Mad About Science: Book binding

By Brendon Bobby
Reader Columnist

Book binding is an art that goes back to at least the fifth century B.C.E. This process could be even older but we don’t have a historical record of it — paper is notoriously fragile, after all. The actual process of binding together a book has evolved considerably alongside technology, though the core principles of how it’s done and what materials are used are relatively unchanged. Rather than making one book at a time, we’re now pulling together thousands of books over the course of a day with the help of machines. Because of this, today’s article will focus on the process of creating a single book rather than breaking down the manufacturing process in a factory.

If you’re curious about the technology behind a book factory, there are numerous videos available online which are easily viewable from your local library.

The first step of the process is to procure paper. If the words have already been printed on the paper, the pages need to be gathered and placed in their proper order. The pages are gathered into small bundles — often in six or fewer sheets when done by hand — and sewn together at the spine with small bits of fine thread. Multiple stacks are weighted down, measured and sewn together into a single mass to create the core of the book.

Thread alone won’t be able to hold the book together over years of reading, so a strip of linen is then glued onto the spine. This cloth strip is smoothed out with a straight edge to keep it tight to the spine. A book binder will then place a sheet of wax paper on either side of the book, then use a screw press or vice to press the book together while the glue dries. The glue used by bookbinders is polyvinyl acetate, which is essentially Elmer’s glue. The drying process can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 20 hours, depending on the type of glue used, thickness of the book and other environmental factors.

The hard covers of the book are added to the front and back of the book. The bookbinder will straighten the covers so that they perfectly match. They will then glue the covers to the first and last pages of the book — in some cases, these are the endpapers — the blank pages at the beginning and end of the book, which we will examine later in more detail.

Another strip of thicker fabric is then glued to the spine to bind the covers together. Again, the book is pressed by a screw press, vice or a heavy object. Sometimes, this is reinforced by a strip of cardboard that is glued to the fabric as well — this is the portion your hand will likely spend the bulk of its time resting against while you’re reading the book.

A decorative cover is the penultimate step of the book binding.The bookbinder may cut slits into the corners of the decorative cover to keep it from moving around the cover too much. In some cases, the cover is glued on or adhered as a sticker, but this is fairly rare in traditional bookbinding. 

The final step is to glue the endpapers to the interior of the cover at the beginning and end of the book to conceal anything the decorative cover leaves exposed. These endpapers traditionally exist to protect the book from wear and tear, primarily from a reader’s hands. Sometimes, an author may include artwork or maps to make full use of the endpapers.

Each time the book is glued, the bookbinder will perform a flex test on the book. This involves completely opening the book to ensure the glue is holding the book together and loose pages aren’t falling out. This will damage the book once it’s finished, but it’s an important step while the book is being bound or the reader may be greeted by an unfortunate surprise just as the plot is getting good.

Much of this is the same in a factory setting, but the initial page assembly process is vastly different. Factories use large sheets of paper and will press a mirrored text or image block onto these huge pages. This mirrored image will often have multiple copies of the same page, as these large sheets are cut down to specification later. This helps save time and allows the factory to buy larger quantities of paper with fewer sheets of paper delivered.

The pages are sorted later, where they’re dropped into place on an assembly line and then fitted together later. The major drawback to mass-production of books in a factory is that if a relatively minor error sneaks into the process at any point, an entire batch will reflect that error.

Found an ink smudge in your favorite Evanovich book? There are probably thousands of others just like it out there.

Are you curious to learn about mending a book that’s already been bound? While the library doesn’t offer mending as a service, we will be hosting a book mending workshop on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. as part of the library’s Natural Connections series. It will be presented by the library’s in-house mender, Rhela. She works hard to make sure that you get to enjoy every library book as it was intended, even in the face of hundreds of circulations.

I’m looking at you, Little House on the Prairie. 

Stay curious, 7B.