pull it down upon the frisket, by which it is carried to the form. The impression is given by a kneejoint from below. The sheet is then lifted, or rather blown by a bellows, upon a series of "endless tapes," from which it is taken by the "fly," a light frame turning upon an axle, which whirls the sheets over, and lays them in a regular pile at the end of the press opposite the one where they received the impression. Meanwhile the press has been "distributing" the ink. The distributing apparatus is quite complicated; the result of the operations being that the ink is spread evenly, and in just the desired quantity over a large distributing roller, from which it is taken up by the inking-rollers, which transfer it to the type-plates. An Adams press will print about 6000 sheets a day. There is also another room just opposite, containing ten Adams and four job presses.

To print fine engravings properly requires a

form and the platen, the force of the impression is increased where the overlays have been put, and diminished where there has been any cutting away. A proof impression is taken from time to time, so that the operator can judge of the effect, and see where more or less pressure is wanting. To make ready a sheet with many engravings may require the labor of two men for several days. For the cylinder presses, cutting-out; for platen presses, overlaying is mainly used.

IV. The Drying and Pressing Room.

When the sheets leave the press, they are damp and rough from the indentations made upon them by the type. They are then taken to the third floor, to be dried and pressed smooth. One method is, to hang the sheets loosely upon racks, which are then pushed into a close room heated by steam

process called "making ready." The beauty of a sheet of type-matter depends upon its having a uniform color throughout. If the ink has been properly distributed, an equal pressure on every part will produce a uniform color. But to give the proper effect to an engraving, some parts must be blacker than others; that is, they must be made to take up more ink, and, in order that they may do this, the pressure on these parts must be greater than on the others. An impression is taken on a sheet of thick paper or card-board. The engravings will appear poor and indistinct; the parts which should be light are too dark; those which should be dark are too light. The sheet is pasted upon the tympan; the operator slightly scrapes away the places which should be lightened, and pastes on thin bits of paper where the impression is to be darkened; sometimes putting on several thicknesses, often not larger than one's finger-nail. As the tympan, in printing, comes between the

pipes, where they are dried in about three hours. They are then made into large piles, consisting alternately of a sheet of paper and one of hard smooth pasteboard, and submitted to the enormous force of the hydraulic press (Fig. 14), of which ten stand side by side at one end of the room. They are very massive in construction, each of them, when filled, weighing about five tons; so that upon a space of 4 feet by 40 there is a dead weight of nearly sixty tons. These presses rest upon a solid wall built up from the foundation of the building. They are worked by a steam-pump; and without here going into an explanation of their construction, we may state that a strictly mathematical calculation shows that, as ordinarily worked, each press exerts a pressure of 1,382,400 pounds upon a surface four feet square. This pressure may be increased, by putting additional weight upon the escape-valve, to an amount limited only by the tenacity of the iron of which the presses are com

posed. They have more than once worked so as to break the wrought-iron connecting-rods, as thick as a man's leg, or to fracture the bed-plate of solid cast iron 12 inches thick. Under such a pressure all indentations in the paper, of course, disappear. But this method of drying and pressing is being superseded by the "drying and pressing machine," of which there are now several in this room. This resembles a long table, with a square box in the centre, which contains the machinery. A sheet of paper, damp and rough from the press, is fed by a boy into one end of this machine, and in two or three seconds it comes out at the other end not only dry, but having a smoothly polished surface. It has simply passed between a pair of hollow rollers of polished steel, heated by steam introduced into them. By an ingenious combination of cylindrical wipers, these rollers are kept polished and clean of the ink which may have been set off upon them from the sheets in passing through.

In this room are also several folding - machines, used for the Weekly and Bazar. A more complicated form of this machine may be seen in the room which will be next visited.

