36 One of Our Automatic Covering Machines
A number of the processes followed by us in the manufacture of the big General Catalogue are explained on other stereoscopic views in this series, the composing room, the electrotype foundry, pressroom, etc. being very fully described on other views. This picture represents an Automatic Book Covering Machine which completes the binding of our big 1200-page catalogue. After the several sections of the book have been gathered in our Automatic Gathering Machine or by hand, theee loose sections come to th;s or one of the other two Automatic Covering Machines, and the young lady in the foreground drops the loose sections of the complete book into this machine. It is instantly clasped in a vise-like grip and the back or folded edges of all the loose sections automatically trimmed off with II. heavy knife at one operation. The smooth back then runs over a dampening wheel; then over a wheel carrying a thin coating’ of glue; after which a third wheel gives it a heavy coating of ~lue; just after the :completion of this operation the machine automatically picks up a stnp of binding cotton and presses it against the glued back of the catalogue. It is this strip of binding cotton which gives the catalogue a flexible back. After receiving tpis strip of cotton, a cover is pressed against the back, the glue oozes through the porous cotton back, and as the book continues to travel around this machine as shown in the illustration, this cover is folded and pressed against the back until the book has reached its starting point, when the c1aplp is automatically released and the binding is complete. Three operators can produce about 8,000 books per day with this machine.
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