Early Bookbinding 03
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Transcript of Early Bookbinding 03
EARLY BOOKBINDING
In the 1800's in New Zealand, Pompallier House in Russell was devoted to the production of books by hand. The printing press was still relatively new and all of the binding was done by hand.
Pompallier house
Here is a brief description of how it was done.
1. Printing
The books were typeset using metal type, each letter, symbol and space being assembled into lines which were then wedged into a support frame the size of a sheet of paper , ready for printing.
Picture 1: Metal type set for printing
These frames were then loaded into the printing press and once the paper was ready, the printing would be inked with pads or rollers.
Note that there are two pages printed at once side by side so that one leaf of paper printed on both sides has a total of four pages of text on it.
The press would then be used to press the paper onto the type once the table with both on top was rolled under the platen (the “pressing” part of the press).
Picture 2: The printing press
Now we come to 2. Binding.
2.1 Notching
First the leaves are collected in groups of about five or ten folded down the centre.These bundles are clamped together to have notches cut in their fold edges for the next step.
Diagram 1: The notches cut for threading
Picture 3: Wooden jig used for notching
2.2 Threading
These are loaded into a device that has vertical threads that line up with the notches in the folds and threads and needles are used to stitch them onto the verticals.
Picture 4: The threading jig
As each book is stitched together from a series of page bundles, a wooden divider is added and a new one started as can be seen in Picture 4 on the right.
When completed, the vertical threads are cut to make a series of book bodies, each with thread ends extending out. You can see the finished thing in Picture 6.
2.3 Trimming
The sets of pages are now clamped and trimmed in a device that gradually cuts through the stack of pages until all the edges are level.
Picture 5: The edge trimmer
This device is a clamp topped by a sliding carriage that has a knife blade that is gradually slid across the cut surface by a screw which is turned a little by hand each time the carriage is returned to it's starting point.
Picture 6: finished book bodies with covering material.
2.4 Spine Gluing
The bodies are now ready for covering. You can see the threads extending from the bodies in the picture. The original books were covered with hides tanned in the same building.
Picture 7: Body clamped ready for cover attachment.
The body is next clamped and the spine glued as shown in picture 7 so that the book curves outward and spreads at the spine end something like a mushroom. This is crucial to the design of the binding and is intended to relieve tension on the pages and fix the covers firmly while still permitting the book to open wide.
2.5 Covering
With the threads extended, the inside covers made of thick card can now be glued under the spread threads to ensure the book is strong. Note also the threads protruding out of the spine as ridges: these can be seen in the finished spine.
After this is dry, the outside cover is glued on over the inside cover embedding the threads between two sheets of card making the covers strongly attached and flat.
Next the outside covering is stuck down with an overlap area around it that is folded under and the covered book is clamped to keep the whole thing together as it dries.
Picture 8: the finished cover clamped for drying.
Above you can see that a thread is used to keep the covering on the spine clamped around the ridges of the book threads we saw previously. You can also see how the thread at the end makes an indentation at either end of the spine.
2.6 Fly leaves
Finally, two leaf sized pieces (“fly leaves”) are added, one inside each end of the book glued between the last and first pages and the inside of the cover assuring that the book is strongly joined together neatly concealing the inside cover overlaps.
Written, photographed and produced by Greg Zambo
(Prof_Null)
http://prof-null.livejournal.com/
email: [email protected]
Updated 19th February 2010