Book Binding, the art by which the material parts of a book are connected for convenience in use and protection from injury. Its antiquity is coeval with the art of composing books, for from whatever materials ancient books were made - wood, slate, horn, plates of lead or copper, the leaves or bark of trees - the necessity arose of uniting the several parts together for more ready reference as well as their better preservation. The art probably first consisted in fastening together sheets of wood or metal by means of hinges. Afterward, when the more pliable substances papyrus and parchment were substituted, the sheets were fastened together at the edges and fixed at one end to a scroll round which they were rolled. The bookbinder then as now prepared the volume, made the staff, affixed the bosses and the title, and embellished the outside as his own or his patron's taste might suggest. Dibdin, on the authority of Trotzius, an ancient scribe, asserts that Phillatius was the discoverer of a substance for making the sheets adhere together, and that the Athenians erected a statue in his honor.

He also says, on the authority of Vos-sius, that King Attalus of Pergamus first ordered the squaring of books, and that this gave rise to the folding into twos and fours, or folios and quartos; and after the folding, gathering, and glueing of the book, covers of board, vellum, or leather naturally followed. - Bookbinding involves considerable mechanical skill and knowledge of decorative art; for from its commencement it has gone beyond the mere necessities of utility, often to heights of notable extravagance. In respect of expense the limits have never been defined, ostentatious display having at times superseded the binder proper by the goldsmith and lapidary. Thus St. Jerome exclaims: " Your books are covered with precious stones, and Christ died naked before the gate of his temple." Jewels and precious metals, the finest stuffs and the most gorgeous colors, united to give a material value, frequently without any elegance of design or chasteness of taste. All great public collections show with pride some of these rare and venerable bindings, decorated with gold and inlaid with precious stones, cameos, or antique ivories.

The cathedral of Milan contains in its treasury the covering of a book of a date prior to the 12th century, 14 inches long and 12 inches wide, profusely covered with incrusted enamel, mounted and ornamented with polished but uncut precious stones of various colors. Skelton's description, though purely fanciful, will convey an idea of what was in his time acceptable as the perfection of book decoration:

With that of the boke losende were the claspis:

The margent was illumynid all with golden railles And byse, enpicturid with gressoppes and waspis,

With butterfly is and fresshe pecoke taylis,

Enflorid with flowris and slymy snaylis; Enuyuid picturis well towchid and quikly; It wolde haue made a man hole that had be ryght sekely, To beholde how it was garnyschyd and bounde,

Encouorde ouer with golde of tisseu fyne; The claspis and bullyons were worth a thousande pounde;

With balassis and charbuncles the borders did shyno;

With aurum mmicum every other lyne Was wrytin.

This mode of decoration, however, was the work of goldsmiths, enamellers, etc, and quite foreign to the bookbinder's art. In specimens of oriental binding^ brought home by the crusaders, European workmen found models for the dyeing, stamping, and gilding of leather, which did much to advance the art. A marked change in the character of binding and its decoration took place as books began to multiply by the invention of printing. To such patrons as Grolier, De Thou, and Maioli, of the sixteenth century, binders are indebted for those chaste and elegant designs which form their best examples at the present day. Since that period many styles have sprung into existence which have each their admirers, the Harleian, Montagu, Roxburghe, etc. In our own times bookbinding has wonderfully improved in style, design, and cheapness. France, England, and America have each characteristically contributed toward this improvement, while Germany, where printing was invented, has lagged behind. France has excelled in her taste and finish, England in solidity and strength without sacrifice of flexibility, and America by the invention and use of machinery vastly increasing the speed of production, a single bindery in New York being capable of producing 10,000 bound books a day. - The introduction of cloth binding is an important feature in the progress of the art.

