BOOKBINDING 



421 



cheapness and adaptation to tho rapid execution of largo numbers, the method uni- 

 versally adopted for the great mass of books, as they issue from the publisher's 

 warehouse. We will deal with this last-named process in the first instance. In 

 ' case-binding ' tho case or cover (generally formed of mill-boards covered with cotton 

 cloth) is made, stamped and lettered with the desired amount of ornament, all complete 

 before it is placed upon the volume. Thus (the exact size of the volume having been 

 first ascertained) the whole process of ' case-making ' and ' blocking ' can go on 

 simultaneously with or in anticipation of the processes of folding, sewing, and back- 

 ing up. 



The boards used in bookbinding are formed of the pulp obtained from refuse brown 

 paper, old rope, straw, or other vegetable material more or less fibrous ; which pulp 

 is pressed into sheets of varying size and thickness, to suit tho requirements of the 

 binder ; from the sheet scarcely thicker than cartridge paper used for ' limp ' book- 

 covers, to the thick substance now extensively used for books on which a cover with 

 ' bevelled edges ' (after the antique style of the old wooden book-covers used by early 

 bookbinders) is prepared. 



The size and style of the volume being ascertained, the board-cutter selects his 

 mill-boards accordingly ; and having with his shears ' squared,' i.e. cut of at right 

 angles the rough outer edge of two adjoining sides of each board, adjusts the gauge 

 of his cutting-machine to the exact requirement successively of tho length and breadth 

 of the volume, until he has completed the tale of 50 or it maybe 5,000 pairs of boards 

 for which his order is given. See Board Cutting Machine (fig. 159, as manufactured 

 by F. Ullmer). 



159 





In the meantime, the cloth-cutter in like manner cuts up tho corresponding numbers 

 of covers of the dimensions proper for the book. Tho bookbinders' cloth now so 

 extensively used, is a cotton fabric generally woven in Lancashire, and sometimes 

 dyed and finished there ; but these later processes are carried on to a considerable 

 extent, also, in London. The dyed cloth is passed through heated rollers, which being 

 engraved with some grain or pattern, (sometimes in imitation of tho grains of russia 

 or morocco leather, sometimes with other patterns) impress the pattern or embossing 

 upon the cloth. A third essential is a supply of a corresponding number of 'hollows.' 

 Those are strips of thick paper or of pasteboard, cut to the exact height and thickness 

 required for the book for which the boards and cloth are intended, and which act as 



