Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 5, BUR-CHI

Butter.
milk
il
Buttons.
^Award's
Hijl. of
Birds,
p. x J2. vol.
ii.
BUT
larly recommended in heftic fevers,
of butter-milk, by pouring into it a quantity of new-
milk hot.
BUTTER-Wort. See PlNGUiCULA, Botany Index.
BUTTERFLY, the Englilh name of a numerous
genus of infe£ts. See Papilio, Entomology Index.
BUTTERFLT-Shell. See VOLUTA, CoNCHOLOGY
Index.
Method of preferving BUTTERFLIES. See INSECTS.
Method of making PiBures of BUTTERFLIES. “ I ake
butterflies or field moths, either thofe catched abroad,
or fuch as are taken in caterpillars and nurfed in the
houfe till they be flies •, clip off their wings very clofe
to their bodies, and lay them on clean paper, in the
form of a butterfly when flying ; then have ready pre¬
pared gum arable that hath been fome time diilolved in
water, and is pretty thick •, if you put a drop of ox¬
gall into a fpoonful of this, it will be better for the
life j temper them well with your finger, and fpread a
little of it on a piece of thin white paper, big enough
to take both fides of your fly ; when it begins to be
clammy under your finger, the paper is in proper order
to take the feathers from the wings of the fly ; then
lay the gummed fide on the wings, and it will take
them up : then double your paper fo as to have all the
wings between the paper ; then lay it on a table, pref-
fing it clofe with your fingers ■, and you may rub it
gently with fome fmooth hard thing ; then open the
paper and take out the wings, which will come forth
tranfparent : the down of the upper and under fide of
the wings, flicking to the gummed paper, form a jufl
likenefs of both fides of the wings in their natural
fhapes and colours. The nicety of taking off flies de¬
pends on aiufl degree of moifture of the gummed paper :
for if it be too wet, all will be blotted and confuted ;
and if too dry, your paper will flick fo fail together,
that it will be torn in feparation. When you have
opened your gummed papers, and they are dry, you mull
draw the bodies from the natural ones, and paint them
in water colours : you mull take paper that will bear
ink very well for this ufe •, for finking paper will fe-
parate with the reft, and fpoil all.”
BUTTERIS, in the manege, an inftrument of fteel,
fitted to a wooden handle, wherewith they pare the
foot, or cut off the hoof, of a horfe.
BUTTOCK of a Ship, is that part of her which is
her breadth right aftern, from the tack upwards ; and
a fhip is faid to have a broad or a narrow buttock,
according as fhe is built broad or narrow at the tran-
fum.
BUTTON, an article in drefs, whofe form and ufe
are too well known to need defeription. They aje
made of various materials, as mohair, filk, horfe hair,
metal, &c.
Method of making common B UTTONS. Common but¬
tons are generally made of mohair j fome indeed are
made of filk, and others of thread ; but the latter are
of a very inferior fort. In order to make a button,
the mohair mull be previoully wound on a bobbin •,
and the mould fixed to a board by means of a bodkin
thruft through the hole in the middle of it. This be¬
ing done, the workman wraps the mohair round the
mould in three, four, or fix columns, according to the
button.
Jlorfe-hair BUTTONS. The moulds of thefe buttons
[ 30 ] BUT
Some make curds are covered with a kind of fluff compofcd of filk and Buttons,
hair j the warp being belladine filk, and the ftioot horfe ' v~***=
hair. This fluff is wove with two felvages, in the fame
manner and in the fame loom as ribbands. It is then
cut into fquare pieces proportional to the fize of the
button, wrapped round the moulds, and the felvages
Hitched together, which form the under part of the
button.
Cieanf.ng of BUTTONS. A button is not finilhed
when it comes from the maker’s hands ', the fuperriuoua
hair and hubs of filk mull be taken off, and the but¬
ton rendered gloffy and beautiful before it can be fold.
This is done in the following manner : A quantity of
buttons are put into a kind of iron fieve, called by
workmen a jingemg box. Then a little fpirit of wine
being poured into a kind of Ihallow iron difh, and fet
on fire, the workman moves and fhakes the fingeing.
box, containing the buttons, brilkly over the flame of
the fpirit, by which the fuperfluous hairs, hubs of filk,
&e. are burnt off, without damaging the buttons.
Great care, however, muft be taken that the buttons
in the fingeing box be kept continually in motion ■, for
if they are fuffered to reft over the flame, they will im¬
mediately burn. When all thefe loofe hairs, &c. are
burnt off by the flame of the fpirit, the buttons are tak¬
en out of the fingeing box, and put, with a proper
quantity of the crumbs of bread, into a leather bag,
about three feet long, and of a conical ihape; the mouth
or fmaller end of which being tied up, the workman
takes one of the ends in one hand and the other in the
other, and (hakes the hand brifkly with a particular
jerk. This operation cleanfes the buttons, renders them
very gloffy, and fit for fale.
Go/d-twi/l BUTTONS. The mould of thefe button*
is firft covered in the fame manner with that of common
buttons. This being done, the whole is covered with
a thin plate of gold or filver, and theft wrought over
of different forms, with purple and gimp. The former
is a kind of thread compofed of (ilk and gold wire
twilled together \ and the latter, capillary tubes of
gold or filver, about the tenth of an inch long. Thefe
are joined together by means of a fine needle, filled
with filk, thruft through their apertures, in the fame
manner as beads or bugles.
The manner of making Metal BUTTONS. The metal
with which the moulds are intended to be covered is
firft caft into fmall ingots, and then flatted into thin
plates or leaves, of the thicknefs intended, at the flat¬
ting mills * after which it is cut into fraall round pieces
proportionable to the fize of the mould they are intend¬
ed to cover, by means of proper punches on a block,
of wood covered with a thick plate of lead. Each piece
of metal thus cut out of the plate is reduced into the
form of a button, by beating it fucceflively in feveral
cavities, or concave moulds, of a fpherical form, with
a convex puncheon of iron, always beginning w ith the
(hallowed cavity of the mould, and proceeding to the
deeper, till the plate has acquired the intended form *
and the better to manage fo thin a plate, they form ten,
twelve, and fometimes even twenty-four, to the cavities,
or concave moulds, at once ; often nealing the metal
during the operation, to make it more dudlile. This
plate is generally called by workmen the cap oj the but¬
ton.
The form being thus given to the plates or caps,
they'