se, run by power, which have
not been enumerated in the above sketch, such as wire and thread
stitching machines, gluing and pasting machines, brushing machines,
and last but not least a gold-saving machine, out of whose bowels
large binders take from $200 to $400 worth of waste gold each month.
This waste gold comes from the surplus gold brushed from the covers
after stamping.

SPECIAL BINDINGS

By Henry Blackwell.

Much has been written about the art of special binding, and many
lengthy treatises have been written on the various methods of early
and modern "extra," or fine binders. It will be my province to
describe the stages through which a book passes, from the time it is
received in the bindery until it is shipped out of the establishment.
I will take for my subject a rare old book that is to be rebound in a
half-levant morocco binding. In a good shop, all books, no matter what
the binding is to be, are treated alike in regard to workmanship,
care, and materials. If a binder puts his name in the completed book,
it is a sign that the book has been to the best of his ability
honestly and well bound.

When the customer brings the book to the binder, the style of binding,
color of the leather, amount and kind of ornamentation, and all the
other details are determined upon and entered carefully in a numbered
order book, and the number of the order is marked in pencil on an
inside leaf of the book itself, so that the original instructions may
be referred to from time to time. This number is usually left in the
book after it has been finished and delivered to the owner, and not
infrequently has been the means of identifying a lost or stolen
volume.

The book is then given to the first operator, usually a girl, who
removes the cover, if there is any, and takes the book apart,
separating carefully each of the "signatures," or sections, and
removing the threads of the old binding. If any of the pages are
loose, they are pasted neatly in their proper places and the "insert
plates" (illustrations, maps, etc.), which had been printed separately
from the text and pasted in the volume, are examined to make sure that
they are firmly fixed. Another operator goes over the entire volume
and cleans any of the pages that have become soiled.

The book is then prepared for the sewing by a man who hammers the back
until it is flat and all the edges of the signatures lie evenly. He
then divides it into sections of half a