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The Patent Linen sewn-through Button is another recent invention, which has superseded the old wire button for under garments, than which it is cheaper, neater, and more durable.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 extensively used on coats and waistcoats, where gilt buttons were formerly employed.

The shell used in the manufacture of buttons, studs, card counters, etc., is the mother of pearl, the Concha margaritifera of naturalists.  Five kinds of shell are employed:—­First.  The Buffalo Shell, so named because it arrived packed in buffalo skins; it comes chiefly from Panama, is the smallest and commonest, and sells to the trade at about 15 pounds a ton.—­Second.