me or spirit lamp underneath. When this is ready the
sheets to be sized can be put in one after another and taken out at
once. The hot size will be found to take out a great many stains, and
especially those deep brown stains that come from water. If there are
only a few sheets, they can be placed between blotting-paper as they
are removed from the size; but if there is a whole book, it is best to
lay them in a pile one on the other, and when all have been sized to
squeeze them in the "lying press" between pressing-boards, a pan being
put underneath to catch the liquid squeezed out. When the sheets have
been squeezed they can be readily handled, and should be spread out to
dry on a table upon clean paper. When they are getting dry and firm
they can be hung on strings stretched across the room, slightly
overlapping one another. The strings must first be covered with slips
of clean paper, and the sized sheets should have more paper over them
to keep them clean.

Before sizing it will be necessary to go through a book and take out
any pencil or dust marks that can be removed with indiarubber or bread
crumbs, or the size will fix them, and it will be found exceedingly
difficult to remove them afterwards.

When the sheets are dry they should be carefully mended in any places
that may be torn, and folded up into sections and pressed. A long,
comparatively light pressure will be found to flatten them better and
with less injury to the surface of the paper than a short, very heavy
pressure, such as that of the rolling-machine.

In some cases it will be found that sheets of old books are so far
damaged as to be hardly strong enough to handle. Such sheets must be
sized in rather a stronger size in the following way:--Take a sheet of
heavily-sized paper, such as notepaper, and carefully lay your damaged
sheet on that. Then put another sheet of strong paper on the top, and
put all three sheets into the size. It will be found that the top
sheet can then be easily lifted off, and the size be made to flow over
the face of the damaged sheet. Then, if the top sheet be put on again,
the three sheets, if handled as one, can be turned over and the
operation repeated, and size induced to cover the back of the damaged
leaf. The three sheets must then be taken out and laid between
blotting-paper to take up the surplus moisture. The top sheet must
then be carefully peeled off, and the damaged page laid face downwards
on clean blotting-paper