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Transcriber's note:
Words in fonts different from the main text,
used to denote emphasis, have been surrounded by
_underscores_.
Superscripts have been indicated by preceding the
superscripted letters with ^. When more than one
character in a row is superscripted, the letters
have been surrounded by {}.
An attempt has been made to transcribe the handwritten
text in plates used to show the different kinds of ink.
Where the original text was unclear, dots have been
used to mark illegible letters, [] surround illegible
but obvious letters, and <> surround letters deleted by
the original scribe.
Hyphens have been added at the end of lines where
appropriate.
Macrons and tildes on consonants within the plates have
not been reproduced.
Longer illegible sections were replaced by [illegible].
In some cases, a descriptive word or phrase has been
added and surrounded by square brackets, for example
[Hieratic text].
Some corrections have been made to the original. These
are described in a second transcriber's note at the end
of the text.
[Illustration:
THE
History
OF INK
VOX DICTA PERIT, LITERA SCRIPTA MANET.
THADDEUS DAVIDS & CO.
NEW YORK.
SNYDER, BLACK & STURM,
LITHOGRAPHERS, 92 WILLIAM ST. N.Y.]
THE HISTORY OF INK
Including Its Etymology, Chemistry, and Bibliography.
New-York;
Thaddeus Davids & Co.
127 William Street.
[Illustration:
FRANCIS HART & CO.
Printers,
63 Cortlandt St. N.Y.]
The History of Ink.
Ink IS history, in the common acceptation of the word; for, what is
generally denominated history—is ink diffused on paper in certain
definite lines. Yet ink has no history written or composed hitherto. In
view of this deficiency—which betrays a singular negligence (on the part
of historians and all literary men) and a thoughtless ingratitude to
this indispensable means of accomplishing and preserving their work—we
propose to supply the desideratum, by furnishing, on these little pages,
what is indicated by the above title, in the fullest sense and widest
scope of the term, including its etymology, its chemistry, and all that
can be suggested and justified by the title, or fairly demanded under
it, or claimed from it.
The great common error of general historians, ancient and modern, (with
a very few exceptions among the moderns,) has been, that they have given
to the world little else than narrations and descriptions of wars and
treaties, of governmental changes and political events, omitting to
record the often far more important facts in the history of literature,
science, and the arts of utility, by which the progress of civilization
and the development of the human race in its higher capacities have been
effected or aided. The great “Instaurator of the Sciences” was the first
to call attention to these omissions and deficiencies in all previous
histories, and to indicate the duty of historians to avoid these
errors,—setting a good example in that respect, in the specimen, or
model work, which he produced as a pattern,—his history of the reign of
Henry the Seventh. Since his time, many special histories of inventions
and of the arts of utility have been written; and the numerous
cyclopaedists have largely contributed to this object; still, however,
leaving many vacancies to be filled in this department of human
knowledge, of which the one before us can not be considered the least
worthy of the labor needful for its investigation.
DEFINITION.
The word INK has been variously defined by lexicographers, cyclopaedists
and chemists; but the following terms may be taken as fully expressing
the common qualities and essential specific characteristics of all
substances included under the name.
INK is a colored liquid employed in making lines, characters or figures
on surfaces capable of retaining the marks so made. The Encyclopaedia
Britannica, (vol. xii. p. 382, 1856,) gives the following definition:
“INK.—The term ink is usually restricted to the fluid employed in
writing with a pen. Other kinds of ink are indicated by a second word,
such as red ink, Indian ink, marking ink, sympathetic ink, printers’
ink, etc. Common ink is, however, sometimes distinguished as writing
ink.”
As to COLOR,—black is and has always been preferred in ordinary uses.
For ornamental purposes and for occasionally useful distinctions,
various other tints have been and are adopted—as blue, red, green,
purple, violet, yellow—and so on, according to the fancy of the maker,
or purchaser, or consumer.
