How did the speed of button manufacturing change dramatically between the 17th century and the 1920s?
Answer
A machine using Bakelite could produce thousands in the time a craftsman took for a dozen horn buttons
The difference in manufacturing efficiency between the artisanal era and the age of synthetics was vast. A skilled craftsman in the 17th century might dedicate an entire day to meticulously carve, shape, and polish only about a dozen high-quality horn buttons. By the 1920s, thanks to materials like Bakelite and advanced machinery, a machine could replicate this output, producing thousands of identical, colored buttons within that same timeframe, showcasing an exponential gain in speed and output capacity.
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