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German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#11

Post by trevithick »

close04 wrote: post #4
josefritzishere wrote: post #3

TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2023-10/21-species-deliste...

> TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry. > To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance > the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…

Regarding the dams, I recommend the book "Cadillac Desert" to anyone even remotely curious about the background and scale of water projects in the US. It's not boring despite the what the subject matter might suggest.

Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#12

Post by giarc »

del82 wrote: post #10

I recently learned about using mussels for buttons when I visited the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa and have been wondering since: can Zebra Mussels be used for buttons? That would create (even more) economic incentive to go after them.

As noted in the article, plastic buttons displaced buttons made from clamshells long ago. I doubt a market for zebra mussel buttons could make any dent on the population.

Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#13

Post by Broken_Hippo »

del82 wrote: post #10

I recently learned about using mussels for buttons when I visited the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa and have been wondering since: can Zebra Mussels be used for buttons? That would create (even more) economic incentive to go after them.

In college, I worked as a lab assistant for a professor studying them. I spent a lot of time counting microscopic young, scraping adults off of traps, measuring and weighing them before cracking them open to scoop out their insides and weighing them.

These little fellows are, in general, small. I guess they can get 50mm (2in), but most aren't that large and they have thin shells.

Further, I'd be somewhat afraid that creating products from them would spread the invasive species even further. The professor I worked for studied them because of their invasiveness - the lakes he set traps on were obviously spread by people. They spread easily by the water in boats - microscopic young means people don't know they spread them.

Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#14

Post by cucumber3732842 »

close04 wrote: post #4
josefritzishere wrote: post #3

TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2023-10/21-species-deliste...

> TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry. > To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance > the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…

>The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail

But the part that confirms the audiences biases and earns upvotes made it through and that's what matters.

It's basically a more shameless version of most industry reporting if you think about it.

Best not to think about it though. The world is nicer that way.

Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#15

Post by Theodores »

trevithick wrote: post #11
close04 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry. > To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance > the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…

Regarding the dams, I recommend the book "Cadillac Desert" to anyone even remotely curious about the background and scale of water projects in the US. It's not boring despite the what the subject matter might suggest.

Excellent book, seconded.

Regarding buttons, or rather 'buttony' (which used to mean the craft of making buttons), the UK has many regions that have historical claims to being the former button capital of the world. First it was Dorset, thanks to the sheep, then Yorkshire stole that business, then the Black Country (Birmingham) brought the full weight of the Industrial Revolution to the product.

This American/German story is just one Johnny-come-lately part of the epic story that is button making, albeit without a 'Cadillac Desert' grade book to put the story together for you.

Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#16

Post by bookofjoe »

pimlottc wrote: post #6
close04 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry. > To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance > the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…

DR?

This comment interests me.

Over the 10 years I've frequented HN* regularly (usually multiple times daily), I too have been occasionally confounded by new-to-me abbreviations/acronyms, such that I've Googled them to find their meaning. I can't imagine asking the meaning of an such an unknown in a comment, for two reasons:

1. An answer depends on someone else's effort/time to furnish it. Why expect/hope someone's feeling generous enough to spend theirs since you're not willing to spend yours?

2. You have to revisit your query to see if someone has answered it; if not, you either abandon your quest or repeatedly revisit the unknown.

*Hacker News

Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#17

Post by add-sub-mul-div »

close04 wrote: post #4
josefritzishere wrote: post #3

TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2023-10/21-species-deliste...

> TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry. > To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance > the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…

It's sad, but the entire culture is devolving into requiring a dumbed down summary or tl;dr version of everything.

Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#18

Post by ripe »

trevithick wrote: post #11
close04 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry. > To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance > the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…

Regarding the dams, I recommend the book "Cadillac Desert" to anyone even remotely curious about the background and scale of water projects in the US. It's not boring despite the what the subject matter might suggest.

Yes, it's an outstanding book, well worth reading:

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, by Marc Reisner, Penguin Books, 1986, 1993.

A recent perspective on this excellent book by Ryan Cooper is also very good. He says that journalists in the 1970s and 80s were infected with Reaganite ideology and made some mistakes. Worth reading:

https://prospect.org/2025/12/12/cadillac-desert-reconsidered...

Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#19

Post by fmajid »

giarc wrote: post #12
del82 wrote: post #10

I recently learned about using mussels for buttons when I visited the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa and have been wondering since: can Zebra Mussels be used for buttons? That would create (even more) economic incentive to go after them.

As noted in the article, plastic buttons displaced buttons made from clamshells long ago. I doubt a market for zebra mussel buttons could make any dent on the population.

Premium shirts still have shell buttons. Zebra mussels are too small to make buttons, however.

Re: German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells

#20

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

fmajid wrote: post #19
giarc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As noted in the article, plastic buttons displaced buttons made from clamshells long ago. I doubt a market for zebra mussel buttons could make any dent on the population.

Premium shirts still have shell buttons. Zebra mussels are too small to make buttons, however.

I have one shell button shirt. They're annoyingly thin.
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