The substance employed to receive and preserve the marks thus made is
now almost universally Paper. Parchment is still used in many legal
documents and writings of form and ceremony. Cotton, linen and silk,
when woven into fabrics for garments and like uses, are also subjected
to marks of ink for the purpose of identifying property. So are wooden
and leathern surfaces in similar conditions. It is also employed in
writing on stone, in the quite modern art of lithography.
Though its great original and continual employment is in writing, it
must be remembered that it is also largely used in the delineation of
objects by artists. Ink and paint are mutually convertible to each
other’s uses, but are yet so distinct in character and objects, that no
one regards the words as synonymous, and no precise definition is needed
to teach the distinction between them. As, for instance, in pen-and-ink
drawings and sketches, the ink serves the purpose of paint. So likewise
in the letters on sign-boards, &c. paint may be considered as a
substitute for ink. The artist who traces his name on the canvas in a
corner of his painting, employs paint in a similar manner. Printing-ink
is used as black paint. In the best red inks, carmine (a paint in
water-colors) is the essential ingredient. Indian Ink is used here only
as paint,—in China, as ink.
ETYMOLOGY.
The derivation of the English word “INK,” and of its representatives in
various modern languages, has caused much perplexity to philologists,
and has been the subject of many erroneous conjectures. We suffix the
names by which it is known in those nations who have most employed it:
English, Ink.
Low-Dutch, Neder-Duytsch, Hollandisch, Inkt.
German or Deutsch, Dinte and Tinte.
Old German, Anker, Tincta, Tinta and Dinde.
Danish, Norwegian, } Blaek, (India Ink, Tusch.)
Norse, Icelandic, }
Swedish, Blaeck, (India Ink, Tusk.)
French, Encre.
Old French, Enque.
Italian, Inchiostro.
Spanish, Tinta.
Portuguese, Tinta.
Illyrian, Ingvas.
Polish, Incaust.
Basque, Coransia.
Latin, Atramentum.
Mediæval Latin, Encaustum.
Greek, Melan.
Hebrew, D’yo.
Chaldee, N’kaso.
Arabic, Nikson, Anghas.
Persian, S’y’ah’o.
Hindustani, } S’yaho, Rosh’na, kali, shira, mas,
and Hindui, } murakkat, kalik, midad.
Sanscrit, Kali, (Black.)
Armenian, Syuaghin.
We might amuse ourselves by extending this tabular list indefinitely.
Enough, however, has been already shown to illustrate a few remarkable
facts which we wish to present that are connected with the etymology of
our subject; but we present a page of Lithographic illustrations which
will enable any “curious reader” to trace the word further.
No dictionary of the English language gives us any help or light about
the matter. Webster suggests “_inchiostro_,” (the Italian word,) as the
source of derivation; and all the Italian lexicographers agree that
_inchiostro_ is from the later Latin ENCAUSTUM, which is in fact Greek,
Εγκαυστον, (Encauston,) “_burned-in_ or corroded.” Encaustum became
corrupted into “_enchaustrum_,” from which the transition to
“_inchiostro_,” is by the regular form of derivation from the Latin to
the Italian,—the L before a vowel giving place to a short I—as “_piano_”
from PLANUS. (The CH, in Italian is always sounded hard, like the
English K.)
Leaving the French word _encre_ as on the middle ground between
different etymologies, and affording no light either way,—we find the
Spanish and Portugese “_tinta_,” and the German (a language widely
remote from those of the Iberian peninsula in origin and affinities)
“_dinte, tinte and tincta_,” forcibly reminding us of the Latin
participle TINCTUS, TINCTA, TINCTUM, from the verb TINGO, which is
represented in English by TINGE, and other derivatives, such as
“_tincture_,” &c. We cannot refuse to recognize the Holland-Dutch
“_Inkt_” as from the same root to which we have thus traced the
corresponding word in a language which we may call its “cousin-German;”
and it is hard to exclude the Old French “_Enque_” and modern “_Encre_”
from this circle of relationship.
