If the reader will now take a simply sewn or stitched book, without binding, and will place across its back two or more strips of parchment, and glue them on with the strongest possible cement—mastic being the best, but acidulated glue or flour-paste with glue, or even dextrine-paste, willanswer the purpose—and if he will again paste up and down over these a strip just the width of the back, he will have all that is necessary to make a strong binding, for this will hold as well as the strings. Note that the parchment strips must first be thoroughly wet through and macerated, or crumpled till quite soft. Again, that when the paste is nearly dry the strip should be rubbed in.
Next cut out two pieces ofstrongpasteboard, each a very little larger than the length and width of the book. These are the covers.
Now paste the outside of thestrapsexactly to the inside of the covers, leaving just enough space for opening and closing. When dry, the book should open and close easily. Then take the outer cover of leather or cloth, which is cut in the shape indicated in the accompanying outline, paste it well over the back, and then turn the edges over and paste them down over the cover inside, so as to form a narrow margin, as may be seen by examining any book. Also turn down, before doing this, the edges at the ends of the book. The binding will be much stronger if, after pasting the ends of the parchment strips to the covers, we paste over them in turn good, strong pieces of paper, close to the back, to prevent the strips from pulling up.
If there be fly or blank leaves on the sides of the book, paste one of each down over the inside of the cover. This will conceal the margin and add greatlyto the strength of the book. But if there be none, you can supply them, firstly, by a method which will make your binding even stronger than that of most books. Take a very strong piece, let us say, of Whatman’s or any other good tough linen drawing-paper, just of the size to cover the whole book—that is, back and sides. Cut in it four slits, and pass the strips which are to bind the book to the cover through, and gum them down, and then paste the fly-leaf thus added down over the strips. But it will answer every purpose if you simply gum fly-leaves on by a very narrow margin of “adhesive.” All of this will become clear to any one who will carefully examine a book. And anybody who has the dexterity to fold a letter neatly or do up a parcel properly, can in a short time, after one or two experiments, succeed in binding a book in this manner. I have observed that those who fail as amateur bookbinders generally do so because they attempt too much too soon, and aim at producing elegant masterpieces before they have learned to manage with ease such common work as I have described.
Though this manner of strip-binding is little known, it was, strange to say, the very first ever practised; for, according toOlympiodorus, onePhilatiuswas the first who taught the use ofglueto fasten written or blank leaves together, for which great discovery a statue was erected to him. Binders were called among the Romansligatores, as they are still in Italy,legatori; and it was here, indeed, that I myself learned the craft, as I now generally bind my own books. Those who prepared and sold the covers for Roman booksellers were calledscrutarii.
There is a very easy way to bind up pamphlets, MSS., or letters when they have any margin for a back. If you cannot have them stitched—which, though difficult to an inexpert, can be done for a mere trifle—then sew them together across from side to side. Where the pages are of great value, gum them together by avery narrowdoubled or folded strip of adhesive. This done, bind as before, or else simply paste on a cover of drawing-paper at the back, and the fly-leaves to the sides. A great deal of loose literature, flying leaves, clippings from newspapers, letters, &c., can in this way, at no great expenditure of time or money, be converted into really valuable books.
I may here observe that cloth for binding, thin leather, and even common parchment or parchment-paper, are much cheaper than would be supposed, and that the average cost, all expenses included, of binding a duodecimo book in these would only be from threepence to a shilling. Any waste parchment will serve for binding.
Any person, however, who can emboss leather with tracer and stamp, even though but a little, after a week’s practice, can decorate and ornament books so as to greatly enhance their value. Nor do I exaggerate when I say that here is a field in which any person who can draw or copy decorative patterns moderately well might make a living. The reader will find the fullest details as to how this is done in myManual of Leather Work. (Price 5s. London, Whittaker & Co., 2 White Hart Street, E.C.) In the present work I can only state that it is executed as follows:—Bind your book with cardboard in fairly thick, hard, andfirm brown leather; there is a kind made for the purpose in Germany. Draw the pattern on it, or else draw it on paper with a crayon-pencil, and rub it from the back on the leather. This done, go over it with the fine point of a miniature brush in Indian ink. Dampen the leather slightly as you work with a sponge, and mark the outline with a tracer and stamp the ground with a matt. You may leave it brown, but if the work be coarse, I advise painting the whole with ink or Indian ink, and then coating it withSoehnée’svarnish, No. 3. Rub this down well by hand.
