and in America, have already discovered in bookbinding a fitting and lucrative field for their energies. One, Miss Sarah Prideaux, is not only skilled and original in her own work, but she has also given us much valuable literature on her subject. Miss E. M. MacColl may claim to be the inventor of the small curved gold line produced by means of a tiny wheel, for though the possibility of producing such a line in blind was known for a long time, it was rarely used. The graceful curves and lines found on Miss MacColl’s work have been designed for her by her brother, Mr D. S. MacColl (Plate, fig. 8). Miss Joanna Birkenruth recalls the highly decorative medieval binding by her use of jewels cut en cabochon, but set in morocco instead of gold or silver, and there are many others who are working well and earnestly at art binding with delicate skill and taste. Outside the inner circle of professional bookbinders there has grown up a new profession, that of the designer for pictorial book-covers, especially those intended to be shown in colour on cloth or paper. Among notable designers may be mentioned Lewis F. Day, A. A. Turbayne, Walter Crane and Charles Ricketts.
Machine-binding.—The principal types of machine for commercial binding are described below. They are almost all due to American or German ingenuity. It may be noted that, while books sewn by hand on bands have the loose ends of the bands actually drawn through the boards and strongly fastened to them through their substance, no machines for covering sewn books will do this so effectively. All they will do as a rule is to paste down to the inner surfaces of the boards the loose ends of the tapes on which the sewing is done. So that, although it may last a long time if not much used, a “cased” book is likely to slip out of its cover as soon as the paste fixing it perishes. Modern bookbinding machines of all kinds are usually driven by power, and in consequence of the necessary setting of most of them accurately to some particular size of book, they are not suitable for binding books of different sizes; the full advantage of them can only be taken where there is a large edition of one book.
Fig. 9.—Book-sewing Machine.
Book-sewing machines (fig. 9) are of two kinds one sews the books on bands, either flat or round, and the other supplies the place of bands by a kind of chain stitch. The band-working machines bring the return thread back by pulling it through the upper and lower edges of the back of each section, thereby Sewing.to some extent weakening each section, but at the same time this weakening can be to some extent neutralized by careful head-banding. The other system, where the band is replaced by a chain stitch, brings back the return thread inside each section; the objection to this is that there is a flattening out of the back of the book, which becomes a difficulty when the subsequent operation of covering the book begins. The sections are sewn continuously in a long line, and are afterwards cut apart. The threads catch into hooked needles and are drawn through holes made by piercers set to a certain distance; a shuttle like that used in an ordinary sewing-machine sews the inner thread backwards and forwards. Each section is placed upon a sort of metal saddle by the hand of the operator, one after the other, the machine working continuously unless the action is cut off or controlled by a foot-lever or pedal. This machine is much quieter to work, and although the inner threads are too bulky to be quite satisfactory, this is not a serious matter like the cutting of the upper and lower edges of the back already described, and, moreover, is probably capable of being either improved away or so minimized that it will become of small importance.
The Martini book-sewing machine, which sews books on tape without cutting up head or tail—a most important improvement—and also forms complete Kettle stitches, will sew books of any size up to 18 in. The needles are straight, and the necessary adjustments for various sizes of books are very simple.
The machine for rounding and backing sewn books requires a rather elaborate and very careful setting of several parts to the exact requirement of each size to be worked. The sewn book with the back glued is caught in a clip and forced between two tight rollers, the result being that the hitherto Rounding and backing.flat back is automatically turned into a rounded shape (figs. 10 and 11). The book is then drawn forward, by a continuance
