Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/84

BOOKBINDING afterward the title in gold ; but now it receives the most elaborate gilding, and of late years elegant and emblematic designs of ink and gold in combination are produced. This style has given rise to the greater part of the machinery used in bookbinding, and to the United States the credit of the invention of three fourths of it belongs. Sheep skin is extensively used, but morocco, russia leather, and calf form the covers of the more expensive binding. Occa- sionally velvet, ivory, and mother-of-pearl are used for Bibles and books intended for pre- sentation. There are two kinds of binding, a description of which will suffice to give a general idea of the mechanical processes through which a book passes after leaving the printer, before it is completed for sale. The first is cloth-case binding, the cheapest, and that in which machinery is most employed ; the other is known as extra binding, the work on which is principally performed by hand. Ta- king the volume in which this article appears as an example, we shall first describe the manner in which it is bound in cloth. Books derive a technical name descriptive of size from the leaves into which each printed sheet is folded, such as folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo, &c. At the foot of the first page of each sheet is a number or letter, called the signature, by which the order is designated. This volume is called a royal 8vo, being printed on paper a size larger than the ordinary 8vo, and is printed on nearly 50 sheets, each containing 8 leaves or 16 pages. These sheets go to the binder in quires, and are first taken to the sheet room, where the work of folding, gathering, collating, and sew- ing is done by females. The whole edition of each sheet is folded by one girl with astonish- ing rapidity and accuracy. The most expert will fold about 400 an hour, but the average is from which they are taken one by one by the gatherer with the right hand, and then placed in the left, until a whole set is collected. This process, as well as that of folding, is performed with wonderful quickness, the gathering of FIG. 1. Folding Machine. perhaps 300. Folding machines (see fig. 1) are now in general use capable of folding 10,000 or 12,000 sheets a day. After having been folded, the sheets are laid in piles, according to the order of the signatures, on the gathering table, Fio. 2. Book-Sewing Machine. 25,000 sheets a day being not unusual for an active girl. After this the sheets are knocked up evenly and examined by the collator, who looks at each signature to insure that the vol- ume is complete, each sheet being in its proper order without duplicates or deficiencies. Being found perfect, the book is pressed in a smash- ing machine, by which the delay of the screw or hydraulic press formerly employed is avoided. It now passes to the sawing machine, prepara- tory to sewing. Several volumes are taken together, and in an instant five revolving saws make as many cuts in the backs, of a size sufficient to admit the hands of twine to which the sheets are sewed. The sewer has a wooden frame, which consists of a table with two upright screws supporting a horizontal and adjustable rod, to which three strong hands fastened on the table are attached, at distances corresponding to the three inner saw marks. She then places the first sheet against the bands and passes her needle from the first cut or kettle stitch to the inside of the sheet, then out and in at every band, embracing each with the thread until the bottom is reached, then sews the next sheet in the same manner but in an opposite direction, and so on alter- nating until the last. Within the last year (1872) book-sewing machines (see fig. 2) have been successfully introduced in America, which effect an average saving of one half the cost of hand sewing, and are simple and perfect in their operation. Henry G. Thompson of Con- necticut is the patentee. End papers are now pasted on the hook, which then leaves the sheet room, where about 1,000 are so prepared in a day. In the forwarding room, which it enters