Forty Centuries of Ink Part 21

"William Satherwaite."

(The above receipt is a literal copy of the original, now in my possession. It purports to have been written with the mixture it specifies.) * * * * * * *

"M. de Champnor and M. F. Malepeyre, 1862, in their Mannel state that Ribaucourt's ink is one of the best then in use. The formula for its preparation is as follows:

Aleppo galls, in coa.r.s.e powder, 8 ounces.

Logwood chips, 4 "

Sulphate of iron, 4 "

Powdered gum-arabic, 3 "

Sulphate of copper, 1 "

Crystallized sugar, 1 "

Boil the galls of logwood together in twelve pounds of water for an hour, or till half the water has been evaporated; strain the decoction through a hair sieve, and add the other ingredients; stir till the whole, especially the gum, be dissolved; and then leave at rest for twenty-four hours, when the ink is to be poured off into gla.s.s bottles and carefully corked.

"Mr. J. Horsley gives the following receipt: Triturate in a mortar thirty-six grains of gallic acid with three and one-half ounces of strong decoction of logwood, put it into an eight ounce bottle, together with one ounce of strong ammonia.

Next dissolve one ounce of sulphate of iron in half an ounce of distilled water by the aid of heat; mix the solutions together by a few minutes'

agitation, when a good ink will be formed, perfectly clear, which will keep good any length of time without depositing, thickening, or growing mouldy, which latter quality is a great desideratum, as ink undergoing that change becomes worthless. It will not do to mix with ordinary ink, nor must greasy paper be used for writing on with it."-- Chemical News (1862).

"New Indelible Marking Ink.--Dr. Elsner gives the following as a stamping ink for goods before undergoing bleaching, or treating with acids or alkalis. It consists merely of one ounce of fine Chinese vermilion and one drachm of protosulphate of iron, well triturated with boiled oil varnish."

"Put Aleppo galls, well bruised, 4 1/2 oz. and logwood chipped, 1 oz. with 3 pints soft water, into a stoneware mug: slowly boil, until one quart remains: add, well powdered, the pure green crystals of sulphate of iron, 2 1/2 oz. blue vitriol or verdigris, (I think the latter better) 1/2 oz. gum arabic 2 oz. and brown sugar, 2 oz. Shake it occasionally a week after making: then after standing a day, decant and cork. To prevent moulding add a little brandy or alcohol.

"The common copperas will not answer so well as it has already absorbed oxygen."

"Pour a gallon of boiling soft water on a pound of powdered galls, previously put into a proper vessel. Stop the month of the vessel, and set it in the sun in summer, or in winter where it may be warmed by any fire, and let it stand two or three days. Then add half a pound of green vitriol powdered, and having stirred the mixture well together with a wooden spatula, let it stand again for two or three days, repeating the stirring, when add further to it 5 ounces of gum arabic dissolved in a quart of boiling water, and lastly, 2 ounces of alum, after which let the ink be strained through a coa.r.s.e linen cloth for use.

"Another. A good and durable ink may be made by the following directions: To 2 pints of water add 3 ounces of the dark coloured rough- skinned Aleppo galls in gross powder, and of rasped logwood, green vitriol, and gum arabic, each, 1 oz.

"This mixture is to be put into a convenient vessel, and well shaken four or five time a day, for ten or twelve days, at the end of which time it will be fit for use, though it will improve by remaining longer on the ingredients. Vinegar instead of water makes a deeper coloured ink; but its action on pens soon spoils them."

"Beat up well together in an iron mortar the following ingredients in a dry state; viz. 8 oz. of best blue gall-nuts, 4 oz. of copperas, or sulphate of iron, 2 oz. of clear gum arabic, and 3 pints of clear rain water.

"When properly powdered, put to the above; let the whole be shaken in a stone bottle three or four times a day, for seven days, and at the end of that time, pour the liquid off gently into another stone bottle, which place in an airy situation to prevent it from becoming foul or mothery.

When used put the liquid into the ink-stand as required."

Take 6 quarts (beer measure) of clear water, soft or hard, and boil in it for about an hour 4 oz.

of the best Campeachy logwood, chipped very thin across the grain, adding, from time to time, boiling water to supply in part the loss by evaporation; strain the liquor while hot, and suffer it to cool. If the liquor is then short of 5 quarts, make it equal to this quant.i.ty by the addition of cold water. After which let 1 lb. of bruised blue galls, or 20 oz. of the best common galls, be added. Let a paste be prepared by triturating 4 oz. of sulphate of iron (green vitriol) calcined to whiteness, and let half an ounce of acet.i.te of copper (verdigris) be well incorporated together with the above decoction into a ma.s.s, throwing in also 3 oz. of coa.r.s.e brown sugar and 6 oz. of gum Senegal, or Arabic.

