Pages

Monday, August 8, 2011

Lucius Poole Could Split Hairs


This Man Could Split Hairs.

Lucius Poole, whose den in Springfield St., Boston, is famous among antiquarians, can do more wonderful things with a sheet of paper than any one else in America--perhaps in the world. Not only can be dovetail, skive, splice and inlay, but he can split. This is the most difficult achievement in the whole art of book patching. Mr. Poole will take a leaf from any of the current magazines and slice it three times through its entire length and width, thereby making four sheets instead of one, each of just one-quarter the thickness of the original. Splitting hairs is rough work beside a job like that.

One of Mr. Poole's tricks is to cut an imperfect picture from a page and then insert one in its stead so deftly that only the closest scrutiny will discover that a fiber has been disturbed. Another is to "plant" a photograph on the page of a book so that one cannot tell that it was not printed there originally.

When Mr. Poole is asked to tell how he performs his feats, he says: "Oh, it's just by work, partly natural and partly acquired. It would take a year to explain the detail."--New York Press.

Lucius was my 2nd great-granduncle.

(Above article sent to me by Carol Merriman.)

Lucius was my 2nd great-grand uncle.