Forty Centuries of Ink Part 17

"The commendation by the chemists of some of the so-called writing fluids explains in a degree the variety of opinions advanced by the manufacturers in regard to the durability of fluids. Some of them will be seen to possess the qualities of ink, and the name fluid is evidently given to meet the commercial demand for fluids.

"Several persons, manufacturers among them, expressed greater confidence in tests of exposure of inks to the light and weather than to chemical a.n.a.lysis. I, therefore, as a dry test, placed on the inside of a window pane receiving a strong light, writing made under exactly the same conditions with each of sixty-seven inks, which remained there from March 13 to December 8. Similar writing was exposed to light and the weather from September 25 to December 8, and the result of the resistance of the inks in both tests is an almost exact confirmation of the report of the chemists, inks of the same cla.s.s varying in their resistance according to their specific gravity or amount of added color.

"It may be safely said, therefore, that of sixty- seven inks of which I procured samples, all but seventeen are unsuitable for records, and among these the chemists say but one is fully up to the established scientific standard of quant.i.ty of iron sulphate. The reason is plain,--the demand for commercial inks is large, for record, small, and the supply has been to meet the demand."

The British government advertises for tenders each year, the requirements for black writing ink in 1889 reads:

"To be made of Best Galls, Sulphate of Iron, and Gum. The Sulphate of Iron not to exceed in quant.i.ty one-third of the weight of the Galls used, and the specific gravity of the matured Ink not to exceed 1045 degrees (distilled water being 1000 degrees)."

That of Black Copying Ink "To be made of the above materials, but of a strength one fourth greater than the Writing Ink, and with the addition of Sugar or Glycerine. The specific gravity of the matured Ink not. to exceed 1085 degrees." And that of Blue-Black Writing Ink "To be made of finest Galls, Sulphate of Iron, Gum, Indigo, and Sulphuric Acid. The specific gravity of the Ink when matured not to exceed 1035 degrees."

Mr. Swan again remarks in his report of 1892:

"Many of the inks which should not be used upon records are free flowing and more agreeable to use than permanent inks, containing more body.

As long as recording and copying is paid for by the page, and the object is to accomplish the most in the least time, these inks will be in popular use, and used, and blotted off the paper before they have much more than colored it, only to disappear eventually. The State should set a standard for a record ink; and, while our present system of keeping records and furnishing supplies will not allow that its use be required on all public records, as in England, it would seem practicable for the secretary of the Commonwealth to advertise for proposals for inks of a certain standard, which the manufacturers should be bound to maintain, and that these should be used in all the State offices.

With a State standard ink adopted, its use by recording officers would soon follow."

In 1894 Mr. Swan's indefatigable efforts were crowned with success, the state of Ma.s.sachusetts adopting his recommendations included in the following act:

"SECTION 1. No person having the care or custody of any book of record or registry in any of the departments or offices of the Commonwealth shall use or allow to be used upon such books any ink excepting such as is furnished by the secretary of the Commonwealth.

"SECTION 2. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall from time to time advertise for proposals to furnish the several departments and offices of the Commonwealth in which books of record or registry are kept with ink of a standard and upon conditions to be established by the secretary at such periods and in such quant.i.ties as may be required, and may contract for the same.

"SECTION 3. The ink so furnished shall be examined from time to time by a chemist to be designated by the secretary of the Commonwealth, and if at any time said ink shall be found to be inferior to the established standard the secretary shall have authority to cancel any contract made for furnishing said ink, and the quant.i.ty so found inferior shall not be paid for."

Professor Markoe, referred to before, was appointed "chemist" by the Secretary of the Commonwealth and prepared what he considered the best formula, for a standard ink, which was competed for by a number of ink manufacturers after proper advertis.e.m.e.nt, and a contract awarded. Mr. Swan says that this departure was received with favor by recording officers.

No change was made in the formula until after the death of Professor Markoe in 1900, when Dr. Bennett F. Davenport of Boston was selected as his successor.

He submitted a modified formula to be employed in the manufacture of an official or standard ink. It was adopted and such an ink is without exception now used by all recording officers of both Ma.s.sachusetts and Connecticut.

In 1901 the United States treasury department adopted a similar ink except that it permitted the introduction into it of an unnamed blue coloring material.