Then, we are somewhat impressed by the discovery of the word _Ingvas_ in
the Illyrian, a language of the Slavonic (or more properly Slovenic)
stock, like the Polish,—and, like that, enriched by words derived from
the Latin. The Polish, however, presents us with the actual Graeco-Latin
_Encaustrum_.
Still more remote from the English and Italian, we find among the
Orientals of the Shemitish race, ANGHAS and NIKSON in the Arabic, and
N’KASHO in the Chaldee, with a manifest resemblance in sound, and with
an actual possession of the same elements and radical letters, N. K. Yet
we do not think of suggesting that these words had a common origin with
the corresponding ones in European Languages, though so nearly
coincident in sound. The case is simply one of accidental resemblance, a
remarkable coincidence,—(because occurring at three different and remote
points,) but yet a coincidence not wholly unparalleled.
The probability is that the English word, like the Dutch, German,
Spanish, &c., came from the Latin TINCTUM, but it may be left “an open
question;” for if we had not these instances to direct the formation of
our opinions, we should have no hesitation in acknowledging the Italian
_Inchiostro_ as the true ETYMON; just as, if we had neither of these in
view, we might suspect the origin of our word to be in the Oriental
ANGHAS or NIKSON.
The Ethiopic KALAMA at first sight appears to be related to the
Hindustani KALI; but the latter is merely the word in all the languages
of Hindustan for black,—while the former is but a modification of the
Greek and Latin CALAMUS, a _reed_ or pen,—the instrument (naturally
enough) giving its name to the liquid which was essential to its use.
The word ENCAUSTUM connects, in a very interesting and instructive
manner, both with the history and the chemistry or manufacture of our
modern inks, and is a satisfactory demonstration of the utility of such
etymological researches as those in which we have been here indulging.
The one great distinction between the ancient and the modern inks is
this: The old inks were PAINTS; the writing inks now in use by all
nations (excepting those of Southern Asia) are DYES. That is the whole
difference.
It would be well to give a definition or limitation of the words
“Ancient” and “Modern.” No one has done it hitherto. We will not attempt
to fix the point precisely, but may reasonably say that the period
intervening between September, A.D. 410, (when Rome was taken by ALARIC
and his Visigoths) and December 25, A.D. 800, (when Karl the Great,
otherwise called Charlemagne, was crowned in Rome by Pope Leo with the
title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) contains the interval between
antiquity and modern times.
The introduction of Paper as the common material upon which significant
characters were to be marked must have had a great agency in producing a
change in the composition of the liquid employed in making the marks.
PARCHMENT was the substance in use, among all the European nations, as
the substratum of manuscript, from the time when the Egyptian _papyrus_
went out of fashion. Both the parchment and the papyrus were written
upon, by Romans, Greeks and Hebrews, with pens made of small reeds,
dipped in a fluid composed of _carbon_, (not dissolved, but) held in a
state of suspension by an oil or a solution of gum.
The letters were originally painted on the surface of the papyrus,
parchment, board, or other material so employed—the ink not being
imbibed or absorbed by the substance on which it was shed, but remaining
on the surface, capable of being removed by washing, scraping, rubbing,
or any similar process. The surface thus cleansed was then in a state to
receive a new inscription; so that erasions and inscriptions might be
indefinitely repeated upon it, as upon a modern sign-board.
MODERN INK, on the contrary, leaves its marks upon paper, parchment,
&c., by penetrating the material to such a depth that it cannot be
erased (mechanically) without the removal or destruction of the surface
which it has _tinged_. Chemical agency, as of various acids, chlorine
and its compounds, is generally employed, therefore, to discharge the
color from modern writing-ink-marks. CARBON, in all its common forms,
(charcoal, bituminous coal, anthracite, jet, plumbago, lignite,
ivory-black, lamp-black and soot,) is wholly unalterable in color by any
of these chemical means.
