Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/53

Rh between the powerful cast-iron rollers of the machine. After rolling, the sections composing a volume, supposing it to have been necessary to press it in more than one division, are brought together and carefully collated. The whole of the sheets to compose the volume being found in their proper place and order, they are taken in sections to the standing-press, in which a number of them are piled up between boards. The form of standing-press generally used is what is termed the Atholl or Isle of Man press, on account of the three arms, or rather legs, by which the compound screw of the press is worked.

The volumes are then adjusted and clamped up in the laying or cutting-press for the operation of sawing the back. Two or three grooves are, in this operation, sawn straight across the back of the volume, according to the number of bands on which the book is to be sewed. In these grooves the bands are lodged, so that when the sewing of the book is complete, the bands are "flush" with the rest of the back, instead of projecting out as they did in old times. A slight cut is made near each end for holding the "kettle stitch," or stitch by which the sewer fastens her thread each time she passes up and down. The sewing is done at an apparatus called the sewing-press or frame, upon which the number of cords to be employed are fastened at proper distances, in accordance with the saw-marks in the back of the volume. The method of sewing varies according as the sewer is working one or two "sheets on;" and the number of bands employed may be from two to six, according to the size of sheet, weight of the book, &c. When taken out of the sewing-frame the fly-leaves are pasted on, and the volume being neatly squared, the back is covered with a coating of thin glue; it is then laid on a board and allowed gradually to dry. When the glue is quite dry the back is rounded by beating with a hammer, and subsequently the volume is placed between two feather-edged boards, above which the back slightly projects. These are then placed together in a lying-press, for the backing process, that is, the back of the book is well beaten until it projects a little over each side of the bevelled board, so as to form a groove or place for the millboard covers to lie in. The book is now ready for the boarding. The boards were formerly, as the name indicates, really of wood, but now of millboard of various thicknesses, according to the size of the book. They are cut a little larger than the book itself, and are attached by the ends of the bands, left for that purpose, being passed through holes in the sides of the boards. The ends of the slips or bands are then frayed out, pasted down, and hammered flat and smooth. The volume is next placed between pressing boards, and put with others into the standing-press, where it is submitted to a powerful pressure for several hours. Thereafter it is again fastened into a lying-press for cutting or ploughing the edges with a knife-edged instrument called the plough. The object of the binder in this operation is to make every page of uniform size, presenting a smooth and equal "head," "tail," and "fore-edge." The binder is careful to leave as broad a margin as practicable; but the size of the smallest sheet is the real gauge of the whole book. The head is first cut, next the tail, and before the face is cut it is necessary to have the back flattened by passing "trindles" through between the cords and the boards. After the face has been ploughed the back springs back into its rounded form, and thus the face presents the appearance of having been cut in the round.

The book is now ready to have its edges either sprinkled, coloured, marbled, or gilt. Sprinkling is accomplished by merely mixing the colour or colours with paste or size, and throwing the mixture from a brush violently on the edges. The uniform colouring of the edges is done by screwing the volume up in the lying-press and applying the colour with a sponge. Marbling is usually carried on as a separate trade, and requires considerable adroitness. The colours to be used are thrown into a square shallow trough containing prepared gum water, and as they float on the top they are dexterously mixed and combed through each other so as to produce the kind of marble pattern desired. In this the edges to be marbled are dipped, and when they are withdrawn it is found that the marbled colours have adhered to them. In the gilding the fore-edge or face is first operated on; and to level it the back must again be flattened, as in ploughing. The book is then firmly fixed in the lying-press, and the edges are scraped and smoothed with a steel scraper. The edges are next coloured, the gold size, consisting of white of egg mixed with water, called glaire, is laid on with a camel's-hair brush, and immediately covered with gold leaf. When dry, it is burnished by nibbing with an agate burnisher, and the head and tail are put through the same processes. Gilt edges in early bound books were usually gauffré, i.e., had designs impressed on them; but scarcely any such work is now done.

The head-bands, which are next attached to the back head and tail, are ornamental appendages, which partly conceal the folded-in edges of the leather, and give a finished aspect to the book. They consist of strips of vellum or parchment worked over with coloured silk or cotton, and are partly glued to the backs and partly fastened by threads passing through the kettle stitches. The back is then lined with strong paper glued on it, two or three thicknesses being used according to the weight of the book. Nearly all books are now bound with open or elastic backs, that is, with the leather of the cover not attached to the back of the sheets. The elastic back is composed of a strip of thin cardboard as long as the volume and a little broader than the back, so that it covers the whole back, and is glued in the joint at the edge of the millboards. Across this elastic back false bands are glued to imitate the projections produced by the cords of ancient bindings; and when these are dry, the book is ready for covering.

