Frank H. Smyth

As a member of the American Institute of the City of New York, Mr. Rutter was one of the two judges to pass upon the merits of the book-sewing machines invented by Frank H. Smyth of Hartford, Conn., in 1888. As a practical binder he pointed out the shortcomings of the original invention, suggesting alterations and improvements to Mr. Smyth, which were at once adopted by him and two years later he was one of the first binders in the country to install the new machines and put them to a practical test. He (Rutter) himself was the inventor in 1865 of a beveling machine for beveling the edges of cardboards used as book covers, a machine that has been universally adopted by the trade.