A History of Booksellers, the Old and the NewCurwen, Henry
History
A History of Booksellers, the Old and the New
Curwen, Henry
Book industries and trade -- Great Britain -- History; Booksellers and bookselling -- Great Britain -- History
The bookselling and book-manufacturing trades have changed strangely
in Glasgow, since the time when the city was judged “too narrow” for
two booksellers. At present these branches of industry are only
surpassed in Edinburgh, and one Glasgow establishment at least is
without a parallel in London. Messrs. Collins, Son, and Co., actually
give employment to about seven hundred hands. The ground-floor of
their immense building is devoted to the warehousing of paper,
account-books, copy-books and general stationery. On the main floor of
the establishment one hundred binders are constantly at work, and on
the floor above the folding and sewing of the sheets is executed by
two hundred girls and women. In the rear stands the engine-house and
printing office where sixteen platten and cylinder typographic machines
are kept working at full steam, upon dictionaries, school-books,
Bibles, prayer-books, devotional, and other publications. Seven
lithographic machines are constantly employed upon atlases and
their celebrated copy-books, and it has been found that the finest
lithographic work can be better executed by the machine than, as till
very recently, at press. Everything is done on the premises, which
extend from Stirling’s Road to Heriot Hill, except making the paper and
casting the type.[32]
As further proof of the magnitude of the business, we may quote a
recent statement of Mr. Henderson, one of the partners. In 1869 there
were “issued from the letter-press section of the establishment, no
fewer than 1,352,421 printed and bound works--equal to about 4500 per
day, or 450 passing through the hands of the workers every working
hour.”
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