Put the materials into a stone bottle of such a size as to half fill it; let the mouth be left open, and shake the bottle well, twice or thrice a day. In about a fortnight it may be filled, and kept in well- stopped bottles for use. It requires to be protected from the frost, which would considerably injure it."

Infuse a pound of pomegranate peels, broken to a gross powder, for 24 hours in a gallon and a half of water, and afterwards boil the mixture till 1-3d of the fluid be wasted. Then add to it 1 lb.

of Roman vitriol, and 4 oz. of gum arabic powdered, and continue the boiling till the vitriol and gum be dissolved, after which the ink must be strained through a coa.r.s.e linen cloth, when it will be fit for use.

"This ink is somewhat more expensive, and yet not so good in hue as that made by the general method, but the colour which it has is not liable to vanish or fade in any length of time."

"Infuse a pound of galls powdered and 3 ounces of pomegranate peels, in a gallon of soft water for a week, in a gentle heat, and then strain off the fluid through a coa.r.s.e linen cloth. Then add to it 8 oz. of vitriol dissolved in a quart of water, and let them remain for a day or two, preparing in the meantime a decoction of logwood, by boiling a pound of the chips in a gallon of water, till 1-3d be wasted, and then straining the remaining fluid while it is hot. Mix the decoction and the solution of galls and vitriol together, and add 5 oz. of gum arabic, and then evaporate the mixture over a common fire to about 2 quarts, when the remainder must be put into a vessel proper for that purpose, and reduced to dryness, by hanging the vessel in boiling water. The ma.s.s left, after the fluid has wholly exhaled, must be well powdered, and when wanted for use, may be converted into ink by the addition of water."

"Ten parts of logwood are to be exhausted with eighty of boiling water. To the solution one thousandth of its weight of yellow chromate of potash is to be added gradually. The liquid turns brown and at last blue-black. No gum is needed, and the ink is not removed by soaking in water.

--Chemical Gazette, London (1850)."

"Sh.e.l.lac, 2 oz.; borax, 1 oz.; distilled or rain water, 18 oz. Boil the whole in a closely covered tin vessel, stirring it occasionally with a gla.s.s rod until the mixture has become h.o.m.ogeneous; filter when cold, and mix the fluid solution with an ounce of mucilage or gum arabic prepared by dissolving 1 oz. of gum in 2 oz. of water, and add pulverized indigo and lampblack ad libitum. Boil the whole again in a covered vessel, and stir the fluid well to effect the complete solution and admixture of the gum arabic. Stir it occasionally while it is cooling; and after it has remained undisturbed for two or three hours, that the excess of indigo and lamp- black may subside, bottle it for use. The above ink for doc.u.mentary purposes is invaluable, being under all ordinary circ.u.mstances, indestructible.

It is also particularly well adapted for the use of the laboratory. Five drops of creosote added to a pint of ordinary ink will effectually prevent its becoming mouldy."

"In November, 1854, Mr. Grace Calvert read a paper before the London Society of Arts in which he said that he hoped before long some valuable dyeing substances other than carbo-azotic acid would be prepared from coal tar.

"In another paper read before the same society in 1858 he said: 'This expectation has now been fulfilled. Messrs. Perkins and Church have obtained several blue coloring substances from the alkaloids of coal tar, and one from naphthalene.'

Also that himself and Mr. Charles Lowe had succeeded in obtaining coal tar products yielding colors of a beautiful pink, red, violet, purple, and chocolate. (These were not soluble in water)."

"Among vegetable substances useful in the arts is one that has long been known in New Grenada under the name of the ink-plant, as furnishing a juice which can be used in writing without previous preparation. Characters traced with this substance have a reddish color at first, which turns to a deep black in a few hours. This juice is said to be really less liable to thicken than ordinary ink, and not to corrode steel pens. It resists the action of water, and is practically indelible. The plant is known as coryaria thymifolia."