If you can supply the design (which should always be bold and simple), any wood-carver will, for a few shillings, execute it inintaglioon a block of wood, which should be at least one inch in thickness, and also have a transverse piece screwed to its back to prevent its warping. With this you can stamp off as many covers as you want. Retouch them by hand with tracer and stamp. If blackened, and then touched up with gilding and varnished, such books are very attractive, and should sell well. Any person who can design, or even trace, a pattern can have it cut on a block for a few shillings, and anybody having such a block can print off any number of impressions in damp leather, and retouch them with stamp and tracer, and glue them to cardboard covers, for books or albums, and sell them at a good profit. Yet, though this has been clearly set forth by me several times in manuals, &c., I have never yet met with a single amateur who has attempted it. There is as a rule far more suffering in this world fromlaziness, inertness, and an indisposition totryto do somethingthan from any other contaminating influences which lead to poverty.
When a book is even woefully dilapidated, so that there is no margin to stitch, do not despair. First separate every leaf, smooth it, and, if necessary, dampen it with a slight infusion of tragacanth. Then, if there is even the twentieth part of an inch of margin left, take strips of good, tough, thin paper, and with care stitch the leaves to these strips. For some severe cases you must use very thin transparent or tracing paper to gum over the text, but which must be visible through it. This, if neatly done, does not look so badly as it would seem. If one strip be folded and used to connect two leaves, the stitching and binding become easy. I have already described how to restore margins and fill worm-holes.
I think that if any person of literary habits will consider all that is written in this chapter, and will begin to practise it with deliberation and care, he will surely succeed, and find it a very profitable and agreeable occupation. All of such men have pamphlets, MSS., autographs, letters, newspaper clippings, and papers, which, if classed and made up into book-form, would be more available for use, and far more valuable. I say nothing of repairing old books; it speaks for itself as an easy and lucrative employment. And it may be observed that a young man who can thus bind and repair would make a most valuable assistant-librarian, though the business can be mastered very soon indeed; and it would often happen that in choosing a secretary, where there are many papers to file or a library to look after, or an assistant in an antiquarian book-shop—particularly the latter—preferencewould be given to one who had mastered practically what is taught in this chapter. And as on board ship the best sailor is generally the best mender—every old tar being proverbially skilled in repairing and having a quick eye for emergencies, even on shore—so the one who can rehabilitate and “form” books will probably be a good assistant in all things.
It may often happen to a writer or copyist that he has occasion to erase a word, and cannot write over the space lest the ink should spread. In old times this was remedied as follows:—A very little juniper gum, levigated to the finest powder, was rubbed over the spot with a soft linen rag.
In all kinds of repairing or technical work it is sometimes necessary to draw circles when the artist has no compasses. Yet this can be done to perfection, almost by free-hand, and very easily. Take several sheets of paper or a blotter; lay on it the piece to be drawn on. Take a pencil in the fingers, as is usual, rest the hand on the nail of the little finger as a point—having previously pulled the sleeve of his coat well up, so as to get a full view—and then with the left hand draw or revolve the paper. In most cases a perfect circle will be the result. This is admirable practice for learning to draw circles entirely by free hand, as may be found by experiment.
Paper can be made, if not absolutely fire-proof, at least deprived of inflammability, by being steeped in alum-water, or inoleum tartari per deliquium, or oil of tartar. Stationers might find a sale for such paper. If the document which was thrown by a certain Duchess into the fire had been thus prepared, it might have been rescued by a bystander before it perished.
