Let us now consider the tools necessary for a small bookbinding plant.
The bookbinder's workshop may be fitted up in any spare room or weather tight outbuilding. It should always, if possible, be on the ground floor, because the operations of beating, pulling down the standing-press, and even cutting, cause considerable concussion to the walls and joists of the place.
The first fixed tool is the common screw “standing-press," which is similar to that used by packers, and in the making of cheese and cider. It usually consists of two heavy cheeks of wood, and a head and bed of the same, the whole forming a kind of parallelogram when put together. Through the head passes a brass box, in which revolves a long iron screw, with a tolerably fine thread, and from this screw depends a stout piece of wood called tee" platen," or sometimes the" follower."
The books are piled up between smooth beech boards, in the centre of the bed of the press, and the platen screwed down upon them, at first by the hands, then by the short iron press pin, and lastly by the long one, to which a couple (or more) men lend their force, one pulling and the other pushing. Sometimes a "purchase" is used; this is a strong post, planted in the ground at some distance from the left side of the press. Fixed on this are a cogged wheel, pinion, and handle, which turn a wooden cylinder, around which a chain can coil. The free end of the chain is provided with a hook, and, this being fixed to the end of the long press-pin, when at the right cheek of the press, the windlass handle is worked by one or two men, and as the chain is wound upon the barrel, the pin is necessarily brought over with more power than by muscular effort exerted directly. Standing-presses are also made wholly or partly of iron.
The screw of the press should always be kept well oiled, and, to preserve it from dust, it is well to make a paper cylindrical case a little bigger than the screw, and put over it. The iron ring shown above the press (Fig. 1) is intended to support this

pasteboard cap. The press should be firmly fixed by strong timbers braced to the walls and ceiling, in order to hold it quite firm, and resist the shocks of the pulling down. Each press should be supplied with a round piece of wood, about 18in. long, with which to screw it up and down when empty, and a short (4ft.) and a long (6ft.) iron press-pin, fitting the screw socket.
There are several modifications of the screw press, amongst which the "Athol" press (Fig. 2) possesses much merit, as, from the position of the lever; this press does not jar the premises when fixed so much as the ordinary one, and, moreover, requires no separate press-pin-the Isle of Man legs, seen on the right cheek, being used to pull it down.

Introduction Part 4