ed hot upon
a letter by means of an iron or sunrays through a lens, would absorb and
amalgamate the metallic particles. In any case, there would still remain a
moulded impression which might be removed, I think, by swelling the
leather at that spot by means of a jet of steam applied through a very
narrow glass tube.[26]

The impression effaced, or at least reduced, one may proceed to replace
the corrected letter. For this, a letter or figure matching the others in
size and character must be secured. Sometimes it is necessary for the
amateur to make this himself. This can be done by securing a fragment of
rolled copper and, with the aid of small pincers, fashioning the profile
of the desired letter on its edge. The thickness of the metal would form
the thickness of the letter's face; strokes required slender may be pared
with a knife. With a little care and skill, the desired character may be
produced. The bit of metal is then set in a handle of plaster or clay,
which is allowed to dry and harden.

TRANSFERRING ANCIENT COVERS. Is it possible to transfer the covers of
works richly bound, but valueless inside, to the boards of other books
more precious in their text and more deserving of the transferred binding?
Some of our binders have replied in the affirmative.

Many a volume has retained virginal the splendour of its original binding
simply because the text has been tiresome and insipid. In this class
appear certain volumes of indigestible theology, "Sacred works and not to
be touched," as Voltaire remarked, and those odes of court-flattery,
insipidly rhymed in doggerel, in aristocratic liveries, addressed to high
personages who paid for them but who never read them. From books of such
sorts, one may, without remorse, lift the precious coverings. However, to
make use of them, it is necessary that all their dimensions correspond
with the new volumes on which it is proposed to place them. The old books
in good condition are easily despoiled when there is no need to be
careful of the cording, the fly leaves or the boards. The process
requiring the most time is that of scraping away the dry paste which
adheres here and there to the inside of the leather after its removal. I
have re-covered more than one quarto in covers of gold tooled vellum
lifted from books of the same format. When the back was too narrow or too
wide, I replaced this part, but then the cover was formed of three pieces.
When the back was of the right wi