The materials used for covering are very various; but for the greater part of modern books calf-skin dyed of various colours is employed; while kid-skin, and its imitation in sheep-skin or roan, and sheep-skin acknowledged as such, in which school-books and many law-books are bound, are also used in great quantities. The piece of leather, cut to a proper size, is moistened with water, next covered on the inner side with paste or glue, and then applied evenly to the millboard sides. The superfluous edge of the leather, first pared to reduce its thickness, is turned over on the inside, and concealed from view by the end papers attached to the sheets forming the book, which are subsequently pasted down upon the mill boards. As a last operation in forwarding, but one now frequently omitted, the book is "corded," that is, firmly tied between two boards until it is dry, so as to insure perfect smoothness in the cover. A book is half-bound when only the back and corners are protected with leather, the rest of the boards being covered with prepared paper or cloth.

Finishing.—Finishing processes are so varied and numerous, according to the material under treatment and the effect to be produced, that a lengthy treatise would be required to detail the operations. It will suffice here to notice the operations in finishing an ordinary white-calf binding. The whole of the leather is first washed over with a thin paste of the consistency of cream and allowed to dry. The colouring is then done by brushing over it a solution of "salts of tartar" (tartrate of potash), which produces the brown tint of ordinary bindings. If the sides are to be further ornamented, as, for example, by forming "tree-calf," they are washed over with glaire (white of egg). Each board when dry is separately bent convex, and water is sprinkled on till it runs downwards from the central ridge in a great number of separate branching runlets. As the water is so running, a solution of copperas is sprinkled on and carried along and out by every tricklet, and thus the dark-coloured branched markings are produced. The appearance of "French calf" is produced by dabbing copperas from a sponge on the brown covers. The back is next pieced for title, by pasting a piece of coloured morocco into the space between the first and second bands. The points at which lines either blind or in gold are to cross the back are then marked, the whole back is washed with thin paste, and two coatings of glaire are applied to it. When dry the gold leaf is laid on, the lines and ornaments are tooled, and the title lettered with tools and letters which have been heated at a gas stove. The superfluous gold is cleaned off, and after polishing the whole with a hot iron tool the back is finished. The same processes are followed with the sides and the "squares" when any ornamentation is tooled upon them. In the case of finishing of a high class, in morocco, &c., the ornaments are first tooled blind, glaire is pencilled into the lines, and allowed to dry, and gold leaf is then laid on and tooled in. A book is said to be bound extra when well forwarded, lined with superior paper, and gilt round the sides and inside the squares.

Casing.—Previous to the year 1825, new books were generally issued in boards, that is, in millboards covered with drab paper, upon which the title, printed on a white label, was pasted. Although this was greatly superior to the Continental mode of covering new books with thin paper, something more elegant and durable was needed, and Mr Archibald Leighton of London endeavoured to meet this want by introducing coloured cloth (glazed calico). One of the first books of importance bound in this material was the edition of Lord Byron's works in seventeen volumes. The covering of books in cloth cases can be done profitably only in a factory where there is much division of labour and many labour-saving machines. In cloth binding the preparation and ornamentation of the cases are throughout distinct from the preparation of the sheets, and it is only in the very last stage that the volume and its case are brought together. The first process in the preparation of the cloth cases is cutting the millboard. This is now effected by a rotary cutting-machine or "ripper," an invention introduced from America, whence indeed comes most of the machinery used in this species of binding. The machine consists essentially of a pair of strong spindles placed above each other, on which are mounted circular scissor-edged discs, which cut in pairs like the blades of a pair of scissors. The cutting discs can be arranged on the spindles to cut any desired size of board, and the gauge-frame on the feeding table pushes the pieces of millboard into the machine by a motion communicated by a cam-wheel. Such a machine will cut 50,000 pairs of boards in the working hours of a week. When the boards are to be bevelled this is done in a kind of planing-machinc. The cloth for the covers being cut to the required size and covered with glue, a pair of boards are laid on with the help of a brass gauge,