split back-gauge
A type of movable BACK
GAUGE of a paper cutting machine made up of
two or more sections. Split back-gauge machines
are designed especially for trimming books and
pamphlets (in edition and pamphlet binding), and
are unlike machines designed for cutting piles of
paper, which have solid back gauges. Each of the
sections of the split gauge may be set at a
different distance from the knife, so that the
trimming gauge for two or three different margins
of a book may be set simultaneously. This permits
trimming a book or a pile of books or pamphlets
without changing gauges or waiting for entire lots
to go through the trimming of one edge. If the
split gauge is in three sections, the middle
section is generally set for trimming the fore
edge, and the left and right hand sections for
trimming the tail and head edges, respectively.
The split gauge trimmer was used extensively in
edition binding until largely superseded by the THREE-KNIFE TRIMMER .
When both types are used in one bindery, the
three-knife machine is generally used for
pamphlets (periodical issues) and the split gauge
machine for books. (142 )
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