Early in 1894 and during the legislative session of the state of New York, after consultation with General Palmer, the then secretary of state, I prepared a bill somewhat on the lines as laid down in the Ma.s.sachusetts statute. The press all over the state at once took up the matter and urged that some such measure should be enacted into law. A New York City newspaper discussed it as follows:

"A bill is to be introduced in the legislature this week, probably to-morrow night, providing for an official ink to be used by every public officer throughout the State of New York in the writing of public doc.u.ments and in making entries in the records.

"The official ink is for the purpose of making public records permanent and to guard against fraud by the alteration of the records. As the law stands at the present time in the state every official, whether munic.i.p.al, county or state, is allowed to purchase and use for the records of his office whatever ink he may choose. The consequence is that there is no uniformity in public records throughout the state, and entries, transcripts and certificates are written with hundreds of various kinds of inks.

"The serious part of the business, however, is the evanescent character of some of the kinds now used, especially of the cheaper grades. These are the inks made from aniline and other dyes which are held in solution in water. Such inks are made from a fine, cheap powder, of which nigrosine is used in making black inks, eosine for red, and methylene for blue ink, and they cost only a few dimes a gallon to manufacture. The writing made with such inks quickly dries by the evaporation of the water, when it merely requires the application of a little soap and water to wash them out, leaving the paper absolutely clean, besides being fugitive.

"It is said that as a result of the present lack of system in this matter there are now public records of the city of New York in which the ink has entirely faded. These records have been made within the past forty years, and are now worthless because of the character of the inks originally used.

"In the Police department of this city a blue ink is often used which is made from prussian blue. A large portion of the entries in the books of the Police department are made with ink of this kind, and the warrants and other public doc.u.ments with which the police have to do are similarly written.

"A little soap and water will wipe out this writing, so that the record can be easily altered at any time. The use of this ink in the Police department is said to date from the time of Tweed, which is significant of the original purpose for which it.

was adopted.

"A permanent writing fluid such as it is now proposed to adopt throughout the state would not only secure uniformity in the character of the inks used, but it would also throw many obstacles in the way of altering the records.

"The present Secretary of State is heartily in accord with the proposed legislation. He was seen last week by Mr. David N. Carvalho, who has made a life study of the subject and who drew the bill and is pushing the reform.

"Mr. Carvalho said yesterday: 'This ink, whose use it is intended to secure in the making of public records in this state, is more costly than those made from aniline and other dyes, which fade and wash. In it the black particles are suspended in water by the addition of gum. This kind of ink has an affinity for oxygen, and hence it oxidizes and turns black. When unadulterated it only becomes blacker with the pa.s.sage of time, and cannot be washed from the paper by the use of water.'

" 'I could show you,' continued Mr. Carvalho, 'public records of this city made within forty years which are entirely illegible and consequently worthless, because cheap inks were used in the writing. These include not only records of wills in the Surrogate's office, but entries and transfers of real estate which are likely to come up in the course of litigation at any time, thereby affecting the rights of many citizens.

" 'I can tell you at once upon seeing an old doc.u.ment the character of the ink that was used in the writing, and I have seen many old papers over a hundred years of age in which the writing was as clear as the day it was made, simply because a good writing ink was used. On the other hand writing made with cheap aniline ink may under certain circ.u.mstances fade out within a year, and in a book which is much handled is almost certain to be rubbed out in time.

" 'It has frequently happened that in the course of litigation, especially over real estate, that old records made with poor inks have been produced which the court refused to accept as evidence, thereby depriving some citizen of his rights. At the present time many officials in this state, in fact, the majority of them, are using these cheap and worthless inks and the records they are making will be of little or no value in a few years.

" 'It is to put a stop to this abuse that the present bill has been drawn up, and there is no argument which can be raised against it.' "

It appears that there was one, however, as the bill failed to pa.s.s for the stated reason that it came under the head of "cla.s.s" legislation. The great state and city of New York with costly and magnificent depositories continue to place in them, for safe-keeping, valuable records and other ink-written instruments which will become illegible before the present century comes to an end.

Professor Lehner, a German chemist, in 1890 published a treatise "Die Tinten-Fabrikation," which has been translated and added to by Dr. Brannt, of Philadelphia, editor of "The Techno-Chemical Receipt-Book," who remarks:

"The lack of a recent treatise in the English language containing detailed descriptions of the raw materials and receipts for the preparation of Inks, and the apparent necessity, as shown by frequent inquiries, for such a volume, were the considerations which led to the preparation of The Manufacture of Ink."

