Evening star., 1912-09-01
THE GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

the assembled book The capacity Of
minute.
II the books are thick they are taken
to machines and run through. signature
by signature, ard stitched together. and
sometimes even strips OF cloth are added
to the stitching. A girl at tho back OF
the machine stands ready to cut each
book apart as II comes out After this
the books are taken to trimming ma
chine. The more modern OF these ma
chimes are circular. having four points Of
gives a quarter turn, the knives descend,
and as the top and bottom Of one book
are trimmed the sides Of another are
trimmed simultaneously. From 5000 to
10000 books are sewed on>a single ma
chine day. while the capacity OF the
trimming machines is about the same.
The book Is now ready for the bindery
The first step in binding q book Is plac-
ing 1t in q machine which gives 1t curved
sides. From here It usually goes to a
and lining machine. At this machine the
small bit Of cloth found at the top and
bottom on tho back Of book Is ap-
piled and the back otherwise made ready
for the final stage-the placing OF the
cloth or leather cover on It
single machine makes the cloth COW
ers for books cardboard, cloth and glue
entering in their ordinary states and is
suing completed cover. with rounded
back. well turned covds and all
on the books. and they are then ready
to go to the lettering machines. Gold
leaf and platinum are used In lettering
books, and the greatest caro- possible Is
taken in order not to waste any OF the
precious metal.
The wide range Of the books and
pamphlets produced at the printing Office
makes the method Of their production
equally as varied. Consequently while the
foregoing Is the process by which books
are produced. still other processes are
used. each necessary to produce some
class Of work.
In the case OF paper-bound books they
are sent to the finishing machine directly
stitched or stapled together This ma
chine picks up book and q cover at the
same time. applies paste to the back Of
the book. slides the cover into place and
then presses the back down firmly and the
sides into position. Several thousand
books are thus finished every hour.
Still other publications must have their
sides marbled. This process occurs just
after the assembled sigma
Marbllng lures hav- been trimmed. In
r5,.. such books the sides are
e'' marbled, as we'll as the in
side page Of the front and back These
inside pages. however, are purchased
ready for use and have simply to be in
serted IN the book when it is bound. The
work before the "marbler'' is to match
the inside sheet. For this purpose a
large. shallow trough is used which con-
tains a gumlike substance On the top
Of this is sprinkled water-color paint, red
blue and yellow being the colors used
Then. by the use of set Of comblike ar
rangements, the colOrs are brought To-
gether in design similar to that of the
sheet just inside the cover. The book is
then held tightly and dipped into the
paint. The gum holds the paint up. while
in pressing the book down the colors are
forced upon the book. The marbled books
are then set aside to dry. The designs
possible In marbling are fmitless. al
though comparatively few are standard.
Aside from printing department publi-
cations. blank books and blank forms are
also printed by the hundred thousand.
In printing these the numbers have to
be put on by a separate machine, while
another adds the ruling.
Only by figures can the real magnitude
of the work of this Office be fully grasp
ed. For instance. during 1911 Il. .419 416
square inches OF work were produced in
the foundry. while the number of forms
sent to press was 171,41O. There were
81. 533, 1888 signatures gathered by ma
chine: and 76. 1926 signatures were
folded; 23, 4O9.41O copies were wire-stitch-
ed; 25.2O6.6G7 sheets Of paper were ruled:
81. Ola. .9S8 signatures were stitched: 1.90O,-
421 tablets were made: 19. 2d5. 100 cards and
sheets were punched and drilled, and
2,014,5 ,514 cases were made.
X X
AS to the production OF books. ETC..
the figures are even greater in some in
stances. There were $685.
Stationery $50 letterheads, noteheads
n. and envelopes printed in
1ou"e'' 1911; while the number of
these articles embossed reached 1864
554: SO4,1O7.525 blanks, notices, sched-
ules and cards were printed: 10. 121 blank
books with patent backs, and 1O5, ,939
without the patent backs OF the publi-
cations. there were 6674,579 Of these
smaller than octave, while OF the octave
publications there were A, 764. sol: 1.6O1,-
115 Of the royal octave. and 3,679.156
quarto publications. The miscellaneous
amounted to 1,74S367.
Another insight into the real magni-
tude Of the office can be obtained from q
glance at an itemized account of the
various important things used in the
production of department work. The
paper used each year costs about $287. 600.
while the amount reaches thousands of
tons. The leather represents about
$4,000. with the gold leaf costing sim
liar amount and the cloth used In binding
about $4,000. Then there is the item
of glue and paste. This is Of such i'm
portance that a room with special ma
chinery Is set aside for its preparation.
The number Of barrels Of -four used in a
year is about 175. while $1,000 pounds
of animal glue are necessary. Each time
a batch of paste is made an entire barrel
of flour Is used which. when finished
makes five large buckets Of paste. weigh
ing 1876 pounds. Eighty pounds OF glue
are made up each time
AS for the other items; 10000 pounds
of pigiron; 10000 pounds Of tin and the
copper battery plates, 5000 pounds OF
cast iron filings. 25.OOO skins for leathtr
bindings. 5000 rolls Of book cloth, each
roll containing thirty eight yards: 10000
pounds Of binders board and 10000
pounds Of straw board, $1,000 yards OF
buckram. and 125OOO yards Of cotton
The amount OF gold leaf used is about
1.SOO packs. There are twenty books to
a pack, and twenty-five sheets to book,
each sheet being three and three-eashths
used in rolls. Of which there are 1900
used annually. Each RON is from SIX to
seven feet long. and varies In width from
one-fourth to two and one-haR inches.
The list OF items might be stretched
out almost indefinitely. inasmuch as
there are some 10000 in all. each neces-
sary to some process in the production
Of books and publications. and each OF
which must be kept track Of in order
that the supply may not run out. Be-
roll amounting to more than $4. 100000. or
about $4,000 a day: hundreds of ma