BOOK-BINDING, OR COVERING. 29 



attempted many years ago in England, and it was also attempted 

 in the United States as early as 1836, but it is well known that 

 India rubber, not vulcanized, is too perishable a substance for 

 any such application. The result has been that such attempts, 

 after producing considerable excitement, and raising the expecta- 

 tions of the public, have proved failures. In this instance a 

 very diiferent result is anticipated. 



One of the inconveniences attending books bound in the com- 

 mon way, is the difficulty of holding them open so as to be read 

 at the inner margin ; and the same remark applies to blank books, 

 with still greater force, in regard to the difficulty of writing up to 

 the back, until the backs are sufficiently broken or worn to admit 

 of it, by which time the leaves are usually so loosened as to fall 

 out. By this new method of binding, this difficulty is completely 

 overcome, so as to admit of the book being opened quite flat and 

 level. The writer believes that it is not saying too much, to 

 affirm that books bound in this way will possess a great advan- 

 tage over books bound in the usual way, on the score of durability. 

 This improvement is applicable alike to printed and blank books, 

 and although the expense of binding each is less than by the com- 

 mon method of binding with glue and stitches, yet the saving of 

 expense will be greater, and the advantage more apparent in blank 

 books than any others, except it be music books. In addition 

 to the foregoing, an improvement has been made by the writer 

 in the manufacture of covers for expensive books and ledgers 

 from caoutchouc whalebone, with elastic compound for the 

 backs, which it is believed will be found more durable than any 

 heretofore made of other materials. 



BOOK-BINDING OR COVERING. 



A fabric is made of vulcanized gum-elastic tissue and vellum, 

 for cheap publications, and of gum-elastic corded vellum, of 

 different thicknesses, made in imitation of Russia leather, calf 

 skin, and morocco, for more valuable works. The superiority of 