PRINTING INK (which is composed of carbon suspended in a drying oil) is,
in essential characteristics, identical with the writing-inks of the
ancient Romans and Greeks. It is impressed upon the surface of paper,
(that which is _unsized_ or bibulous being commonly preferred,) and is
retained unchanged by the action of moisture, on account of the
insolubility of the carbon and the repulsion between oil and water.
These two forms of ink are therefore the exact opposites of each other,
in the qualities on which their use and permanence depend. The most
important peculiarity of the modern writing-ink, as contrasted with the
ancient, naturally suggested the two names which it bore in the Latin
and Greek of the middle ages, or (to speak more definitely,) the time of
its invention and first employment. It was a _Tincta_, a DYE, or STAIN,
which _tinged_ and _tinctured_ the material on which it was placed,
entering among its fibres as coloring fluids do into cloth in the
ordinary processes of manufacture. It penetrated the substance of the
paper (as caustics or powerful chemical solvents and corrosives act on
the organic fibre): it _bit in_, or _burned in_,—and was therefore well
named ENCAUSTON and _Incaustum_.
CHEMISTRY or COMPOSITION of INK.
We do not propose to furnish recipes, prescriptions, directions or
instructions for the manufacture of this article. No mere statement in
words can enable any one to arrive at perfection, or excellence, or
practical success in the production of this article, or any articles
whatsoever. A skill and carefulness, which can be acquired only by long
and laborious experience, are indispensable to the management of the
various processes. Time is an essential element of success in this
peculiar art; and that makes absolutely requisite also, two other
conditions,—_patience_ and _capital_. We shall therefore be brief on
this point,—referring those who wish for minute details, to the
cyclopaedias, dictionaries of the arts and sciences, and the larger
works on practical chemistry. The following we venture to present as the
most correct account of this subject, derived from the latest scientific
and practical authorities.
The composition of ink varies according to its colors, and the purposes
to which it is to be applied.
COMMON BLACK WRITING-INK is the tannate of the sesquoxyd of iron mixed
with a smaller quantity of the gallate of the sesquoxyd of iron. When in
the liquid form, it is generally the tannate and gallate of the
protoxyd; but after being long kept, (or put on the paper and drying
there,) it absorbs more oxygen from the atmosphere; and thus the saline
compounds become the per-tannate and per-gallate, which are blacker than
the tannate and gallate of the protoxyd. It is thus and therefore that
good modern ink is known by the simple test-quality of darkening by age.
On the other hand, when writing becomes yellow, pale or indistinct by
age, it is from the decay of the imperfectly combined vegetable
astringent,—the marks on the paper or parchment being then little more
than the stain of the per-oxyd (that is the sesquoxyd) of iron. If the
written surface be then carefully washed or even moistened with the
infusion of nut-galls, it will be rendered blacker, and if before
indistinct will become legible. This may sometimes be better
accomplished by first applying a weak solution of oxalic acid or very
dilute muriatic (hydro-chloric) acid, and then delicately laying on the
infusion of galls.
When the writing paper has been made of inferior rags, bleached with
chlorine, the best ink used upon it is liable to become discolored.
Nut-gulls or gall-nuts (_Gallæ-tinctoriæ_) are excrescences growing upon
the leaves or twigs of oak trees, (especially the _Quercus infectoria_,)
caused by the puncture of an insect (the _Cynips gallæ-tinctoriæ_) which
deposits its eggs in the perforations thus made. The _Quercus
infectoria_ is most abundant in Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Asia
Minor, from which countries the galls are brought in large quantities to
the manufactories of Europe and America. The best are called “ALEPPO
galls,” from the name of the Syrian city which is the chief original
market for them. Those from Smyrna are also highly esteemed.