The art of preservation, or prevention of injury, is allied to restoration, for which reason it would be well if more people who send books by mail would use protecting corners, which can readily be made by anybody with a pair of strong scissors from thin sheet brass, tin, or iron. Take a piece of metal of a rectangular shape, as follows:—Then double it into a triangle over a piece of cardboard, or of wood, exactly the thickness of the cover of the book:—
Very valuable books should be kept in boxes of thin metal, especially in India. Such cases should not be made to open and shut with a hinged lid, but with a covering, and like a cigar case. Such cases, or at least metallic guards, should also be used when a book is wrapped and tied in the usual manner andsent by mail. I am quite sure that at least every other book which I have received by mail during the past year has shown on its edges melancholy scars from its strings, reminding one of the wounds which the heroic red Indian retained from his bonds. A guard is simply a piece of sheet-metal, bent as follows, once or twice:—
These guards are invaluable for packing books in trunks. Their price is trifling, and in the end there would be great economy in using them. Books should not be packed very tightly together on their shelves. It bursts the binding, especially of modern works in boards and paper. The old parchment flexible bindings were in every respect better, and they could even now be made far more cheaply than is generally supposed to be possible. I have before me a book nearly three hundred years old, bound in skiver parchment (split, or very thin), which has evidently been much used, yet which is still in good condition. But parchment need not be prepared very carefully for ordinary binding, and it could be sold for half the price charged by law stationers for what is used to write on. In the United States one must pay much more for a sheepskin than for a sheep, indeed in some cases three or four times as much—thatis to say, the skin as a parchment in New York costs as much as three sheep in the Far West—and yet the expense of bringing the skin to the East and of tanning it are in no proportion whatever to the stationer’s profits.
Any one who will examine an ordinary old parchment-bound book, such as lies before me, will see at a glance why it must be more durable than a modern binding. In the modern book thestiffback rises full to the edge, or generallyabovethe level of the sides, and is made of muslin, paper, or at best of soft leather. Therefore in time it breaks from pressure and friction, or wears away. The parchment or vellum had in most cases this back-edge put back or kept down as much as possible, and the tough covering was all in one piece. It is very true that it is not possible to obtain plain, old-fashioned parchment now, and that those who would have vellum, or even sheep, must pay an enormous price for it. This would not, however, be the case long if there were as great a popular demand for parchment binding as there now is for flimsy muslin. Those who prefer the former will find no difficulty in having it made for them, and in binding their books themselves according to the directions which I have given.
I shall in the chapter onPapier-mâchéshow how covers for books may be cheaply made at no great expense, which may be beautifully embossed and are extremely durable. This is, briefly, by having a flat mould or die, on which lay alternate coats of paper and firm paste (into which glue and alum enter), then passing over them a bread-roller, continually adding paste and paper till the whole is complete. Whenfinished, rub in black or any other colour, then rub in oil, rub again, applySoehnée, No. 3, and finally rub by hand. This will make very beautiful binding.
It is much to be regretted that, although there has been of late years, owing to machinery and patent processes, such immense production of cheap and showy binding, as shown in photograph albums, there has been as steady and rapid decrease in quality, strength, and durability. It is becoming unusual, even in very expensive books, to find one which can be honestly and well opened or is well stitched. I have, since writing that last word, tested it with two books recently published, one costing six shillings, the other a guinea. The latter was fairly well put together and “held,” but was warped in the stitching and pasting. It was “bad work.” As for the six shilling book, it crackedclear through to the backat every page which I opened, and yet I did not open it very widely. I should say that any amateur who could not learn to bind books better in a month or six weeks than these were bound must be stupid indeed. The examination of a number of other books shows that what I have said is now generally true, and that even very expensive and pretentiously elegant works are not half so well bound in reality as were common and cheap school-books two hundred years ago. This I have also confirmed by examining a number of the latter bound in parchment, which bid fair to last for centuries to come.
Should this cheap, trashy, and showy style of binding continue, and with it a constant rise in the price of everything made by hand, the result will be that everything durable will be made by “amateurs”—thatis, by people who to artistic spirit unite a certain personal independence. Owners of libraries will bind their own books, or else employ people who will work as artists, and not like mere machines. The vulgar and ignorant will continue to buy showy, cheap duplicates—induced by hearing, “’Ere’s an harticle, mum, that we’re sellin’ a great many hof”—while the cultured will prefer the hand-made, which is not necessarily more expensive. In fact, if the unemployed in England—or the victims of the wholesale steam trash-maker—could be taught easy hand-work, as they allcanbe, it would be possible to not only vastly relieve national poverty, but we could have a variety of articles of better quality. For it appears to be, by some strange law, afactthat, with all the improvements in machinery, men can still make byhand—and well—pictures, clothes, shoes or boots, bookbindings, and works of art generally—that is to say, anything in which skill or character can be shown; while, on the contrary, in all such matters machinery, instead of making any progress, is, owing to competition, actually falling behind! Scientific and other journals are continually boasting of new discoveries and improvements, but despite this the jerry-built houses of three-fourths of London, the sawed and glued cheap and vile furniture (made by scientific steam) with which they are filled, the average quality of everything into which skill and taste are supposed to enter, show that this boasted “end of the century” is also rapidly coming to an end in good taste and the quality of its work.
