Press. Bookbinders use four presses; namely, the standing press , the backing press , the cutting press , [and] the finishing press ; besides these four presses, finishers have the edge gilding press, and the blocking press.

The standing press is used to press books, whether while they are in the middle of being bound, or when they are bound. It is composed of two legs 6 feet high by 6 inches and a half in thickness; the platen that serves the screw [1] fourteen inches square, attached at three quarters the height of two legs with two iron bolts, which pass through the edge of the platen and the leg. The platen that serves the screw is pierced in the middle by a threaded hole through which passes a reversed screw, three feet and a half tall including the head; the head of the screw is pierced through with square holes, where one puts an iron bar to tighten or untighten the press. The head of the screw enters into a platen a foot square, by two and a half inches thick. This platen holds a piece of wood, that one calls the small platen, which is 26 inches long by 14 wide: in this small platen there is a tenon on each side that enters in the grooves in the legs. [2] Under the press is a platform 34 inches long by 16 inches wide, to bear what one wants to put in the press , and hold the force of the screw which makes the [mobile platen] lower on top. This platform is firmly attached to each leg with two iron pegs, like the platen used by the screw. Te legs are held on the floor by two runners that box them in. The entire thing is firmly backed against a wall. See the Bookbinding Plates.

The backing press is composed of two cheeks, one in front, and the other behind; they are both three and a half feet long, seven inches wide, by five inches thick; the two screws three feet long that traverse the cheeks at the two ends. Each of these screws had a six-inch head, pierced through by two holes , two large guide-rails two and a half feet long by an inch square. These guide-rails are solidly attached to the front cheek, and pass through the rear one completely, [and] two little pegs the width of the front cheek, entering in a channel in the collar of the screw. By turning these two screws, one brings together and strongly tightens the front and rear cheeks against each other. See the plates . See Backing.

Cutting press. It is entirely the same as the backing press, except that one the rear cheek there is a trindle with a rounded end, which enters in the groove on the rear cheek of the plow, see Plow; and on the front cheek there is another trindle inside, thicker above than below, so that the books that one puts in the press are tighter and in better state to be cut. See the Plates see also the article Cutting.

The headbanding press is used to hold books that one is headbanding by one end, so that the worker can work more assuredly. It is composed of the same pieces as that of the finishing press, but smaller, being only 18 inches long. See the Plates and the article Headbanding. [3]

The finishing press must have two pieces, one in front, the other behind, both being three feet long, by four inches wide; these pieces are pierced as those in the backing press , and the usage is entirely the same. See the plates and the article Gilding.

The blocking press; it is ordinarily as large and similar enough to the standing press, but less tall and less strong. There is this difference, that the screw must have three levels [4] and that halfway up the legs there is a block, [5] held by two iron bolts. See the plates & the article Arms. Under the block one ordinarily places a little cabinet to hold the arms that one stores there.

Notes

1. Plate 4, Figure 10, here called the sommier, described in the plate notes and in Bookbinding as the “platen used by the screw” or the “platen that serves the screw,” which I will use here for consistency.

2. I think there is no other explaination for this sentence other than it is a mistake; the Bookbinding article and the plates identify the mobile platen ( la platine ) as the larger one that has tenons to fit around the legs, and the small platen ( la mouton , see Bookbinding note 16) as the “much smaller and thinner” one into which enters the head of the screw, and of course this makes more sense.

3. There was no article written under this word; however, there is one called Endband. As to the headband/endband distinction, this is not made in French; I use endband where possible because it, like the French, refers to both head and tail, but because the convention in English is for the verb to be headbanding, it may be a little awkward.

4. La vis doit être à trois rangs [?]. Visually it looks the same as that of the standing press in the plates, and I cannot think of any functional difference it would need to have.

5. Plate 6, Figure 1 E; i.e., a stationary platen, because of course one would not fill up the press with books as in the standing press, but block one at a time.