FILES, BOXES, BOOK-HOLDERS, STAMPS, &c.
Letter files are made in a great variety of styles, from the spiked wire to the elaborate and systematic index of the Amberg and Shannon Companies. A useful series of cheap document files are made by Messrs. John Walker & Co. of London, and comprise manilla paper and cloth envelope, and box files for alphabetical arrangement, to hold papers about 11 × 9 inches, &c. The collapsing accordion files are also made by this firm. Single alphabetical files to hold some hundreds of documents are supplied by the Amberg and Shannon File Companies in neat box form at a small cost; and both these makers can supply file-cabinets of any size or for any purpose, so far as the preservation of documents is concerned. Any of the above-named are preferable to the ordinary wire and binder files which pierce and tear documents without keeping them in get-at-able order. Sheet-music and prints are best preserved in flat boxes with lids and falling fronts, though the former, if kept at all, is best bound in volumes. Print boxes are preferable to portfolios because they are not so apt to crush their contents, and certainly afford a better protection from dust. Pamphlet boxes are made in many styles: some with hinged lids and falling fronts as in the illustration, Fig. 11; some with book-shaped backs and hinged ends, and others in two parts.
Most librarians prefer the cloth-covered box with hinged lid and falling front, which can be made in any form by all box-makers. The kind shown in the illustration above are manufactured by Messrs. Fincham & Co. of London; but others with a uniformly-sized rim are made in Glasgow, Bradford, and Manchester. Messrs. Marlborough & Co. of London supply boxes made in two parts. For filing unbound magazines and serials the cloth-covered boxes with lids and flaps are most convenient. They should be made of wood when intended for large periodicals like the Graphic or Era. American cloth or canvas wrappers are sometimes used for preserving periodicals previous to binding, but boxes will, in the long run, be found most economical, cleanly and easily used. There are various kinds of binders made for holding a year’s numbers of certain periodicals, in which the parts are either laced with cords or secured by wires to the back. The difficulty with these seems to be that necessary expansion is not always provided against by the appliances supplied. Newspapers intended for binding are usually kept on racks and protected from dust by American cloth or pasteboard wrappers. In other cases a month’s papers are laced on perforated wooden bars and kept in rolls.
Fig. 11.
Fig. 12.
Stitching machines are sometimes used for periodicals, and though probably quicker than ordinary needle and thread sewing, have certain drawbacks which make their use worthy of some deliberation. In the first place a good machine is expensive and somewhat liable to get out of order, and in the second place the wires used for the stitching very often rust, and cause much trouble to the binder both because of the tearing of the periodicals and the difficulty of their removal.
Figs. 13-14.