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VIEW OF ONE OF THE SALESROOMS OF LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO, & CO.

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PACKING-ROOM AND COUNTING. HOUSE OF LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO, & CO.

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A DAY AT THE BOOKBINDERY OF LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO, & Co.

HAVING given our readers, in our last article, an insight into the mechanical operation required to set the types and print the sheets of a book, we this month take them to one of the largest publishing houses in the country, that they may know something of the manner in which books are bound and circulated through the Union. We are enabled to do this through the courtesy of Messrs. Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., who allowed us the privilege of examining their extensive range of rooms, a general

idea of the labor performed in which we shall endeavor to give in the following pages.

When we received the consent of the senior partner of the firm for this privilege, we expected to see much that would surprise us, but were not prepared to find so vast an amount of business performed, or capital invested. We were completely lost in astonishment, as we passed through room after room peopled with workmen engaged in the various branches to which the rooms were devoted. It was our intention, at first, to give a description of bookbinding only, but were so struck with the extent of labor employed in the establishment, that we have

concluded, so far as we are able, to make our readers acquainted with the general machinery of a large publishing house, hoping it may prove as interesting to them as it was to us. We will first describe the

BOOKBINDING DEPARTMENT.

After the sheets are finished in the drying-room, as described in our last, and are pressed, they are sent in bundles to the bindery, where they are opened and given out to the girls employed to fold them..

When the whole of the impression has been folded, each sheet is laid out in a row, in piles of one hundred. The folder then takes one from the top of each pile, and, placing them together, they form the printed matter of a book. The copies thus collected are knocked evenly together, and put into a hydraulic press, between steel boards, in rows of two deep, and as many along-side of each other as the boards will hold, for the purpose of compressing them into a compact form. If the work be

placed between two tinned iron plates, are passed through the rollers. This method not only renders the paper smoother than by hammer-beating, but the compression of the book is one-sixth greater, a very desirable object, inasmuch as the book-shelves will contain nearly one-sixth more books. These superior effects are also produced by the rollers in one-twentieth of the time required by the hammer. This method is now adopted for books that have been printed some time, in which the ink is properly set, and also for books that require rebinding.

After pressing, rolling, or hammering, each book is collated, to see that all the signatures run properly, and the plates. if any, are inserted in their proper places. The waste leaves are added at the beginning and end; the back and head are then knocked up square, and one side of the book is placed on a pressing-board of the size of the book itself, and another similar board is laid on the upper side of the book, taking care to let the back of the. sheets project about half an inch between the two boards. The workman then grasps the boards firmly between the thumb and fingers of the left hand, and lowers them into the cutting-press, which consists of two strong wooden cheeks c c, connected by two slide bars b b, and two wooden screws 8 8. The use of the two guides on one of the cheeks will

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FOLDING.

PINCKLEY

newly printed, care must be taken not to allow it to set off, as the fresh ink has a tendency to make an impression on the opposite page, as was generally the case with new books when compressed by the old method, which was to beat them on a large smooth stone with a cast-iron bell-shaped hammer weighing twelve or fourteen pounds. This required some skill so as to compress or condense the sheets without marking them with the edge of the hammer, and to give the paper a smooth polished surface. This process was very much improved some years ago by a rolling-press, consisting of two iron cylinders, mounted and set in the usual way at any required distance apart. A number of sheets, varying from six to fourteen, according to the size, being

CUTTING-PRESS.

be explained hereafter; but it may be remarked that when these guides are not wanted, the press is turned completely over, so that these guides may be at the bottom, and out of the way. When the sheets are lowered between the cheeks cc, the press is screwed up tight by working an iron bar in the heads of the screws. The man then passes a tenon saw across the back of the sheets, so as to make a number of grooves, according to the size of the book, for the reception of the cords or bands for holding the threads in the sewing, and also for securing the boards which are to form the side covers. The number of bands depends upon the style of binding or method of finishing the book; boarded books, or books bound in cloth, have only two bands. But in the better descriptions of binding, 32mos. sometimes have three bands; 18mos., 12mos., 8vos., and two-leaf 4tos., have four bands; royal octavos and whole sheet 4tos., five bands; and folios from five to seven bands. In addition to these grooves for the bands, a groove is also formed at each end for the catch or kettle stitch. Suppos

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