They contain the vegetable astringent principle called _tannin_ in
greater abundance than any other known substance. This is chemically
resolved into the acids known as the tannic and gallic. All the woods
and barks employed in the manufacture of leather by the tanning of hides
contain this astringent matter in various degrees. The oak and the
hemlock, for instance, are in extensive and familiar use for this
purpose in the United States. The blackness of ink, as has been already
indicated, is derived from the combination of these two acids with
oxydized iron in saline compounds which are insoluble in water, and are
therefore precipitated or deposited at the bottom of the fluid, unless
held mechanically suspended in it, by gum, sugar or some similar
substance which gives the quality of viscidity to its solutions.
The following will serve as a good formula for making common ink, and
will be enough to give an idea of the ordinary and general mode of its
composition:—“Take of Aleppo galls finely bruised, six ounces,—sulphate
of iron, four ounces,—gum Arabic, four ounces,—water, six pints. Boil
the galls in the water for about two hours, occasionally adding water to
supply the loss from evaporation; then add the other ingredients; and
keep the whole for two months in a wooden or glass vessel, which is to
be shaken at intervals. Then strain the ink into glass bottles, adding a
few drops of creosote to prevent mouldiness.”
Besides its property of viscidity, the gum possesses the power of
preventing the ink from being too fluid: and it also serves to protect
the vegetable matter from decomposition. The great desideratum or
requisite is that the ink should flow with perfect freedom from the pen,
to allow rapid writing, and that it should adhere to the paper, or “bite
into it,” so as not to be effaceable by washing or sponging. The great
defect to be avoided and prevented is the want of durability. The
writing ink of the ancients was characterized by great permanency, being
composed of finely pulverized carbon mixed with a mucilaginous or
adhesive liquid. INDIA or CHINA INK is of this composition: it is formed
of lamp-black and size or fine animal glue, with the incidental addition
of perfumes. It is used in China with a brush, both for writing and
painting on Chinese paper; and it is employed in other countries for
making drawings in black and white,—the different depths of shade being
produced by varying the degree of dilution in water.
Inks of other colors than black were anciently used only for purposes of
ornamental and decorative writing. In later and present times, red and
blue inks have been extensively employed in ruling account-books and
other paper for like uses. Blue ink, within ten or more years past, has
been, with many, a preferred fluid for common writing.
Blue ink, when properly made, flows with great ease and rapidity from
the pen, dries almost instantly on the paper, and has been supposed or
expected to be quite durable, and unchangeable in color, under ordinary
vicissitudes. Yet, experience has demonstrated the contrary,—though
various and well-contrived chemical combinations have been attempted for
the purpose. Blue inks that change to black some time after writing are
very popular. On well-made and high-priced paper, and with gold pens,
such inks, if prepared by good chemists, may ultimately prove worthy of
the high esteem in which they are held; but their absolute and
unchangeable durability is yet to be tested by experience, before they
can be safely employed for writings of permanent value, and relied on
for use in making records designed for preservation and reference during
a long course of years.
There is a compound of bichromate of potash and extract of logwood,
which forms a very cheap and convenient writing fluid. Dr. Ure
pronounces it “a vile dye.” Yet it may have its utilities, in localities
remote from the centres of civilization and commerce,—as in the new
settlements in western America, in Australia, &c., and for travelers in
Africa, in the Arctic and other barbarous or uninhabited regions. The
following is the best formula which can be given for this compound; and
we present it on the highest chemical authority:—“Take Bichromate of
potash, 1-4 oz.—Extract of logwood 1 oz.—Boiling water, 1 gallon.”
We have taken the trouble to give this prescription or formula, because
some quacks have been peddling it all over the country, at all sorts of
prices, varying (according to the credulity and liberality of
purchasers) from 50 cents to $250. We give it for just what it is worth;
and that is—exactly what this book costs the reader.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The longest and most valuable passage which we find in the writings of
any English author, who has alluded to our subject, is the following,
from “THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING,” by Thomas Astle, F. R. S., F.
