This agreement not to be construed to the prejudice of the existing holders of situations.
Adopted by the Bookbinding Trade Section of the London Chamber of Commerce at its annual meeting on 7th May, 1893.
JOHN DIPROSE, Chairman.
Ratified by the executives of the hereunder-mentioned Societies on May 30th, 1893, and signed on their behalf.
HENRY R. KING, Secretary, London Consolidated Society.
WILLIAM BOCKETT, Secretary, Day Working Bookbinders' Society.
THOMAS E. POWELL, Secretary, Bookbinders and Machine Rulers' Consolidated Union (London Branch).
Closely connected with vellum-binding are the processes of machine-ruling, numbering, paging and perforating.
Machine-ruling is the process by which lines are ruled for ledgers, invoices, etc. The machine employed resembles a hand-loom in appearance, and is in effect a framework in which pens are fixed at the required distances. Ink is conveyed into these from a pad of thick flannel above, and the page to be ruled lies on a broad band below. The re-inking of the flannel is in some cases effected by means of a reservoir and tap supplying a regulated flow, in others the ink is laid on from bowls of red or blue colour by means of a brush. Machines worked by a handle still survive in a few places, but as a general rule the machine is driven by power and the operator merely superintends, correcting the machine if it goes wrong, setting the pens and regulating the supply of ink. The newest machines require the services of neither "feeders" nor "wetters," and the simple old picturesque accessories, the cords, the wooden frame, the bowls of colour, are disappearing. Women are employed in some houses to feed the machines, which is purely mechanical work; our investigators found four establishments in London in which women can rise to the higher position of "minder," and one other in which they are allowed to damp the flannel and partially "mind."