This work compiles a great number of formulas, and rather favors the views of the chemist Dr. Bostock respecting the iron and gall inks. The book possesses value for reference purposes to the manufacturer.

Auguste Peret, author of "The Manufacture of Ink,"

1891, has put together a lot of excellent material relative to ink-making and valuable for reference purposes.

The late Dr. William E. Hagan of Troy, New York, in 1894 issued his book, "Disputed Hand-writing."

He devotes two chapters to the discussion of ancient and modern inks and their chemistry. He has been kind enough to quote the writer as the first to remove ink in open court with chemicals in order to determine the existence of pencil writing beneath the ink.

The pencil being carbon was not affected thereby and with the subsequent restoration of the bleached ink by the use of the correct re-agent.

In the same year Dr. Persifor Frazer of Philadelphia published his "Manual of the Study of Doc.u.ments."

A few pages are given to the study of inks, and a part thereof is devoted to the researches of Carre, Hager, Baudrimont, Tarry, Chevallier and La.s.saigne, to determine suspected forgeries. The chapter on "the sequence in crossed lines," where he indicates his method of determining which of two crossed ink lines was written first, is both original and a real contribution to science.

Alfred H. Allen, F. C. S., of England, perhaps the highest authority on the subject of tannins, dyes and coloring matters in his "Commercial Organic a.n.a.lysis,"

revised and edited by Professor J. Merritt Mathews of Pennsylvania, edition of 1900, devotes eight pages to the subject of the "Examination of Ink Marks." He says:

"Ordinary writing ink was formerly always made from a decoction of galls, to which green vitriol was added. Of late, the composition of writing inks has become far less constant, aniline and other dyes being frequently employed, and other metallic salts subst.i.tuted for the ferrous- sulphate formerly invariably used. The best black ink is a tanno-gallate of iron, obtained by adding an infusion of nut-galls to a solution of ferrous- sulphate (copperas)."

In 1897 the author in a paper read before the New York State Bar a.s.sociation at Albany, ent.i.tled "A Plea for the Preservation of the Public Records," discussed the question of the stability of inks and their phenomena and took occasion to make recommendations as to their const.i.tution and future methods of employment. A vote of thanks was adopted and the a.s.sociation referred the paper to the Committee on Law Reform, where no doubt it still slumbers.

CHAPTER XVI.

ENDURING INK.

ASCERTAINMENT OF A CORRECT INK FORMULA THE WORK OF OVER A CENTURY--CHARACTER OF THE EVIDENCE WHICH ESTABLISHES IT--THE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE AUTHOR IN THIS DIRECTION AND COMPARISON WITH THOSE OF COMMISSIONER SWAN--ELIMINATION OF THE "ADDED" COLORS AND THEIR ORIGIN-- DISCUSSION OF THE RELATIVE MERITS OF LAMPBLACK, MADDER AND INDIGO--THE DURABLE VIRTUES OF INDIGO WHEN EMPLOYED ALONE--CAUSE OF THE BROWNING OF INKS--LONGEVITY OF INK DUE TO VEHICLE WHICH CARRIES IT--WHEN PERFECT INK WILL BE INVENTED.

TO ascertain the correct formula of a substantially permanent ink, as we have learned, has been the aim during a century or more, of able chemists, manufacturers and laymen. Their experiments and study of ancient and modern doc.u.ments all point unerringly in the direction of an ink containing iron and galls.

Acc.u.mulated evidence may be said to establish itself in the light of investigation and experience and becomes more and more a certainty when considered, reviewed and discussed in connection with a chronological history of the "gall" inks since they came into semi-official and other uses centuries ago.

Descriptions of MSS. containing ink writings hundreds of years old, many of them as legible as when first written, are silent witnesses whose testimony cannot be a.s.sailed. Such information when a.s.sembled together minimizes many of the conditions which have existed and interposed in preventing during the last four decades a general adoption or re-adoption of such a tanno-gallate of iron ink, the lasting qualities of which some of our forefathers estimated would, and as we know have stood the test of time.

a.s.suming this character of ink to have been employed in past centuries, the cause or causes for the differentiations in respect to color and durability become of paramount importance.