eccc are the stamps, which are perforated to slide on the rods b b quite even with each other ; they are fixed at the proper distances on the rods by small set screws at their back, which bind upon the rods. The frame a a has two long apertures, seen in Fig. 2, to receive the rods b b, which have square shoulders and fins to traverse along, and are bound fast by the screwed nuts. d d shows one of the rods, with its nut separate. The small nuts e screw on after the stamps, to keep them from falling on the rods before they are adjusted. It will be seen that by sliding the stamps c along the rods b, and these rods along the frame a, they may be adjusted to suit any size and form of book. When the corners are done, if the same stamps are to be used for the centre, they may be transposed on the rods, and adjusted to suit the centre, as shown at ff ; but it will save time, and do the work truer, to have four rods b b and f f to hold the corners and centre stamps at the same time, for then once putting in the press does one side of the book, and all will be exactly alike, without much care on the part of the workman. If the frame a a is made a little wider than the thickness of the stamp on the pattern side, it might be adjusted to touch the fore-edge of the book, which would keep the pattern quite straight and equidistant on each book. By this contrivance, not only is time saved, but the patterns are registered much more accurately than they could possibly be by any other method. When very large lettering pieces, ornaments, or coats of arms, &c. are to be It upon the covers of books, manual pressure is inadequate to the working of them, and a press is employed, called an arming press. A very perfect machine of this description has recently been constructed by Messrs. Cope and Sherwin, of London, to which they have given
the name of the " Impenal Arming and Embossing Press," which is not only capable of working every description of gilding, but is also sufficiently powerful to emboss the elegant arabesque covers, at present so much employed for ornamental bookbinding. The largest description of these covers are embossed by means of a fly-press of enormous power, but for all smaller work the imperial press is amply sufficient. In its construction it resembles the improved printing press invented by the same parties, but with the addition of a contrivance for raising or lowering the bed to suit the thickness of the book, and the platten likewise having receptacles for the heating irons. By means of a screw-and wedge adjustment in the piston, and the rising and falling bed-plate, a considerable range, with the power of very accurate adjustment, is obtained with great facility. This machine is exceedingly simple in principle and construction, elegant in appearance, and effective in operation, and is a valuable auxiliary to the book binder. The book having been gilded, it is polished with a hot iron, and the edges, if coloured or marbled, are burnished with an agate burnisher: the book is then finished. If the book was only intended to be put in boards, or, as it is technically called, boarded, it is folded, sewed, glued, the covers cut to the size and put on, and then covered with coloured paper, the edges of the book remaining uncut. Extra boarding has stouter boards than the former, and is finished with rather more_ care ; sometimes the edges are cut, and the book covered with a neat coloured and embossed or printed cloth, which gives a very neat appearance at a cheap rate.