The number of modern publications and the extent of the editions necessitated a style both economical and rapid in its production. To Mr. Pickering, the London publisher, and Mr. Leighton, the binder, belongs the credit of its introduction about 40 years ago. The paper label was its first and only ornament, afterward the title in gold; but now it receives the most elaborate gilding, and of late years elegant and emblematic designs of ink and gold in combination are produced. This style has given rise to the greater part of the machinery used in bookbinding, and to the United States the credit of the invention of three fourths of it belongs. Sheep skin is extensively used, but morocco, russia leather, and calf form the covers of the more expensive binding. Occasionally velvet, ivory, and mother-of-pearl are used for Bibles and books intended for pre-santation. - There are two kinds of binding, a description of which will suffice to give a general idea of the mechanical processes through which a book passes after leaving the printer, before it is completed for sale. The lirst is cloth-case binding, the cheapest, and that in which machinery is most employed; the other is known as extra binding, the work on which is principally performed by hand.

Taking the volume in which this article appears as an example, we shall first describe the manner in which it is bound in cloth. Books derive a technical name descriptive of size from the leaves into which each printed sheet is folded, such as folio,' quarto, octavo, duodecimo, etc. At the foot of the first page of each sheet is a number or letter, called the signature, by which the order is designated. This volume is called a royal 8vo, being printed on paper a size larger than the ordinary 8vo, and is printed on nearly 50 sheets, each containing 8 leaves or 16 pages. These sheets go to the binder in quires, and are first taken to the sheet room, where the work of folding, gathering, collating, and sewing is done by females. The whole edition of each sheet is folded by one girl with astonishing rapidity and accuracy. The most expert will fold about 400 an hour, but the average is perhaps 300. Folding machines (see fig. 1) are now in general use capable of folding 10,000 or 12,000 sheets a day. After having been folded, the sheets are laid in piles, according to the order of the signatures, on the gathering table, from which they are taken one by one by the gatherer with the right hand, and then placed in the left, until a whole set is collected.

This process, as well as that of folding, is performed with wonderful quickness, the gathering of 25,000 sheets a day being not unusual for an active girl. After this the sheets are knocked up evenly and examined by the collator, who looks at each signature to insure that the volume is complete, each sheet being in its proper order without duplicates or deficiencies. Being found perfect, the book is pressed in a smashing machine, by which the delay of the screw or hydraulic press formerly employed is avoided. It now passes to the sawing machine, preparatory to sewing. Several volumes are taken together, and in an instant five revolving saws make as many cuts in the backs, of a size sufficient to admit the bands of twine to which the sheets are sewed. The sewer has a wooden frame, which consists of a table with two upright screws supporting a horizontal and adjustable rod, to which three strong bands fastened on the table are attached, at distances corresponding to the three inner saw marks. She then places the first sheet against the bands and passes her needle from the first cut or kettle stitch to the inside of the sheet, then out and in at every band, embracing each with the thread until the bottom is reached, then sews the next sheet in the same manner but in an opposite direction, and so on alternating until the last.

Within the last year (1872) book-sewing machines (see fig. 2) have been successfully introduced in America, which effect an average saving of one half the cost of hand sewing, and are simple and perfect in their operation. Henry G. Thompson of Connecticut is the patentee. End papers are now pasted on the book, which then leaves the sheet room, where about 1,000 are so prepared in a day. In the forwarding room, which it enters next, its further progress is effected mainly by the aid of machinery. It is first prepared for the cutting machine, and, after its fore edge has been cut, is glued and rounded by the workman, then returns to be cut on the ends, after which a piece of muslin is pasted over the back nearly as long as the book, but extending about an inch over its sides to give strength to the joints. A backing machine then spreads the back and forms a groove for the boards; two paper linings are now glued to the back, and the book is ready for its cover, which has in the mean time been prepared in another department. The case or cover is simply and expeditiously made, and is composed of mill boards cut a little larger than the size of the book, strips of paper the exact length and width of the back, and the cloth cut sufficiently large to turn over all.