V. The Folding-Room.

The sheets, having been dried and pressed, are taken to the next floor, where they are folded and collated. Here properly commence the operations of binding, although the term "bindery" is generally restricted to mean the floor where the covers are made and placed upon the books. As the terms are now used, if a sheet, no matter of what size, is

folded into two leaves, or four pages, it is called a "folio;" if into four leaves, or eight pages, a "quarto" (or 4to); if into eight leaves, or sixteen pages, an "octavo" (or 8vo); if into twelve leaves, or twenty-four pages, a duodecimo" (or 12mo). A folio is folded once, a quarto twice, an octavo three times. In folding a duodecimo, eight pages, called the "in-set," are cut off from one end of the sheet, folded separately, and set in the middle of the remaining sixteen pages, styled the "out-set," which has already been folded as an octavo. It will, of course, be understood that the printed pages have been so arranged that when the sheet is folded they will follow each other in regular order. To facilitate the work in many ways the first page of every sheet has at its bottom a "signature." Sometimes the letters of the alphabet are used, sometimes the numerals. Thus an A or 1 denotes that this is the first page of the first regular sheet; B or 2 that it is the first of the second sheet, and so on. The inset of a duodecimo has the same signature as the out-set, with the addition of some other character; thus A* or 1* on page 9, denotes that this is the first page of the in-set of the first sheet; B* or 2*, on page 33, that this is the in-set of the second sheet, and so on.

Until within something more than twenty years folding was done wholly by hand, and the folders, usually women, acquired great accuracy and rapidity. No inconsiderable part of the work is still done in this way; but for large editions the folding-machine (Fig. 15) is generally used. This consists of a low table, of which the top is divided in the middle. In the illustration this division is

of the staple on the other side, thus forming a clamp which holds the sheets tightly together. Three of these clamps are generally inserted, the whole operation being performed in a little less than four seconds.

The covering-machine stands about three feet high, and is of this shape,, the shorter arm being some three feet long, and the longer one ten feet. At one end the operator feeds in the paper covers,

FIG. 15.-Folding-Machine.

already printed. A wheel, the periphery of which revolves in a little glue- tank, applies a line of glue to the inside of that part of the cover which is to form the back, and the cover is sent on to meet the sheets, already stitched or wired together. A long row of these, resting upright on their backs, have been placed at the other end of the machine, which feeds itself from them. A pair of iron fingers seizes the volume by the back, flings it flat upon its side, and sends it on to meet the cover, which is at once fitted to it, and held fast by the glued back. The sheets, now clothed in their cover, pass by another route back to a point just below that from which they started; but on the journey they receive from other parts of the machine a series of pulls and squeezes which remind one of those of a modiste in fitting a dress to a lady's figure. The whole process of thus clothing the volume takes about three seconds.

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.

It is, however, only thin volumes which can be thus treated. Thicker volumes, which are to be bound," instead of being "stitched" or "wired," must be "sewed." By means of circular saws, three or more grooves are cut in the back of a pile of sheets, so that they will fit to the same number of cords stretched perpendicularly in a frame upon the sewing-table. The sewer takes a sheet, fits the grooves to the cords, and half-opens the folded sheet in the middle. A stout thread, its end having been fastened, is passed by a needle over and around the first cord, then along the inside of the fold to the second cord, over and around that, and along the fold to the last cord, where it is secured by a "hitch." Then a second sheet is laid on, and the sewing repeated in the opposite direction; and so on, back and forth, until a pile of sheets, as high as the sewer can conveniently reach as she sits, has been sewed to the cords. Such a pile may contain a dozen or more volumes, according to their thickThe cords are long enough to leave an inch or two at each end when the volumes are cut apart. These ends serve to aid in fastening the volume into its cover. This is done in the bindery, upon the next floor above.

ness.

VII. The Bindery.

The great majority of books are bound in cloth, or, as it is sometimes called, "muslin." This is manufactured in various patterns and colors. The web is cut in the bindery into pieces of the proper shape and size for a single cover, technically called a "case." The stout pasteboard is also cut into the proper sizes, usually by means of a machine having circular knives fixed at adjustable distances upon an axle. These cut the tough material much more accurately than can be done by ordinary shears. The cloth is then firmly pasted to the boards, leaving a space for the back. The "cases" are then to be lettered and ornamented in various ways; the lettering and some of the ornaments being usually embossed in gilt. This is done in the embossing-room of the bindery. The space which is to be gilt is rubbed over with the white of an egg, upon which gold-leaf is laid. This process is performed by women, the work being sheltered by a transparent screen, which shuts off any draught of air that would blow away the thin leaf. The