He who will learn tomendwith care, taste, and skill, firstly his books, will find that to progress fromthis to binding and to making elegant covers is only going from A to B. The binding of the olden time, while it was incredibly strong, vigorous, and quaint, was extremely easy to make, as I have satisfied myself by much examination and personal practice. The stitching was not with the weakest and cheapest cotton-thread; still less was it with wires too thin for the purpose; it was executed with linen pack-thread,from the top to the bottom of the page, in three or four stitches, so that the book could really be opened and bent back till the covers touched without injury to it. All of which could be given to-day with the parchment covers at the same price which the book now costs, and to pay the same profit, were it not that public “taste” prefers showy trash. Beyond good, strongstitching, all thenecessaryprocess of binding is very easy. It requires neatness and care, and some practice, but it is decidedly not difficult. He who has mastered it will find that other kinds of mending, and also the practice of allied minor arts, are simply the succeeding letters of the alphabet.
It is a fact, to which I invite attention, that dilettante amateurs of books invariably understand by binding nothing more than its refinements and easily ruined adornment, which books had better be without. Amateurs of this class always attempt at once the most difficult work, and generally fail. As a rule, almost without exception, the prize specimens of modern binding seen at exhibitions are chiefly remarkable for ornament, which will not endure handling or rubbing, such as surface-gilding.
Pamphlets or letters, &c., can be bound with “eyelets,” and the clamp or punch which is sold withthem. Or they may be simply gummed together, in which case use the powerful fish-glue, which holds perfectly.
The easiest and most effective method of side-binding, or where leaves are held together by passing the tie through from side to side, is as follows:—Have by you strips of metal, say sheet-tin, one-fourth or one-third of an inch in breadth; also small rivets or tacks. Take two strips of the same length as the pamphlet or papers to be bound, and strike holes in them with a brad-awl and hammer, on a solid piece of wood, at regular distances. Then place these strips on the book, and drive the rivets through the holes. Turn the whole round, and laying the other side on an anvil or a reversed flat-iron, flatten the points of the rivets so that they will hold. Any old tins, such as are thrown away in such numbers, can be made to supply strips. A strip of parchment or strong paper bent over to form a back can then be pasted over the strips to improve the appearance of the volume. Any tinman will, for a trifle, supply these strips and punch the holes neatly for use. They should be found in every library, and ought to be in every stationer’s. It may be observed that in inserting the rivets or tacks you should place them alternately, one on one side and one on the other. A lighter form of this binding is to take a flat-headed drawing-pin, similar to those used by artists, and have a round, flat tin or brass disc, like a thin sixpence or threepenny-bit, corresponding to it. In the latter punch a small hole, and rivet as before. Tinmen will also punch these discs; in fact, they often throw away a great many cut from certain kinds of work.
Where the leader may have a great number of books to bind, he will find it an economy or a means to secure good work to hire a girl who is an experienced book-stitcher to come and work for him. He can thus besureof having his workswellsewed from top to bottom with strongest linen-thread in ancient style, instead of their being shabbily wired (and all wiring is shabby, since the thin does not hold, and the thick bursts the binding), or still more shabbily looped together with weak cotton-thread. This effected, he can easily do his own binding. He may not rival a Grolier, or turn out such exquisite “gems” as require to be kept in caskets, and are utterly unsuitable for use or reading, and, like most “elegant and unrivalled” modern binding, marvels of tooling and gilding. But he can most assuredly hope to bind strongly in parchment as books were bound in the olden time, and if he chooses to also ornament them with richly stamped leather covers, he can in a short time learn to do the latter, as may be seen in theManual of Leather-Work.
The great test of excellence in a book is, Can it be freely handled and read without injury? The most careless examination of most books will convince the reader that this test is almost unknown. The exquisitely whitened vellum bindings of Florence and Venice, which are stained almost with the pressure of a lady’s clean finger; the photograph album, so beautifully stamped in leather as thin as blotting-paper, which scratches and wears into shabbiness in a week, if often opened—all the show-pieces of exhibitions will not endureuse. And it seems as if, after all the binding of this decade shall have perished,that of the common, cheap books of the seventeenth century will be as good as ever.