The cloth is glued, and one board placed upon it, then the paper at a short distance to allow for the joint, then the other board, after which the corners of the cloth are cut, the edges turned over, and it is rubbed smoothly down. When dry, it is* given to the stamper, who letters it in gold and embosses the sides. The letters are engraved on a metal stamp, and the impression is made in an embossing press, heated by steam. Gold leaf is laid on the cover, and the heated stamp causes it to adhere where desired, the unused gold being afterward wiped off with a rubber. Then the book is pasted on the sides, placed in the cover, and pressed till dry. This completes the process of case binding, which is distinguished more particularly from extra binding in having the book forwarded separate from its cover; and it may be useful to learn that some bookbinders pursue the same plan with morocco as with cloth, producing inferior work, not readily detected by the purchaser until after the volume has been some time in use. - Morocco or other extra binding will now be described. Though folded and gathered the same as the cloth copy, greater care is taken in pressing, and it is sewed in a different manner.

The back is not sawed, but the bands, to the number of five in this volume, have their positions indicated by pencil marks. Instead of passing the needle out at the upper and in at the lower side, merely drawing them to the book, it is passed out at the lower and in at the upper, completely encircling the band, and forming a flexible hinge for the sheet. This is called flexible or raised band sewing, and constitutes one of the distinguishing features of strong binding, being not only important but indispensable. The forwarder now receives the volume, pastes on and breaks up the end papers, glues the back, and when dry rounds it; after which the backing boards are placed on the sides a short distance from the back, and it is then screwed up in the laying press, and the back hammered very carefully, so as to spread the sheets on each side of the backing boards, at the same time not wrinkling the inside. By this process grooves are formed for the mill boards, which, being cut of the desired size, are placed on the sides, and the book is subjected to a powerful pressure, during* which the refuse glue is soaked off with paste, and the back is rubbed smooth and left to harden. It is now in shape, but with all the leaves uncut.

No new machine has yet been made to supersede the old press and plough for cutting a book "in boards." The mill boards are put close in the joints and even with the head of the book, the front board placed as much below the head as may be desired; the book is fixed tightly in the press, the head of the front board being on a level with it, and the head is cut; the same operation is repeated for the foot or tail, the boards being left larger than the book in order to overlay and protect the edges. The fore edge is formed differently. A cord is wound tightly round the volume parallel with and close to the back, which is then beaten flat, and the fore edge cut straight; and upon the release of the book from the cord by which it is bound, the back resumes its round, and the fore edge becomes grooved. The edges are now gilded, for which purpose, the books being pressed, they are scraped smooth, and covered with a preparation of red chalk as a groundwork for the size, a mixture of the white of egg and water, in the proportion of one egg to about half a pint of water. The gold is laid on the size, allowed to dry, and then burnished with an agate or bloodstone.

Before being covered, head bands of silk are fixed to each end of the back, projecting a little beyond the sheets, and making the back the same length as the boards. The boards are bevelled at the edges, by means of a machine which grinds them with emery dust. The cover, pared thin, is now pasted on and drawn tightly over, but is afterward taken off for convenience in turning in the edges. The back, which has no lining, is well pasted, the cover drawn on again, the bands well nipped up, and great care is taken to make the leather adhere firmly to the back, and to set the boards closely and well forward in the joints. A book thus sewed and covered possesses the primary essentials of strong binding. The ornamenting or finishing is much a master of taste within certain limits. The process by which decorative impressions are made on the outside of a book is called tooling, and when gold is not used blind tooling. A beautiful effect is produced on morocco by the latter, making those glossy black indentations which so tastefully contrast with the rich color of the leather. For this purpose the tools or stamps are heated and applied repeatedly to the morocco, which has been made thoroughly wet.

End papers being neatly pasted to the boards, the book is finished. - The foregoing will serve to point out the several processes through which the sheets pass before the book is completed, as well as to exhibit the distinguishing characteristics of the two principal styles of binding. The hollow or spring back, which is in much favor, and adapted in a superior degree to books in calf, is yet subject to rupture, and demands the binder's best attention. By securing the back always with muslin instead of paper, its strength will be greatly increased. India-rubber binding, by which the leaves are fastened together with a cement of caoutchouc, though admirably adapted for allowing engravings to be opened to their full extent, is a failure for want of strength.

Fig. 1. - Folding Machine.

Fig. 2. - Book-Sewing Machine.