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I case "is taken to the embossing-press (Fig. 16), to the platen of which is fixed a die containing whatever ornaments and letters are to be presented. This die is kept hot by a current of steam passing through the platen. The case is placed upon the bed, which is raised by powerful machinery against the die, thus embossing the pattern. There are several of these presses, of different forms and sizes. The back and each side must be embossed separately. Wherever the heated die is pressed into it, the gold-leaf is firmly fixed; all the rest can be brushed off. This is done over a locked drawer having a perforated cover, through which the surplus gold falls. When a large number of cases have been brushed off, a half-peck of finely powdered gold is often found in the drawer. indeed lies very loosely, and, when melted into a bar, will occupy much less space; but the gold saved is worth many hundreds of dollars a year. The floor of this room is covered with smooth zinc, so that the sweepings, which always contain more or less gold, may not be lost. Sometimes the embossed lines not gilt are printed over with ink of various colors. This is done by a press constructed for that special purpose. The sewed sheets are then fastened into the cases, and after several "finishing" operations, the last being a thorough squeezing in a powerful press, the work is completed.

It

If the volume is to be bound in sheep, calf, or morocco, the process is entirely different after the sewing of the sheets. The covers, instead of being made in quantities, and in good part by machinery, are formed and ornamented separately by hand. This is done in the finishing-room of the bindery (Fig. 17). For the lettering on the back, type are fixed into a handle and impressed over a part of the surface previously covered with gold-leaf. The ornamental lines are usually engraved upon the periphery of a small wheel fixed in a handle. The wheel is first rolled over a strip of gold-leaf laid upon a cushion, and the leaf adheres to the tool. The tools are all kept hot by means of small gas furnaces. The gold not fixed by the heated tools is wiped off with an oiled cloth, which in a short time becomes saturated with gold, invisible to the eye. Such a greasy-looking cloth, half a yard square, which a rag-picker would scarcely think worth putting into his bag, may contain five or six dollars' worth of gold. It is sent to a refiner,

who abstracts the precious metal from its dingy meshes.

By

ovals, or rather parabolas. If the comb has also a motion from side to side, an entirely different effect is produced; and so on ad infinitum. When the marbler has produced a pattern which pleases him at the time, he lays a sheet of paper upon the surface of the tank. The colors are all taken up by the sheet, and adhere to it. Any small portion around the edges of the tank is swept off, and the process is repeated for each sheet. It takes about. two minutes to marble a sheet of paper which will be sufficient to cover eight octavo volumes. this apparently chance process patterns essentially the same can be reproduced any number of times. although no two sheets will be precisely alike; and the general style of color and pattern may be varied indefinitely, so as to suit all tastes. The paper when it leaves the hands of the marbler is very rough, and the colors are dingy-looking. To bring out their beauty, the sheets must be burnished. This is done by rubbing them with an agate burnisher, fixed in a machine made for the purpose. The edges of the volume are usually marbled to correspond with the sides. This is done before the covers are put on, by dipping the book into the tank. The leaves are pressed so closely together that the color only touches the edges, without penetrating between the leaves.

A "half-bound" book is one in which the back only is of leather, the sides being covered with cloth or paper. A favorite covering for the sides is "marbled" paper, which is prepared in this department (Fig. 18). A shallow tank is nearly filled with water in which gum has been dissolved. The different colors are ground in water. The marbler dips a brush into a pot, and with a peculiar flirt sprinkles the color over the tank. The drops of color spread themselves over the surface of the gum - water in irregular rounded forms, just as a drop of oil spreads upon water. In like manner he sprinkles, one by one, other colors, sometimes as many as a half-score, but more frequently only two or three. These colors do not mix. A drop of one falling upon another, merely crowds a place for itself, altering the shape of the other. Each color presents a series of forms bounded by curved lines. Thus, if a blue drop falls in the middle of a round patch of red, there will be a blue centre surrounded with a red ring. If the blue falls upon the edge of the red, there will be a blue circle cutting into the circumference of a red one; and so on through every possible range of curvilinear forms. The pattern is sometimes varied by drawing a long comb through the colors at any stage of the process. The teeth of the comb pull the colors into a series of

The process of manufacturing a book is completed in the bindery. From first to last, after the