Page:The Art of Bookbinding, Zaehnsdorf, 1890.djvu/50

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books having been in the press a sufficient time, say for a night, they are taken out, and run through again (collated) to make sure that they are all correct. A book is then taken and knocked straight both head and back and put in the lying press between boards, projecting from them about $1/8$ inch; some binders prefer cutting boards, I prefer pressing boards, and I should advise the use of them, as the whole can be knocked up together. They should be held between the fingers of each hand, and the back and head knocked alternately on the cheek of the press. The boards are then drawn back the required distance from the back of the book: the book and boards must now be held tightly with the left hand, and the whole carefully lowered into the press; the right hand regulating the screws, which should then be screwed up tightly. The book is now quite straight, and firmly fixed in the press, and we have to decide if it is to be sewn flexibly or not. If for flexible binding the book is not to be sawn in, but marked; the difference being, that with the latter the cord is outside the sheets; with the former the cord is imbedded in the back, in the cut or groove made by the saw. We will take the flexible first, and suppose that the book before us is an ordinary 8vo. volume, and that it is to be cut all round.

The back should be divided into six equal portions, leaving the bottom, or tail, half an inch longer than the rest, simply because of a curious optical illusion, by which,