BOOKS AND BOOKBINDING 832 BOOKS AND BOOKBINDING 



EVOLUTION OF THE BOOK 



5. Manuscript. 



Meet .books have rather a large number of 

 inserts because modern processes for reproduc- 

 ing pictures usually require a more highly 

 finished and higher grade paper than is needed 

 for the printed pages. When all the inserts 

 have been pasted in, the signatures are dis- 

 tributed by an operator into the boxes of a 

 "gathering" machine. There are as many boxes 

 as there are signatures in the book. An end- 

 less belt, moving underneath them, carries the 

 signatures along so that one drops on top of 

 the other in the proper order and the number 

 of signatures required for the book is complete 

 when the belt gets to the end of the rows of 

 boxes. 



Stitching. Sewing used to be one of the 

 slowest and most tedious processes in binding 

 a book. It is never done by hand now, except 

 in the binding of costly or rare books. All 

 sewing in a big shop is done by machinery. 

 Two operators are required. One operator puts 

 the signatures, one at a time, astride an arm 

 which has a row of sharp teeth along its upper 

 edge. These points puncture the paper so as 

 to make the task of sewing easier for the curved 

 needles which flash in and out. The stitching 

 is done around a cord or tape which is later 

 pasted to the covers of the book. A second 

 operator stands at the back of the machine 

 and cuts apart the books as they appear, fed to 

 her in a continuous stream. There are other 

 types of sewing machine one, for instance, 

 which wire stitches pamphlets or very cheap 

 books not over an inch thick. 



Smashing. After stitching the books are 

 put into a machine which "smashes" the book 

 where it has been folded, so that it will be no 

 bulkier at the back than at the front. This also 

 makes the books more substantial. 



6. The printing press. 



End Papers and Head Bands. The end 

 sheets are now pasted into place. These sheets 

 are of very strong paper, sometimes orna- 

 mentally stamped, and serve the purpose of 

 lining the cover of the book when it is put on. 

 Sometimes a head band, so called, is put on 

 also, as in the case of this present volume. 

 If you will examine any well-bound book you 

 will discover that a fold of cloth has been 

 pasted in at the top and bottom as a finish for 

 the edge of the sheets. This is done for 

 appearances only and does not materially 

 strengthen the binding, although it does pro- 

 tect the top of the back from injury when the 

 book is pulled out of a bookcase. 



Trimming. The edges of the book are still 

 uncut. In expensive books they are very often 

 left uncut until the book is in the hands of a 

 reader, but this requires such very exact folding 

 that it is more common to trim all of the 

 edges in a machine called a guillotine. Ten or 

 a dozen books are stacked together and 

 clamped on a moving platform. The operator 

 moves them into position and a huge knife 

 descends diagonally and cuts through the thou- 

 sands of tightly-pressed pages. 



Gilding and Marbling. Here are two proc- 

 esses for which no machine has yet been in- 

 vented. They are performed to-day exactly as 

 they were three hundred years ago. If the 

 edges of the pages are to be gilded, a number of 

 books are clamped together and put on a 

 table. Trimming has not left the edges smooth 

 enough for gilding, so the man who does the 

 gilding first rubs them down with a steel knife, 

 just as if he were working on a surface of 

 wood. He coats this surface with white of egg 

 and then lays on thin sheets of gold leaf until 

 the entire surface is covered. After drying for 



