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by Joseph W. Zaehnsdorf
Published in London 1897
delight in destroying the appearance of every pamphlet and book that comes into their hands, by trimming or
ploughing its edges to the quick (and almost always crookedly), I beg you to insert this appeal to the monsters
crookedly), I beg you to insert this appeal to the monsters I have named, to desist from their barbarous practices, to
learn to reverence the margin of a book, and never to take from it a hair’s breadth more than is absolutely needful.
The brutality with which the fair margins of one’s loved volumes are treated by these mangling wretches with their
volumes are treated by these mangling with their awful plough knives is shocking to behold. The curses of book
lovers are daily heaped on their backs, but they go on running-a-muc, heedless of remonstrance, remorseless, ever
sacrificing fresh victims. Had we a paternal government, one might hope for due punishment of some of these
offenders: one at least might be ploughed up the back, another up the front, as an example and a terror to the
trade; but as this wholesome correction cannot unhappily be administered, will you give expression to the
indignation of one amongst a million sufferers for years from these trimmers’ savageries, and let them know what
feelings their reckless cruelty awakens in many breasts? One of the largest houses in London has just sent me home
fifty copies of an essay, intended as a present for a friend. They have been trimmed, and been ruined. Would that I
could have the trimming of their trimmer’s hair and ears; also his nose! I don’t think his best friend would know him
when I had done with him.
“But, Sir, we live in a philanthropic age, and are bound to forgive our enemies and try reform the worst criminals. I
therefore propose a practical measure to win these book trimmers from their enormities; namely, that fifty at least of
your readers, who care for book margins, should subscribe a guinea each for a challenge cup, to be competed for
yearly, and held by that firm which, on producing copies of all books and pamphlets trimmed by it during the year,
shall be adjudged to have disfigured them least. I ask you, Sir, if you will receive subscriptions for this challenge cup?
If you will, I shall be glad to send you mine.
“M. A. “P.S. – Any one who will cut out this letter, and get it pasted up in any binder’s or printer’s trimming room, will
confer a favor on the writer.”
A very good trimming machine has been invented by Messrs. Richmond and Co., of Kirby Street, Hatton Garden. The
bed rises and falls, with the books upon it, instead of the knife descending upon the work, as in the cutting
machines; and the gauges are son arranged, that the foredge of one pile of books, and the tails of another, can be
cut at one operations, and it is guaranteed by the makers that the knife will leave a clean and perfectly trimmed
edge.
Gluing Up
The book must now be glued up; that is, glue must be applied to the back hold the sections together, and make the
back firm during the rounding and backing. Knock the book perfectly true at its back and head, and put it into the
lying press between two pieces of old mill-board; expose the back and let it project form the boards a little, the
object being to hold the book firm and to keep the slips close to the sides, so that no glue shall get on them; when
with flue, not too thick, but hot, glue the back , rubbing it in with the brush, and take the overplus off again the
brush. In some shops, a handful of shavings is used to rub the glue in, and to take the refuse away, but I consider
this to be a bad plan, as a great quantity of glue is wasted.
The Germans rub the glue into the back with the back of a hammer, and take away the overplus with the brush; this
is certainly better than using shavings. The back must not be allowed to get too dry before it is rounded, or it will
have to be damped with a sponge, to give to the glue the elasticity required, but it should not be wet, this being
worse than letting it get too dry. The book should be left for about an hour, or till it no longer feels tacky to the
tough, but still retains its flexibility. A flexible bound book should first be rounded, a backing board being used to
bring the sheets round instead of a hammer, then the back glued, and a piece of tape tied round the book to
prevent its going back flat.
But all books are not glued up in the press; some workmen knock up a umber of books, and, allowing them to project
a little over their press, glue the lot up at once; others again, by holding the book in the left hand and drawing the
brush up and down the back. These last methods are, however, only practiced in cloth shops, where books are
bound or cased at very low prices. The proper way, as I have explained, is to put the book in the lying press. The
book is ten laid on its side to dry, and if more than one, they should be laid alternately back and foredge, with the
back projecting about half an inch, and allowed to dry spontaneously, and on no account to be dried by the heat of a
fire. All artificial heat in drying in any process of bookbinding is injurious to the work.
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