"Desormeaux recommends that the sulphate of iron be calcined to whiteness; coa.r.s.e brown sugar instead of sugar candy; 1/4 oz. acetate of copper, instead of one ounce of the sulphate, and a drop or two of creosote or essential oil of cloves to prevent moulding." (See Ribaucourt receipt, p. 194.) * * * * * * * *

"Mr. John Spiller communicated to the London Chemical News (1861) a paper on the employment of carbon as a means of permanent record. The imperishable nature of carbon, in its various forms of lamp-black, ivory-black, wood-charcoal, and graphite or black lead, holds out much greater promise of being usefully employed in the manufacture of a permanent writing material; since, for this substance, in its elementary condition and at ordinary temperatures, there exists no solvent nor chemical reagent capable of affecting its alteration.

"The suggestion relative to the mode of applying carbon to these purposes, which it is intended more particularly now to enunciate, depends on the fact of the separation of carbon from organic compounds rich in that element, sugar, gum, etc., by the combined operation of heat and of chemical reagents, such as sulphuric and phosphoric acids, which exert a decomposing action in the same direction; and by such means to effect the deposition of the carbon within the pores of the paper by a process of development to be performed after the fluid writing ink has been to a certain extent absorbed into its substance--a system of formation by which a considerable amount of resistance, both to chemical and external influences, appears to be secured. An ink of the following composition has been made the subject of experiment: "Concentrated sulphuric acid, deeply colored with indigo .......... 1 fluid ounce.

Water, .............................. 6 " "

Loaf Sugar,.......................... 1 ounce, troy.

Strong mucilage of gum-arabic 2 to 3 fluid ounces.

"Writing traced with a quill or gold pen dipped in this ink dries to a pale blue color; but if now a heated iron be pa.s.sed over its surface, or the page of ma.n.u.script be held near a fire, the writing will quickly a.s.sume a jet black appearance, resulting from the carbonization of the sugar by a warm acid, and will have become so firmly engrafted into the substance of the paper as to oppose considerable difficulty to its removal or erasure by a knife. On account of the depth to which the written characters usually penetrate, the sheets of paper selected for use should be of the thickest make, and good white cartridge paper, or that known as 'cream laid,' preferred to such as are colored blue with ultramarine; for, in the latter case, a bleached halo is frequently perceptible around the outlines of the letters, indicating the partial destruction of the coloring matter by the lateral action of the acid.

"The writing produced in this manner seems indelible; it resists the action of "salts of lemon,"

and of oxalic, tartaric, and diluted hydrochloric acids, agents which render nearly illegible the traces of ordinary black writing ink; neither do alkaline solutions exert any appreciable action on the carbon ink. This material possesses, therefore, many advantageous qualities which would recommend its adoption in cases where the question of permanence is of paramount importance. But it must, on the other hand, be allowed that such an ink, in its present form, would but inefficiently fulfil many of the requirements necessary to bring it into common use. The peculiar method of development rendering the application of heat imperative, and that of a temperature somewhat above the boiling point of water, together with the circ.u.mstance that it will be found impossible with a thin sheet of paper to write on both sides, must certainly be counted among its more prominent disadvantages."

"Fire-proof ink for writing or printing on incombustible paper is made according to the following recipe: Graphite, finely ground, 22 drams; copal or other resinous gum, 12 grains; sulphate of iron, 2 drams; tincture of nutgalls, 2 drams; and sulphate of indigo, 8 drams. These substances are thoroughly mixed and boiled in water, and the ink thus obtained is said to be both fire- proof and insoluble in water. When any other color but black is desired, the graphite is replaced by an earthly mineral pigment of the desired color."

"Ineradicable Writing.--A French technical paper, specially devoted to the art and science of paper manufacture, states that any alterations or falsifications of writings in ordinary ink maybe rendered impossible by pa.s.sing the paper upon which it is intended to write through a solution of one milligram (0.01543 English grain) of gallic acid in as much pure distilled water as will fill to a moderate depth an ordinary soup-plate. After the paper thus prepared has become thoroughly dry, it may be used as ordinary paper for writing, but any attempt made to alter, falsify, or change anything written thereon, will be left perfectly visible, and may thus be readily detected."

"Exchequer Ink.--To 40 pounds of galls, add 10 pounds of gum, 9 pounds of copperas, and 45 gallons of soft water. This ink will endure for centuries."

"Take of oil of lavender, 120 grains, of copal in powder, 17 grains, red sulphuret of mercury, 60 grains. The oil of lavender being dissipated with a gentle heat, a colour will be left on the paper surrounded with the copal; a substance insoluble in water, spirits, acids, or alkaline solutions.

"This composition possesses a permanent colour, and a MSS. written with it, may be exposed to the process commonly used for restoring the colour of printed books, without injury to the writing. In this manner interpolations with common ink may be removed."