In Vol. 1 of
The Bookbinding Trades Journal issued by The Bookbinders & Machine Rulers' Consolidated Union, issue No. 18, D. Balsillie of Edinburgh published an article on "
Nelson's 7d Library. How it is Produced." The article described production at Thomas Nelson and Sons new book production factory in Edinburgh built specially for the Nelson Sevenpenny Copyright Library and other cheap productions. At the time the Nelson 7d library produced small 8vo clothbound books for sale at very low cost.
Balsillie stated that the Nelson production facility had been "described as the most up-to-date book factory in the world, including America, where factory organisation has probably reached its zenith." Balsillie's article seemed to reflect the traditional small bookbinding shop bias of what were assumed to be many of
The Bookbinding Trades Journal's readers, to whom such a large book production factory was an unfamiliar development. Because the article presented only a very general account of the mechanization of the various bookbinding processes I decided mainly to reproduce the illustrations from the article rather than to quote from the text.
Balsillie concludes: "Of the twelve types of machines in operation here, only two are in common use in this country; three others are the first of their kind installed; and the remaining seven are specially designed, patented, and constructed by Messrs. Nelson themselves. Sure, then, this factory may be called unique, and its establishment the beginning of a new era in the rapid and cheap production of books." The twelve types of machines mentioned included all the elements of book production including typesetting and printing as well as binding.
A remarkably streamlined and modernistic looking book production factory for 1908.
The "gathering" machine. (The image reproduced by the Internet Archive is somewhat washed out.)