A great number of the adhesives and cements mentioned in this book are quite applicable to mending bindings or making paper stick to paper, &c. The following is, however, not only a paste, but also a glaze, and is extensively used as such on labels, boxes, and cards:—
Boil borax with water, and work it thoroughly into caseine till it forms a clear, thick, and extremely adhesive cement, which is also much used to varnish leather or muslins.
It is often desirable to have a varnish or glaze for the covers of books, and still more frequently a paste, which will hold very firmly and yet not penetrate, as glue and paste very often do.
To make such a cement, mix heavy solution of warm glue with freshly made starch or flour-paste. Add to this one-fourth part of turpentine and one-fourth of spirits of wine. This excellent cement is applicable to many purposes.
To paper wallswellwe make flour-paste, and to every quart add ten grammes of alum dissolved in hot water. Then wash the wall with glue-water, and cover the paper with the paste. The alum and glue form a combination which is leathery and insoluble, and not only arrests decay, but clings with great force. Most wall-paper put on with common paste decays more or less in time, and becomes simply poisonous.
A strong gum or adhesive for paper, cardboard work, or binding:—
I.
Dissolve:—
Add to this:—
II.
Dissolve together:—
Unite the two solutions thus formed; pass them through a cloth, so as to fall into a flat mould. When dry, use by dissolving in hot water.
American glaze for postage-stamps:—
Stamps are, however, very often surreptitiously removed by means of moisture. The following recipe renders this difficult. It consists of two preparations, one of which is applied to the stamp and one to the letter. It is particularly needed in America, where, according to a statement in a newspaper,nearly one-thirdof all the postage-stamps are removed from letters, cleaned, and used over again.
I.For the Letter.
II.On the Stamp.
The chromic acid forms with the glue a substance insoluble in water, which causes the stamp not to yield to moisture. The two should be kept in two cups, and the letter first smeared with one and the stamp with the other. I have read of a physician who, finding that his postage-stamps were often stolen, adopted the precaution of giving their backs an application of croton-oil, or some similar powerful “anti-thief-matic,” the result of which was great temporary illness in his landlady and her family. For this recipe the reader must apply to a chemist!
Eder’s Gum for Photographs.—Dissolve oxyhydrate of ammonia in vinous acid, to one part of which add twenty of starch-paste.
Cement for Leather or Paper in Binding Books, &c.—Take 1 kilogramme of wheat-flour, and make it to a paste with 20 grammes of finely powdered alum. Boil this till a spoon will stand uptight in it. Cover the cardboard or cover with this, lay the leather ormuslin upon it, and then with a roller press one upon the other. Leather should first be damped. Care must be taken that the paste be not too moist; secondly, that it is laid on very evenly and thinly.
Engravings or texts which have had a piece torn out can be restored as follows:—
Obtain a photograph from a perfect copy on corresponding paper, then with gum set it in, so as to supply the deficiency.
As the ravages of theBook-wormform an important item in mending books, and as there is always some interest for collectors regarding this much talked of and rarely seen insect, I take the liberty of reproducing from the AmericanScienceof March 24, 1893, an article on the subject. An appropriate motto for it might be:—
“Come hither, boy; we’ll hunt to-dayThe book-worm, ravening beast of prey.”
“Come hither, boy; we’ll hunt to-dayThe book-worm, ravening beast of prey.”
At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, held February 9, 1893, Dr. Samuel A. Green, after showing two volumes that had been completely riddled by the ravages of insects, as well as some specimens of the animals in various stages, made the following remarks:—
For a long period of years I have been looking for living specimens of the so-called “book-worm,” of which traces are occasionally found in old volumes; and I was expecting to find an invertebrate animal ofthe class of annelids. In this library at the present time there are books perforated with clean-cut holes opening into sinuous cavities, which usually run up the back of the volumes, and sometimes perforate the leather covers and the body of the book; but I have never detected the live culprit that does the mischief. For the most part the injury is confined to such as are bound in leather, and the ravages of the insect appear to depend on its hunger. The external orifices look like so many shot-holes, but the channels are anything but straight. From a long examination of the subject I am inclined to think that all the damage was done before the library came to this site in the spring of 1833. At all events, there is no reason to suppose that any of the mischief has been caused during the last fifty years. Perhaps the furnace-heat dries up the moisture which is a requisite condition for the life and propagation of the little animal.
