnish, either light or black.

"The five pieces then pass into a department where a woman superintends the
labours of a number of children from seven to ten years of age.

"These little creatures place all five pieces, one after another, in regular
order, in a small machine like a dice-box, constructed to hold them, which is
placed under a press, when a firm touch compresses the whole together in the
neat form, which any one may examine on a black dress coat, without stitch or
adhesive matter."

This patent was the subject of long litigation between rival inventors, to
the great benefit of the lawyers, and loss of the industrious and ingenious.

Within the last twelve months Messrs. Chadbourne, button-makers, of Great
Charles Street, have adapted this Florentine button to nails for furniture
and carriages.

The Patent Linen sewn-through Button is another recent invention, which has
superseded the old wire button for under garments, than which it is cheaper,
neater, and more durable. It is composed of linen and circles of zinc.

Horn Buttons, with shanks, which are extensively used for cloth boots and
sporting jackets, are made from the hoofs of horned cattle, which are boiled,
cut, punched, dyed, stamped when soft, and polished by brushes moved by steam
power; the chief part of the work being done by women and children.

Pearl Buttons have become an important part of the Birmingham manufactures,
partly on the decline of metal buttons. They are extensive