When a great number of
copies of the same volume are to be lettered, it is found to be
cheaper to have a brass pattern cut with the whole of the proper
title: this is placed in a press, and being kept hot, the covers,
each having a small bit of leaf-gold placed in the proper
position, are successively brought under the brass, and stamped.
The lettering at the back of the volume in the reader's hand was
executed in this manner.
96. Calico printing from blocks. This is a mode of copying,
by surface printing, from the ends of small pieces of copper
wire, of various forms, fixed into a block of wood. They are all
of one uniform height, about the eighth part of an inch above the
surface of the wood, and are arranged by the maker into any
required pattern. If the block be placed upon a piece of fine
woollen cloth, on which ink of any colour has been uniformly
spread, the projecting copper wires receive a portion, which they
give up when applied to the calico to be printed. By the former
method of printing on calico, only one colour could be used; but
by this plan, after the flower of a rose, for example, has been
printed with one set of blocks, the leaves may be printed of
another colour by a different set.
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