Book-binding.--Travellers' unbound books become so terribly dilapidated,
that I think it well to give a detailed description of a method of
book-binding which a relative of mine has adopted for many years with
remarkable success, and to a great extent. The books are not
tidy-looking, but they open flat and never fall to pieces. Take a cup of
paste; a piece of calico or other cloth, large enough to cover the back
and sides of the book; a strip of strong linen--if you can get it, if
not, of calico--to cover the back; and abundance of stout cotton or
thread. 1st. Paste the strip of linen down the back, and leave the book
in the sun or near a fire--but not too near it--to dry, which it will do
in half a day. 2ndly. Open the book and look for the place where the
stiching is to be seen down the middle of the pages, or, in other words,
for the middle of the sheets; if it be an 8vo. book it will be at every
16th page, if a 12mo. at every 24th page, and so on: it is a mere matter
of semi-mechanical reckoning to know where each succeeding stitching is
to be found; in this volume the stitching is at pages 216,
etc., the interval being 16 pages. Next take the cotton and wind it in
between the pages where the stitching is, and over the back round and
round, beginning with the first sheet, and going on sheet after sheet
until you have reached the last one.
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