Nearly two years ago I received a parcel of books from Florida, of which some were infested with vermin, and more or less perforated in the manner I have described. It occurred to me that they would make a good breeding farm and experiment station for learning the habits of the insect; and I accordingly sent several of the volumes to my friend Mr. Samuel Garman, who is connected with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, for his care and observation. From him I learn that the principal offender is an animal known popularly as the Buffalo Bug, though he is helped in his work by kindred spirits, not allied to him according to the rules of natural history. Mr. Garman’s letter gives the result of hislabours so fully as to leave nothing to be desired, and is as follows:—
“Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.,February 7, 1893.
“Dr. Samuel A. Green, Boston, Mass.
“Sir,—The infested books sent for examination to this Museum, through the kindness of Mr. George E. Littlefield, were received July 15, 1891. They were inspected, and, containing individuals of a couple of species of living insects, were at once enclosed in glass for further developments. A year afterward live specimens of both kinds were still at work. Besides those that reached us alive, a third species had left traces of former presence in a number of empty egg-cases.
“Five of the volumes were bound in cloth. On these the principal damage appeared at the edges, which were eaten away and disfigured by large burrows extending inward. Two volumes were bound in leather. The edges of these were not so much disturbed; but numerous perforations, somewhat like shot-holes externally, passed through the leather, enlarging and ramifying in the interior. As if made by smaller insects, the sides of these holes were neater and cleaner cuttings than those in the burrows on the edges of the other volumes.
“The insects were all identified as well known enemies of libraries, cabinets, and wardrobes. One of them is a species of what are commonly designated ‘fish bugs,’ ‘silver fish,’ ‘bristle tails,’ &c. By entomologists they are calledLepisma; the species inhand is probablyLepisma saccharina. It is a small, elongate, silvery, very active creature, frequently discovered under objects, or between the leaves of books, whence it escapes by its extraordinary quickness of movement. Paste and the sizing or enamel of some kinds of paper are very attractive to it. In some cases it eats off the entire surface of the sheet, including the ink, without making perforations; in others the leaves are completely destroyed. The last specimen of this insect in these books was killed February 5, 1893, which proves the species to be sufficiently at home in this latitude.
“The second of the three is one of the ‘Buffalo Bugs.’ or ‘Carpet Bugs,’ so called; not really bugs, but beetles. The species before us is theAnthrenus variusof scientists, very common in Boston and Cambridge, as in other portions of the temperate regions and the tropics. Very likely the ‘shot-holes’ in the leather-bound volumes are of its making, though it may have been aided in the deeper and larger chambers by one or both of the others. The damage done by this insect in the house, museum, and library is too well known to call for further comment. Living individuals were taken from the books nearly a year after they were isolated.
“The third species had disappeared before the arrival of the books, leaving only its burrows, excrement, and empty egg-cases, which, however, leave no doubt of the identity of the animal with one of the cockroaches, possibly the speciesBlatta Australasiæ. The cases agree in size with those ofBlatta Americana, but have thirteen impressions on each side, as if the number of eggs were twenty-six. The ravages of thecockroaches are greatest in the tropics, but some of the species range through the temperate zones and even northward. An extract from Westwood and Drury will serve to indicate the character of their work:—
“‘They devour all kinds of victuals, dressed and undressed, and damage all sorts of clothing, leather, books, paper, &c., which, if they do not destroy, at least they soil, as they frequently deposit a drop of their excrement where they settle. They swarm by myriads in old houses, making every part filthy beyond description. They have also the power of making a noise like a sharp knocking with the knuckle upon the wainscotting,Blatta giganteabeing thence known to the West Indies by the name of drummer; and this they keep up, replying to each other, throughout the night. Moreover, they attack sleeping persons, and will even eat the extremities of the dead.’
