Bibliopegia; or, the art of bookbinding in all its branches; illustrated with engravings / by John Andrews Arnett [i.e. J. Hannett].

  • John Hannett
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bibliopegia; or, the art of bookbinding in all its branches; illustrated with engravings / by John Andrews Arnett [i.e. J. Hannett]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the surface of the stone, to avoid marking or cutting the sheets with the edge. Figure 3. plate v. shows the manner of holding the hammer, &c. Before beating a book, care should be taken to observe if it has been recently printed, for if so it would set off by bemg beaten too much. This will be easily ascertained by refer- ing to the date at the foot of the title or by smelling the ink it has been printed with, which, being composed partly of oil, will not have got perfectly dry. This will particularly be the case with machine printed works. As, however, it is fre- quently necessary to bind a volume immediately after being printed, it will be requisite to take every precaution against its setting off, which would destroy the beauty of the work. It is the practice of some to put the book into an oven after the bread has been taken out, or into a stove heated suffici- ently to dry the ink and make it search into the paper; but as these means are not without danger of getting the paper blackened or soiled, it is a better plan to interleave the sheets with white paper, which will receive all the ink set off. Should the sheets have been hotpressed, which is readily distinguished, this precaution will not be necessary. When employed at the beating stone, the workman should keep his legs close together, to avoid hernia, to which he is much exposed, if, with the intention of being more at ease, he contracts the habit of placing them apart. A rolling press has lately been invented as a substitute for the beating which books: require previous to being bound. This will be fully described in the chapter on presses, where an engraved representation is given. Its operation is quicker and its power of compression greater, in a proportion of five — sixths. A boy sits in front of the press, and gathers the sheets into packets, by placing two, three, or more upon a tin plate of the same size, and covering them with another plate,