'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎693v] (1407/1486)

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.
[A/ay 10 , 1889 .
57 6
in cards which have on their backs a coating
of colour known as enamel, either left plain or
by a subsequent operation printed with a
device or pattern in one or more colours. If
to be finished plain, the boards pass next to
the “soaping,” which is an operation consist
ing of putting on the surface of the board a
thin dusting of powdered talc, which is known
•commercially as French chalk, this being done
either by hand or by a machine ; this gives to
it an easier “slip” and assists materially that
finish which the board ultimately acquires in
the next process of rolling. If to be enamelled,
•the boards go from the “ rough ” to the hands
•of the colourer, who puts, by a brush, on the
plain side of the board a coating of so-called
enamel, which is colour with a base of different
proportions of baryta, china clay, and oxide
of zinc, made up with a vehicle of gelatine
size ; each board as it is coloured being
placed upon a rack till sufficiently dry to
be stacked away ready for the next process,
which may be simply “glazing,” in the
•case of cards with plain enamel backs, or
when to be decorated on their backs with
one or more printings, to the “ flatting ”
which is a modified “rolling,” the object
being to get a flat and even surface for
the printer. As it is of the greatest im
portance that the fronts and backs of the
cards should be in absolute “ register,”
it is usual to pierce in the margins of the
sheets which are to be subsequently printed
at their backs two or more perforations, which
serve as the points for either hand-press or
machine, and this is done before they are sent
to the workman who prints the back. The
backs are printed in the same manner and by
the same methods as are the faces, a separate
forme ” being used for each colour employed.
After the boards have left the printers of the
backs, they are again taken to the drying- '
rooms, where for a time—varying from a few
days to months, according to the requirements
of the trade—they are left in stacks to mature
and to harden, the completion of this process
being accomplished in drying - cupboards,
where by means of steam-pipes, or air other
wise heated, they are kept in a temperature of
from 96 ° to no 0 Fahr. for a few days. This
“sets” the colour used in the printing, and
gives to the card the “snap” and elasticity
which is one of the essentials of a good card.
This being completed, the process of soaping,
as before described, comes next, and they are
then ready for “ glazing.” Glazing, or polish
ing the card, is now done by means of polished
copper or zinc plates, the boards being
placed between them, and the whole passed
between two cylinders of polished steel.
I he glazing is got by combined pressure
and friction, the slight movement of the
plates, one upon the other, as they pass
through the cylinders giving friction together
with pressure which polishes the surface alike
of the plain and the enamelled sides of the
board, and the extent of this polish depends
upon the number of times the plates contain
ing the boards are passed between the
cylinders. The boards are now ready for
cutting; and here, as in other details of card
making, machines have largely superseded
hand labour, but I will briefly describe the
two methods of cutting up the sheets, taking
the oldest method first—that by hand. The
instrument employed is known as a “ shears,”
which is simply a long blade, not unlike one
blade of a pair of scissors, fixed as to its point
by a bolt to the upper edge of the cutting-
table, the other end being shaped into a handle
(exactly as is shown in the slide now on the
screen). The sheet being pressed under this
blade, it is cut successively into “ traverses.”
Thus in a sheet of 20 cards there would be a
group of four traverses, each consisting of five
cards. This is known technically as cutting
“ at long.” These traverses are in turn taken
to a smaller shears, and are there in a similar
manner cut into single cards, or cut “at
short.” We have now a pile or “ work ” of
cards as they come from the shears, ready for
making up into packs. The pile is then
ready for “laying.” This is done by
women, who proceed to lay into fifty-two
separate piles the “work,” each pile consist
ing of cards of the same denomination, thus
the ace of spades is a pile by itself, and so on;
this operation, as a rule, is preceded by a
previous sorting of the cards, with the object of
throwing out any of them which may have been
soiled, or damaged, or are “ out of register.”
The “laying” being completed, the worker
then proceeds to take one card from each pile
till the whole fifty-two cards forming the pack
are gathered, and they then are placed cross
wise, pack upon pack, as they are gathered,
ready for the final operation of “wrapping”
in the cover, or, as it used to be called, the
“ binder,” in which they ultimately reach the
purchaser. We have now a finished pack of
cards, ready for sale either for export or for
home use ; in the latter case, before it can leave
the premises of the manufacturers, it has to bear
the “duty label,” that is the stamp issued by