“This quotation makes it appear that authors as well as books are endangered by this outlaw. With energies exclusively turned against properly selected examples of both, what a world of good it might do mankind! The discrimination lacking, the insect must be treated as a common enemy. As a bane for ‘silver fish’ and cockroaches, pyrethrum insect powder is said to be effectual. For a number of years I have used, on lepisma and roach, a mixture containing phosphorus, ‘The Infallible Water Bug and Roach Exterminator,’ made by Barnard & Co., 7 Temple Place, Boston, and, without other interest in advertising the compound, have found it entirely satisfactory in its effects. Bisulphide carbon, evaporated in closed boxes or cases containing the infested articles,is used to do away with the ‘Buffalo Bugs.’—Very respectfully yours,
“Samuel Garman.”
I can remember that many years ago there was to be seen in the bookshop of John Penington, Philadelphia, a book-worm preserved in spirits in a vial. The manner in which this species of teredo penetrates wood and leather as well as paper is not the least curious of its habits.
The great amount of injury inflicted by boring-insects in books, wood, and all weak substances is sufficient reason for giving so much space to this subject. From a ship to a manuscript, nothing is safe from them.
Soft paper, when mixed with water, gum, or, better still, with flour-paste, forms a substance which can be moulded to any form, and which, when dry, will be as hard as cardboard. Its hardness and durability may be increased by mingling with it many substances.
Combined with soft leather in small fragments or with the dust of leather, it forms what the French callcarton-cuir. In this, or even in its natural state—that is, paper and paste—papier-mâché, as it is termed, can under pressure be made as hard as any wood. I have seen all kinds of articles of furniture made from it. In America there are manufactories in which pails or buckets, tubs, firkins, and even durable boats, are thus manufactured. There is in Bergen, Norway, a church built entirely of it mixed with lime. For certain kinds of mending it is very valuable.
Though not so plastic as clay,papier-mâchécan, with a little practice, be moulded into any form. It consists simply of pasting piece on to piece, pressing it meantime as much as possible with the fingers or awooden implement like a pestle. The pressure should be applied as it gradually dries. Any one can thus make very hard cardboard with a bread-roller on a board.
If you have the cardboard cover of a book badly damaged, with even a portion gone, it can be restored by usingpapier-mâchéin which a solution of glue or gum has been infused. Glue it specially at the edges. For such repairing take paper-dust or pulp, combined with gum-arabic in alum-water solution, or simply the gum. This is easily moulded and smoothed into any cracks or torn places.
Ifparchmentbe torn away it is easily replaced. Cut a piece to replace the missing portion, dampen it and the edge which it is to join till quite soft, then glue the two together, using pressure. I have just effected this myself with a cover of which half was gone, and the mending is hardly visible. Use the broad knife freely to press down the edges.
By combination with a mixture of nitric or sulphuric acid and water,softpaper becomes parchment-like and very hard. This requires careful experimenting, for its success depends on the quality of the acid and the texture of the paper. Very remarkable results have been obtained from this, such as material resembling ivory, horn, and tortoise-shell, in large blocks.
Waste-paper is so common and cheap thatpapier-mâchécan always be made anywhere. It is well adapted to close cracks in wood, walls, or elsewhere; and for those who wish for an employment or amusement, it affords endless facilities. One of these is the mending or making of toys.
A common mask is made as follows. On a face carved in wood and oiled there is spread common coarse soft paper wetted, which is carefully pressed down, and more paper and paste added, till it is of the requisite thickness. It is then, when rather dry, taken off and left to dry perfectly. It is then painted and varnished. Should a mask be broken, wet it, paste glue-paper over it, and paint it again.
Papier-mâchéis popularly synonymous with that which is trashy and sham in art, simply because its capacities and applications are not known. Thus leather-work was long despised as only affording imitations of carved wood. But in the hands of a true artist—that is, of anoriginal designer, who applies, and not a mere artisan, who imitates or copies—papier-mâchéis as much a subject for art as any other material. It can be used in many ways, more or less allied to mending, as are all arts. Thus paper in fine powder, or reduced to a fine paste—or pulp—can be, with a little practice, mixed with gum andpaintedwith a brush on a surface so as to produce relief. A very little elevation or depression thus serves to produce grounds which may serve to give light or shadow to pictures. Thus pastel painting or crayon in colours rubbed in, which has always been, even in the most vigorous hands, a weak or “softly sweet” art, may be made very vigorous by firmly relieving and roughening the ground; for, as the great American painter,Allston, often strengthened his colours by mixing sand with them, so pastel painting which lacks “sand” can have it supplied by mixing it with the gum for the ground.
