1st March 2023

The Battle of the Button

Balonne Beacon (St George, Qld), 29th October 1953 page 5.

I recently mentioned  the “Federal Council of Dry-Cleaners of Australia” approval of buttons that were safe for dry-cleaning. The following article was published in the Daily News (Perth) on 26th August of 1954, page 6.

 
As the article indicates, dry-cleaners had been experiencing problems with some types of plastic buttons. General Plastics claimed their buttons were “un-affected by drycleaning” from around 1950 or 1951, and were “approved by the Drycleaners and Dyers Association of NSW” from 1954. Beutron had claimed their buttons would “dry clean without breaking” from 1947, and although they were the first to get the “Federal” approval, General Plastics soon followed.

The Federal Council of Drycleaners started around 1951 (although there was a national convention in 1950 and a Tasmanian convention in 1949, so some articles dated the association from 1949)  and appear to have changed their named to the National Dry Cleaners in 1971. There now exists a “Drycleaning Institute of Australia”, but it is not clear if this is the same association under a new name.

See also http://www.austbuttonhistory.com/27th-june-2020/

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