Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books
A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology

Previous item Up One Level Next item

tape slotting

A form of stabbing performed by hand or machine, invented by the Englishmen F. C. Gould and Thomas Harrison, in whose names a patent was granted in 1934 for a tape slotting machine. The purpose of tape slotting is to enable tapes to be passed through slots near the spine of the leaves, thus securing them as one unit. The advantage of this method over stabbing (with cords) is that the width of the tapes not only provides support to the leaves of the book, but also imparts strength without the bulk that would result from the use of cords.

Grooves are first cut across the spine, and then parallel to the spine, producing a shape something like that of an inverted T with a long bar and a very short stem. When done by machine, the slots may be punched through the leaves, thus eliminating the grooves. The latter method, however, makes it more difficult to insert the tapes through the slots. In the hand method, the grooves can be filled in with cord or other material after the tapes have been inserted.

Tape slotting is particularly suitable for large books printed on thin paper, e.g., unabridged dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc., which lack the margin required for side sewing. At times, two tapes are put through each slot for additional strength. (236 )




[Search all CoOL documents]