The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-15
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
EREDERIC ,. HASKIN. Director.
Washington. ID. q.
KEEPING BOOKS IN CONDITION.

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| old belief that leather is the only
book is now almost discounted. Ii
| braries no longer add regularly to
their rows of old volumes bound in
artistocratic red and brown leather.
Buckram, utilitarian and unromantic,
is supplanting morocco and calf
The Library of Congress, which
binds 10000 volummes year for its
own shelves, says that this is a natural
development of our large scale OF civil
! ization. When leather was prepared
by hand by European craftsmen II
was undoubtedly a material of great
lasting Qualities. But now factory
methods prevail, and leather is ef-
ficiently tanned with acids. This pro-
cess does not affect shoes, purses,
and other articles that are expected to
last only a few years at most. But
when it comes to a valuable book that
counts its lifetime by decades and
centuries, an acid-tanned leather Is
in for an endurance test that 1t can
not be expected to stand
This development has contributed
to the rise of buckraH. This material
is said to outlast the modern acid
tanned leather, and it is even con-
tended that il will wear longer than
the old hand prepared, acid free leath-
ers 1t will be some time before this
point is settled, because buckram has
been in use only about 25 years, and
a IlnG grace OF Ola leather mas DSGn
known to stand more than two CEN
turtles of wear.
For a few years. the Library of Con-
gress has been able to get acid free
leather for some of its valuable books.
Strangely enough, it is not the latest
magic of science which is making this
possible. The leather is obtained from
savages of Africa who prepare the
skins of the Niger goat by some crude
native process.
fS in, NJ nj
and heavy books. Buckran, however,
is being generally used to bind even
important COLLECTIONS of documents in
the Library of Congress. A trip thru
the stacks in the manuscript division
shows long series of volumes encased
in olive green, brown, or gray buck
ram covers, with panels of leather of
the same color decorating the backs
and forming a dark background for
the gold lettering of the titles
Library Binds Books.
This library, with the country's
largest collection of books to keep in
order. attempts to solve most of its
own bookbinding and repairing ques-
tons. Old volumes cracking with age
and new paper-covered additions to
the shelves are bound in the big library
building by force of workers detailed
from the government printing office.
Few visitors know of the existence
of the library's book-bindGry, hidden
opening off a red and white corridor.
Here 70 people work at an endless job
of book binding. There are nearly
100000 books in the governments
library and about 1OO,0 new books
and pamphlets come in every year.
Many of the new works have only
fimsy paper covers. and all of these
must be either put in envelopes or
serviceably bound Then there are $50
volumes of newspapers to be collected
in huge tones every month. and be-
sides all this there is a constant stream
of worn books to be repaired.
The bookbindery merely tries to
keep from being swamped. 1t cannot
accomplish nearly all of the work it
would like to do if appropriations per-
mitted. Some year the superintendent
of the division hopes to have a suffi-
GENTLY large appropriation so that he
can conduct a grand overhauling and
see that every book on the shelves is
in first class condition. But that is
only one of the castles in the air which
government chiefs and supervisors
of any extra sized appropriations
from congress for patching up books
that are unobtrusively disintegrating
on library shelves.
The binders in the library shop do
thoro work. Cover boards are laced
into each volume making the binding
a part of the book and not merely
a glued on covering The bindings in
heavy books are reinforced with d
cloth joint.
The library workers can replace a
cheap. worn out cover by a durable
one, but they are practically helpless
before the inferior grades of paper on
which the cheaper modern books are
printed. Some of the popular novels
go to pieces like the "one-hoss shay
Of Holmes poem. Not only do IL
covers wear out, but the paper edges
tear, and the threads cut thru the pa
mai rnr17a fF,.1T sey
Books of this grade and popularity
have a short, intense career and are
discarded when they can no longer be
repaired
Preserving Newspapers.
How to preserve newspapers is a
more difficult problem. The New York
public library has hit on plan which
it regards as satisfactory. Each page
of news print in a bound volume. is
enclosed in thin japanese tissue. To
containing only a months issues. by
this method costs $45. But with an
eye to the future, when the news
papers of today will be valuable old
historic documents, the New York Ii
brary Is using this tissue for current,
newly bound papers.
The library of congress does not go
to this expense and labor in keeping
its great collection of newspapers.
There is an extremely fine grade of
tissue. called crepeline, that is used on
important papers to keep them from
falling apart, and the library OF con-
gress has used this material on one or
two volumes of its Oldest newspapers.
Great skill is required in applying
this crepeline to a sheet of paper. The
material is a sort of chiffon. a mix
ture of silk and mercerized cotton so
filmy that it is almost transparent. |
The page that is to be. preserved with |
the tissue is first treated with fine
flour and water paste. The paste
must be of exactly the right grade |
and the big camels' hair brush must |
lay it over the paper so that no brush !
marks are left. and so that the coating /
is absolutely smooth. Then the crepe
line is laid smoothly on ton and the