Hi Cindi: The loop measuring device was designed by a fellow named Phil Linley who we still see at National Button Society Shows. He's been active in the NBS for way more years than I've been around. He has a website where he sells many useful items for collectors including some great mounting tray templates for designing the circles many of us put on our trays (designs) and some beautiful custom made button mounting cards (or trays as most call them). Here's his website:
http://www.dbuttons.com/
Along the left border of his site is a link to the button measure, you'll see, it's a strange looking thing with 4 open brass loops soddered to a long brass stem with a loop on the end, they are all put onto a keyring thing to keep them together. Here's how the Linley (no D in his name) Loop works. Oh, and it's most useful for those who need to know if a button fits into an approved NBS size class. Those classes are "diminutive" (not over 3/8"); "small" (over 3/8" but not over 3/4"); medium (over 3/4" but not over 1-1/4") and "large" (over 1-1/4"). Of the 4 open brass loops on the measuring device, only 3 are routinely used by button collectors. The dimi, small, medium and large. The second loop is used to measure a specific type of victorian era metal button referred to by collectors as an "austrian tiny" which never range larger than the loop Phil put in the grouping, I believe an tiny has to be between 1/2" and 5/8". Anyway, say you have decided to enter a tray for judging at a state or national button show. Sometimes it's hard to precisely measure buttons due to their curvature. Awards which are written for people to enter at state and national button shows do call for certain size buttons. Say the award calls for "medium" buttons, well what the heck is a medium button? That information is noted above and in the NBS Classification booklet where all the approved NBS sizes are shown. To be sure you are including only medium buttons on the tray, you only need make sure it is too big to fit thru the "small" loop but that it will pass thru the "medium" loop. If it's too big for the medium loop, then it's a "large". For non-competitors, I see no reason to get a Linley Loop unless you have large numbers of buttons to size per the NBS size classification. It can be handy if you need to quickly find a bunch of buttons in the size ranges each loop represents though. -Carol C-
