Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt:... BOOKBINDING AODERN bookbinding dates from *, * the application of printing to literature, and in essentials has remained unchanged to the present day, though in those outward characteristics, which appeal to the touch and to the eye, and constitute binding in an artistic sense, it has gone through many changes for better and for worse, which, in the opinion of the writer, have resulted, in the main, in the exaggeration of technical skill and in the death of artistic fancy. The first operation of the modern binder is to fold or refold the printed Booksheet into a section, and to gather the binding. sections, numbered or lettered at the foot, in their proper order into a volume. The sections are then taken, one by one, placed face downwards in a frame, and sewn through the back by a continuous thread running backwards and forwards along the backs of the sections to upright strings fastened at regular intervals in the sewing frame. This process unites the sections to one another in series one after the other, and permits the perusal of the book by the simple turning of leaf after leaf upon the hinge formed by the thread and the back of the section. A volume, or series of sections, so treated, the ends of the string being properly secured, is essentially bound; all that is subsequently done is done for Book- the protection or for the decoration of binding. the volume or 0f its cover. The sides of a volume are protected by millboards, called shortly boards. The boards themselves and the back are protected by a cover of leather, vellum, silk, linen, or paper, wholly or in part. The edges of the volume are protected by the projection of the boards beyond them at top, bottom, and foreedge, and usually by being cut smooth and gilt. A...