PRINTING AND MAKING OF BOOKS 



ment called the plow. The object of the binder in this 

 operation is to make every page of uniform size, present- 

 ing 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 gage 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 'tringles' through 

 between the cords and the boards. After the face has 

 been plowed the back springs back into its rounded 

 form, and thus the face presents the appearance of 

 having been cut in the round." 



This is the way in which most of the books on the 

 market were bound until about 1890. Then improve- 

 ments and inventions of bookbinding machinery began 

 crowding out the slower hand-processes, just as the new 

 type-setting machines and improved presses were crowd- 

 ing out the older methods in the printer's domain, until 

 it is almost literally true that as books are bound at 

 present in the large binderies, "the binder throws in 

 the material and the machines do the rest." Hand- 

 stitching is obsolete, the modern stitching-machines in 

 use being able to stitch books or pamphlets, of almost 

 any thickness, either with cord or wire, as the binder 

 may desire. Instead of a number of hand operators for 

 performing the various tasks in the preparation of maga- 

 zines for example, gathering, collating, selecting covers, 

 and stitching as of old, a single machine now takes 

 the sheets from the feeders, folds, gathers, collates, covers, 

 and wire-stitches copies of magazines and pamphlets, 

 delivering them ready for distribution. 



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