backer ( backing machine )
A hand- or power-operated machine used for BACKING books. The
backer stems from the days when a book was rounded
by hand and then placed in the backer to quickly
form the shoulders for the boards. Today, in both
edition and library binding, the most common
method is to round and back books in two
consecutive operations in a ROUNDING AND BACKING
MACHINE . Unusually large books, which will
not fit in a machine, are generally backed by hand
or in a hand-operated backer. See also: JOB BACKER . (256 , 264 )
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