To understand this process more clearly, let it beobserved that, as the illuminators of mediæval manuscripts gave relief and the appearance of solidity to gold by making a raised surface with a powder ofgesso(plaster of Paris) and clay and gum, so this principle can be carried out to a far greater extent by giving relief to a ground. Here those of limited views, who never get beyond the merely artisan stage of art, will at once decry this as shamming, and as imitating effect by the aid of modelling, and not being true art, quite forgetting that all is true to genius, and everything more or less sham in the mere imitation.
Having a surface, either panel or Bristol board, which latter had better be pasted to a panel or good thick solid cardboard, begin by taking a little gum or glue in tolerably fluid solution on the point of a brush, and incorporating with it the paper pulp or cloth-dust to a very soft paste, with which paint what is to be in relief. The same effect is produced in oil by using a heavier, thicker kind of paint. That is all the difference, one being as legitimate as the other. By intermixing chalk or sand or clay, and by using glass-paper where the crayon, &c., refuse to take easily, the relief adapts itself to every substance. In this, as in every process known, the artist must at first experiment a little, according to his materials.
Solid sheets of fine hard paper, with strong paste between, when passed between rollers form a kind ofpapier-mâchéwhich, is as hard as wood, fire-proof, and, what is most singular, more durable than iron. Wheels for railway carriages are often made of it, and they never warp under the action of heat or cold, neither do they crack nor bend. You can make thiscardboard for yourself of very good quality by this process:—Take a sheet of writing-paper—the better the quality the better the result will be—cover it with good flour-paste in which there is a little alum and glue and a few drops of oil of cloves, which latter will prevent paste from turning or souring. Then lay on this another sheet, apply another coat of paste, and when it is a little dry or past the softer stage, yet while still capable of adhesion, lay the sheets on a hard, smooth slab or table, and pass a roller over them, at first gently, but eventually frequently, and with force. Add as many sheets as necessary for the thickness required. It will be understood that if the surface on which this sheet is formed were an intaglio-cut die or mould, the cardboard when taken up would present a bas-relief of it as hard as any wood, and the whole would form a panel which could be used for the side of a box or to be set in a cabinet. If made of good paper and firmly rolled, this panel will be in every respect equal to wood for all decorative purposes.
As anybody who can carve wood at all can cut moulds, and as a wooden mould, if kept well oiled (or otherwise secured from yielding to moisture), will serve forpapier-mâchéand leather or wood-paste casting, it is remarkable that such work is so very little practised by the students of the minor arts. That such panels can be very easily and rapidly made I know by experience; that the materials for the work are cheap speaks for itself; and, finally, that beautiful panels for cabinets and doors, whether made of carved wood, stamped leather, orpapier-mâchébring a very good price will also be most apparent to anybodywho will go to a fashionable cabinetmaker and order them. Thus we will say that a small plain cabinet costs £5. Put into it six panels, really costing about 6d. each to mould, and the price will be £10. Such pressed panels are admirably adapted for binding books, as, when properly made and dried, they cannot warp or bend. If covered with relief they may be made very beautiful. Simply blackened or browned, then rubbed with oil, varnished withSoehnée, No. 3, and rubbed by hand, they are as beautiful as polished wood or leather.
Papier-mâché, pulp, or paper powder can be combined with caoutchouc or indiarubber, which latter can be itself dissolved in benzine, camphine, sulphuric ether, and other solvent mediums, so as to form a paste which becomes like indiarubber when dry or as it hardens. Mixed with sulphur this forms vulcanite. Or it may be combined with white colouring matter of almost any kind. This can be applied to mending the broken noses of dolls, or any other wounds which these pretty semblances of humanity often receive, their beauty being unfortunately generally more shortlived than that of their prototypes. The final finish of such reparation is a coat of paint. In many cases this is better when rubbed on with the finger than when directly painted. The reader who shall have studied this work will find no difficulty in restoring any toy.
I may, however, here remark that “no solution of india rubber can be well moulded without intimate intermixture of sulphur, aided by heat and pressure. This is a difficult process, and the amateur would do well, therefore, to purchase rubber composition, whichhe may do at any large shop in which rubber goods are made as a specialty” (Work, May 21, 1892).