Fig. 14-Collating.
To collate a book it is taken in both hands. Taking a good hold of it by the right hand at the top edge, it is lightly held by the left at the bottom towards the back. Now make a turn downwards with the right so that the whole pack of sheets springs upwards and spreads out at the back like a fan, and the controlling left hand lets them go one at a time, whilst checking the sequence of the signatures, that is to say, the sheets must be checked to see whether instead of the right signatures following in due order there is not a second signature or perhaps none at all. In such a case the sheet must be taken out and re-folded.
It may be well to refer now to another more detailed branch of this work which is necessary for certain purposes. If books which have already been used or bound are sent for re-binding it would be very unsafe to rely upon the pages being in proper order, especially if they have been much torn and have to be mended. Very frequently the leaves of a section have been misplaced. In such cases the book is laid flat upon the table, the head lying to the top, and, beginning at the title, leaf by leaf is lifted with the point of a knife after the way some ignorant persons have of using a moistened finger. The knife point is not inserted under the leaf lying uppermost but is lightly placed at the top of the leaf near the page number and the leaf pushed up from the side so that the left index finger takes it as it separates from the succeeding leaf whilst the eye scans the page numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, &c. Also with other things that do not admit of any other method of collating, e.g., ledgers, documents, &c., this is the only possible way of doing it.
Nowadays, paper received in the printery has been so well calendered beforehand-that is to say, polished between rollers-and after printing the sheets are once more so well rolled that the gathered sheets may at once be prepared for sewing. Old paper, however, must be beaten or rolled to make it firm and solid. The former work will be completely forgotten at no very distant date, as the younger generation of masters and men show less and less inclination to learn it. For beating, a stone about the height of a low table, and a surface about the size of a sheet may be used, or a cast-iron plate about 6 cm. in thickness embedded in a block of wood the same height as the stone. Upon this firm base-which, of course, must stand on the ground floor or in the cellar-the book, or section of it if too thick, is beaten with a short-handled iron hammer, the face of which measures about 100 sq. cm. All corners and edges are well rounded off, and the face is slightly convex. The handle must be short, not above 12 cm. long, cut oval, and just thick enough to be well grasped. The hole in the hammer is made so that the handle drops a little at the (outer) end.
In beating, the sections should be held by the left hand after being knocked up. In order to prevent injury to the paper, the sections are placed between pieces of waste paper of same size, also a mill-board or piece of waste paper to size is laid upon the beating stone. The right hand wields the hammer, which must strike the sections (or book) fairly and squarely with the full face. The beating is begun at the edge, and blow after blow is given in gradually lessening circles until the centre is reached, the left hand, of course, keeping up the necessary motion of the sections. It requires considerable practice to do this without shifting the sections, but if this happens they must again be knocked up.
The experienced workman knows by the touch where the book has been beaten much or little and works accordingly. The main thing in this, as in all other work, is that the book should be again pressed for some time-for a night at the least. The beaten volumes are divided into several lots or sections about a finger thick, and pressing-boards placed between them. If any sections show folds or creases even after pressing, they must be once more beaten and pressed.
Fig. 15-Rolling machine. The work of beating, as already said, has been almost entirely superseded by the rolling machine. In treatises by theorists, one finds over and over again that books are not so well bound nowadays owing to the "practice of hand-beating being discontinued." This opinion is absurd, and arises from a very superficial technical knowledge and wholly imperfect acquaintance with the requirements of our craft. A machine-rolled or unbeaten book is always much better than one imperfectly beaten, for here nothing is demanded but sheer force, and that is always exercised with better results by a machine. As already pointed out, our modern printed books do not require any such work; besides, the so-called surface papers and printed illustrations prohibit both beating and rolling, as such work would destroy the high surface of the paper. Old books, on the contrary, where the paper is unsized, spongy, and swollen, require some such work, as pressing alone, even for days, has not the required effect.
In beating, the work should be divided into sections or lots of 15 to 20 sheets; they need not be counted, they are measured by the eye. For rolling, however, the sheets must be counted off exactly, from 8 to 12; they are knocked up and placed between zinc plates of same size and passed through the rollers obliquely, the upper back corner being first inserted. It is well to introduce the second lot before the first has quite passed through the rollers; this not only saves the rollers but avoids the extra pressure on the lower corner when a section leaves the rollers. For this reason it is advisable to insert the lots right and left alternately. The first lot rolled should be examined to test the amount of pressure, and at first a lighter pressure should be applied to avoid risk of injury.
We have now come to the end of the processes through which a book has to pass before it is actually made up into book form. Before we take up this work there is incidental work to be mentioned which comes before the work of binding proper. This is the stitching and treatment of stitched or bound books for binding and the necessary repairs thereto.
The stitched or brochured book is no true book form; it is nothing more than the gathered sheets of a work in a temporary form, handier and more convenient, and therefore more saleable.
To prevent leaves from falling out in the event of their being cut open, they are lightly stitched together-holländert.
How did the name originate? It is difficult to say. Perhaps books stitched in this manner were first brought out in Holland.
With this method of sewing, the sheet only gets one short thread in the middle; but as the sewing of each sheet separately would entail a considerable loss of time, that old contrivance of the bookbinder for most kinds of sewing work, the sewing frame, is here made use of. A base or bed has on each front corner a perpendicular screw, upon which is placed a movable cross-bar with a slit. This bar is regulated by two screws; lay cords are fastened to hooks which are slipped through the slits, the other ends being knotted to metal keys fixed under the base. A narrow movable bar, bevelled to the front of the bed, holds these keys when the lay cords are tightened.
Fig. 16-Sewing frame. There are no lay cords on the sewing frame for the work of Holländering as in other kinds of sewing, but two strips of zinc plate about 1 to 1-1/2 cm. in width are fastened so that at the top they are attached to the hooks and at the bottom are held with a pin. The lot to be sewn is placed rather slant-wise on the bed of the frame to the left, the back turned outwards, the head to the sewer, all sheets, therefore, facing away from the worker.
Fig. 17-Arrangement on the sewing frame.
The left hand takes the upper sheet with thumb and middle finger, so that the forefinger at once falls in the middle of the sheet, turning the sheet so that the head A lies to the left and face upwards as shown in the illustration; zinc strips are stretched at the points x. The left hand is introduced into the opened sheets from behind to take the needle when pushed in and then to draw it out again; the right hand inserts the needle from outside, and also draws out the needle inserted from inside by the left hand.
All kinds of sewing on the sewing frame are divided between both hands in the same way.
The threaded needle is now introduced into the sheets to the right of the right strip at the back fold and again brought out to the right of the left strip, the sheets being meanwhile held open by the left hand. The thread is drawn out, except for a short end, the second sheet taken and laid open, and the needle is now introduced to the left of the left strip and brought out to the left of the right strip; and so on, each time introducing the needle from the right side to the right of the strip and from the left side to the left of the strip, drawing out accordingly. The thread is only to be seen on the outside of the strips.
The so-called English darning-needle-a long needle with a long eye-is used by the bookbinder. A special thread is made on purpose, the highest number being used for holländering.
When the sewing frame is packed so full that the sheets can no longer be kept properly squared, a sharp knife is taken and the threads cut off along the metal strips, and the sheets are then removed from the sewing frame. Every sheet is now independent of the other, and has a thread in the middle, of which a little may be seen at each needle-hole. These ends are afterwards pasted up in the work...
