Aldis, M.A.
Cambridge: at the University Press 1916
it readily cuts through the spongy or brittle substance which
passes for paper. This is often aggravated by the use of a
barbarous machine for sewing, which slits every section right
through at top and bottom of the back in order to pass the
thread into the slot so formed, and the destruction of the
book is already begun at the weakest spot: everyone knows
how a much-used book goes at the bottom of the back, just
where it is (but ought not to be) held by the reader's thumb.
The illustrations, generally printed on shiny 'art' paper, are
nearly always inserted as separate plates by being pasted
on to an adjoining leaf. The consequence is that the book will
not open properly between the plate and the leaf to which it
is attached, and the plate soon comes away, dragging the
leaf with it; the other leaf of the pair having nothing to hold
important and expensive books of travel containing numerous plates and published within the last few years. Colour-
books have notoriously weak constitutions. Such books cannot be rebound satisfactorily. It is impossible to separate the
plates from the leaves without damaging the latter, and this necessitates the guarding of both leaves and plates, as well
as the mending of the back of the sections; the guards cause an awkward thickness in the back and make a most
uncomfortable volume, while the binder's bill may well raise a question as to whether the book is worth the cost. A
simple method, too seldom followed, of avoiding this defect, is to print the illustrations in pairs so that they may be sewn
in with the sheets.
With the advent of the three-colour process it has become common to print the title of a plate on a leaf of flimsy paper
facing it, instead of printing it on the plate itself. It is not easy to see a reason for this pretentious and inconvenient
custom: the flimsies easily get torn and lost, and the illustration becomes nameless. Another vicious practice is the use
of wire staples in place of sewing thread. In this method the sheets are fastened to the muslin by wire staples driven
through them and clinched at the back. The wire soon rusts and eats through the paper, allowing the leaves to fall out
of the book. Books are still occasionally 'bound' by the caoutchouc process: that is, the back of the volume is cut
smooth, coated with a solution of rubber, and stuck into the case. If those who adopt this process would examine books
treated in this way twenty or thirty years ago, they would find that the rubber has entirely perished, leaving the book a
bundle of detached leaves-but, apparently, some publishers never see books after they have left the warehouse.
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