“ After the selection of a suitable style of type and size of pages, the manuscripts are put into type either by machine or by the old method of hand-setting. For rapid, regular work the machines are generally used, and to the uninitiated their operation is little short of marvelous. They are the latest models of the Lanston Monotype, and consist of a keyboard and a casting mechanism. The keyboard is operated very much like a typewriter, but instead of printing letters it simply makes perforations in a roll of paper which indicate the type character that is to be made by the caster. ”

“ More than $25,000 worth of gold leaf is put on the bindings and edges of books every year in this department. The last step in book-making comes when the books, properly shaped, are pasted securely to the covers and put under pressure until dry and ready for sale.
In the case of the leather bindings a great many steps are required, and it is an interesting fact to note that the processes now in vogue are practically the same as they have been for generations, modern machine methods being possible in only a very few stages of the work. ”

“ Long service is the rule, several employees having had records of more than fifty years, while not a few others have been employed for thirty or forty years. It is not uncommon to find succeeding generations of one family represented in the different departments. Nearly every branch of the work requires a high degree of intelligence and education. A spirit of sympathy and assistance in time of trouble and distress, especially indicated by the Riverside Press Mutual Benefit Association, results in good feeling which contributes to the happiness of those ”

“ Hand-tooling is necessary to get a sufficient brilliancy into the gold designs on leather, and where these designs are elaborate, there are so many different tools used that it may easily take a skillful finisher an entire day to do the panels on the back of a single volume. There is a special department under an artist expert where the highest grade of fine leather binding is done, and its work is generally considered among the best in America. ”

“ The book covers may be divided into two classes, cloth and leather bindings. The cloth covers are made on machines which automatically glue the cloth and fold it around the cardboard sides, already cut to the proper size. It will doubtless surprise most visitors to learn that fully 280 large barrels of glue and paste are used every year at Riverside in book-making. Any design or lettering can be printed upon the cloth, while, if gold is used, it is laid on by hand, after the covers are prepared by “sizing” to make the gold leaf adhere to the surface of the cloth when stamped with heated dies. ”

“ In the old and new buildings there are over 60 presses constantly running. They vary in size and in make, and are used according to the special conditions required in a general printing-house where a great variety of work is turned out. There are big presses on which are printed large editions of books in great demand, and others adapted for the smallest job work. In the new building where the large cylinder presses are placed, each press is equipped with an electric motor ”

“ The automatic sprinkler system is installed throughout, and a fire brigade, composed of eighty employees, is kept in constant training. In one of the buildings is a machine shop where a force of machinists is employed in making necessary repairs and alterations. There is also a large paper warehouse in which some five hundred tons of printing paper are usually on hand. In this connection, some idea of the size of the business may be gained from the fact that the Press uses from 2000 to 3000 tons of paper a year. ”

“ These separate folded sheets, or signatures as they are called, are then gathered into their proper sequence by one of the latest inventions, a gathering machine. To secure compactness, the books are then subjected to a quick, sharp pressure, and are ready for sewing, which is done by machines especially adapted to all sizes of books. ”

“ The distribution of material and apparatus and the organization of work in these buildings are planned to secure the least possible handling of books while in the process of manufacture, and the best conditions for healthy work on the part of the more than eight hundred employees. ”