A. S. &c., pp. 209 to 212, 2d edition, London, 1803.
“OF INKS. Ink has not only been useful in all ages, but still continues
absolutely necessary to the preservation and improvement of every art
and science, and for conducting the ordinary transactions of life.
“Daily experience shows that the most common objects generally prove
most useful and beneficial to mankind. The constant occasion we have for
Ink evinces its convenience and utility. From the important benefits
arising to society from its use, and the injuries individuals may suffer
from the frauds of designing men in the abuse of this necessary article,
it is to be wished that the legislature would frame some regulation to
promote its improvement, and prevent knavery and avarice from making it
instrumental to the accomplishment of any base purpose.
“Simple as the composition of Ink may be thought, and really is—it is a
fact well known, that we have at present none equal in beauty and color
to that used by the ancients; as will appear by an inspection of many of
the manuscripts above quoted, especially those written in England in the
times of the Saxons. What occasions so great a disparity? Does it arise
from our ignorance, or from our want of materials? FROM NEITHER, _but
from the negligence of the present race_; as very little attention would
soon demonstrate that we want neither skill nor ingredients to make Ink
as good now as at any former period.
“It is an object of the utmost importance that the Records of
Parliament, the Decisions and Adjudications of the Courts of Justice,
Conveyances from man to man, Wills, Testaments, and other Instruments
which affect property, should be written with Ink of such durable
quality as may best resist the destructive powers of time and the
elements. The necessity of paying greater attention to this matter may
be readily seen by comparing the Rolls and Records that have been
written from the fifteenth century to the end of the seventeenth, with
the writings we have remaining of various ages from the fifth to the
twelfth century. Notwithstanding the superior antiquity of the latter,
they are in excellent preservation; but we frequently find the former,
though of more modern date, so much defaced that they are scarcely
legible.
“Inks are of various sorts, as—encaustic or varnish, Indian ink, gold
and silver, purple, black, red, green, and various other colors. There
were also secret and sympathetic Inks.
“The Ink used by the ancients had nothing in common with ours, but the
color and gum. Gall-nuts, copperas and gum make up the composition of
our Ink; whereas soot, or ivory-black, was the chief ingredient in that
of the ancients; so that very old charters might be suspected, if
written with Ink entirely similar to what we use; but the most acute and
delicate discernment is necessary in this matter; for some of the
[black] Inks formerly used were liable to fade and decay, and are found
to have turned red, yellow or pale. Those imperfections are however rare
in manuscripts prior to the tenth century.
“There is a method of reviving the writing; but this expedient should
not be hazarded, lest a suspicion of deceit may arise, and the support
depended on [be] lost.
“GOLDEN Ink was used by various nations, as may be seen in several
libraries, and in the archives of churches. SILVER Ink was also common
in most countries. Red Ink, made of vermilion, cinnabar, or purple, is
very frequently found in manuscripts; but none are found written
entirely with ink of that color. The capital letters, in some, are made
with a kind of varnish, which seems to be composed of vermilion and gum.
Green Ink was rarely used in charters, but often in Latin manuscripts,
especially in those of the latter ages. The guardians of the Greek
emperors [or rather the Regents of the Empire] made use of it in their
signatures, till the latter [the monarchs during minority] became of
age. Blue or Yellow Ink was seldom used but in _manuscripts_.[!!!] The
yellow has not been in use, as far as we can learn, for six hundred
years.
“Metallic and other characters were sometimes burnished. Wax was used as
a varnish by the Latins and Greeks, but much more by the latter, with
whom it continued a long time. This covering or varnish was very
frequent in the ninth century.
