Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-06-14

den away IN the basement IN long
rooms opening off a red and white
corridor. Here seventy people work
at an endless job of book binding.
There are nearly 100000 books in
the governments library and about
100, 900 new books and pamphlets
come in every year. Many of the
new works have only flimsy 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 re-
paired.
The book bindery merely tries to
keep from being swamped. 1t can
not accomplish nearly all of the
work it would like to do if appro-
priations permitted. Some year the
superintendent of the division hopes
to have a sufficiently large appro-
priation so that Re can conduct a
grand o~verhauling and see that
every book on the shelves is in first
class condition. But hat is only n
of the castles in the air which gov
eminent chiefs and supervisors like
to build. There is scant prospect
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
thorough 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 ale rein
forced with a 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 I o pieces like the "'one-
boss shay" of Holmes poem. Not
only do the overs wear out, but
the paper edges tear, and the
threads cut through the paper where
the book is sewed together. Books
of this grade and popularity have a
short. intense career and are dis
carded when they a no longer be
repaired.
Preserving Newspapers
How TO preserve newspapers is a
more difficult problem. The New
York public library has hit on a
plan which it regards as satisfactory.
Law Po5S VI hShS - 49,
volume is enclosed in thin Japanese
tissue. To prepare n volume of a
newspaper, containing only a
months issues, by this method costs
S45. But with an eye to the future,
when the newspapers of today will
be valuable old historic documents,
the New York library is using this
tissue for current, newly bound pa
pers.
The Library of Congress does not
go to this expense and labor in keep
ing its great collection of newspa-
pers. There is In extremely fine
grade of tissue, called crepeline, that
is used on important papers to keep
them from falling apart. inc the
Library of Congress has used this
material on one or two of its old
est newspapers.
Great skill is required in apply
ing this crepeline to a sheet of pa
per. The material is a sort of chif-
fon, a mixture of silk and mercer
lied cotton so filmy thai it Is al
most transparent. The page that is
to be preserved with the tissue is
first treated with a fine -four and
water paste. The paste must be of
exactly the right grade. and the big
camels' hair brush must lay 1t 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 top and the
page is put under heavy pressure
between paraffine sheets. The paste
is taken up by the parafine, but
enough is left to fasten the threads
of the tissue to the paper.
The agreement of secrecy of the
Continental Congress and the only
surviving draft of the Declaration of
Independence are among the docu-
ments hat the Library of Congress
has preserved with this transparent
covering.
Caring for the Governments coll
lection of books and papers includes
not only the rebinding and repair
ing them when necessary. but also
keeping them clean. The task of
busting so large a collection may be
imagined from the fact that it takes
a man with a u cleaner a
month to clean the books on n
deck of a stack. To make the round
of the stacks in the building at this
rate would take three years.
Books in the library do not col
lect dust so rapidly as books on
shelves in a home. The stacks are rs
nearly dust proof and damp as pos
E@bles Windows N the EtaSks are