“COLOR. The color of Ink is of no great assistance in authenticating
manuscripts and charters. There is in my library a long roll of
parchments, at the head of which is a letter that was carried over the
greatest part of England by two devout monks, requesting prayers for
Lucia de Vere, Countess of Oxford, a pious lady, who died in 1199,—who
had formed the house [or convent] of Henningham in Essex, and done many
other acts of piety. This roll consists of many membranes or skins of
parchment sewed together,—all of which, except the first, contain
certificates from the different religious houses that the two monks had
visited them, and that they had ordered prayers to be offered up for the
Countess, and had entered her name on their bead-rolls. It is observable
that time hath had very different effects on the various inks with which
these certificates were written. Some are as fresh and black as if
written yesterday; others are changed brown; and some are of a yellow
hue. It may naturally be supposed that there is a great variety of
handwritings upon this; but the fact is otherwise, for they may be
reduced to three.
“It may be said in general, that BLACK ink of the seventh, eighth, ninth
and tenth centuries, at least among the Anglo-Saxons, preserves its
original blackness [thereby meaning that its “form had not lost all its
original _brightness_”] much better than that of succeeding ages,—not
even excepting the sixteenth and seventeenth, in which it was frequently
very bad. Pale ink very rarely occurs before the four last centuries.
[Illustration]
“Peter Caniparius, Professor of Medicine at Venice, wrote a curious book
concerning Ink, which is now scarce, though there is an edition of it
printed in London, in 1660, quarto. The title is—_De Atramentis
cujuscunque generis opus sanè novum. Hactenus à nemine promulgatum._ [A
WORK ACTUALLY NEW, CONCERNING INKS OF EVERY KIND WHATSOEVER,—HITHERTO
PUBLISHED BY NO ONE.] This work is divided into six parts. The _first_
treats generally of Inks made from PYRITES, [sulphurets of iron and
copper,] stones and metals. The _second_ treats more particularly of
Inks made from metals and CALXES. [Better say _calces_, or, to speak
chemically, crystallized salts deprived of their “water of
crystallization,” or carbonic acid, by the action of heat.]—The _third_
treats of Ink made from soots and vitriols.—The _fourth_ treats of the
different kinds of Inks used by the _librarii_ or book-writers,
[professional scribes or copyists of manuscripts before the invention of
the art of Printing,] as well as by printers and engravers, and of
staining (or writing upon) marble, stucco or scagliola, and of ENCAUSTIC
modes of writing; as also of liquids for painting or coloring of
leather, cloths made of linen or wool, and for restoring inks that have
been defaced by time, as likewise many methods of effacing
writing—restoring decayed paper—and of various modes of secret
writing.—The _fifth_ part treats of Inks for writing, made in different
countries, of various materials and colors,—as from gums, woods, the
juice of plants, &c., and also of different kinds of varnishes.—The
_sixth_ part treats of the various operations of extracting vitriol, and
of its chemical uses.
“This work abounds with a great variety of philosophical, chemical and
historical knowledge, and will give great entertainment to those who
wish for information on this subject.
“Many curious particulars concerning Ink will be found in “_Weckerus de
Secretis_.” (Printed at Basle, in 1612, octavo.)—This gentleman also
gives receipts for making Inks of the color of Gold and Silver, composed
as well with those materials as without them,—also, directions for
making a variety of Inks for secret writing, and for defacing of
[effacing] Inks. There are many marvelous particulars in this last work,
which will not easily gain credit with the judicious part of mankind.”
We have chosen to give Mr. Astle’s paragraphs on this subject, entire,
“pure and simple,” (with no corrections or alterations, except as to a
few particulars in spelling, punctuation, &c.,) including some
unnecessary formal verbiage,—instead of embodying his facts and
observations in our own language. We shall do likewise with other
authors whose books we use in this work, as the most effectual way of
giving each of them due credit for their several discoveries and
statements, and, at the same time, securing our own just claims to what
we herein present as of our own discovery or production. But we will
give no credit to a mere compiler or plagiarist.
Mr. Astle was keeper of the ancient Records of the English Government in
the Tower of London, and thus enjoyed extraordinary facilities for
ascertaining such facts, and making such observations as he furnishes in
his very useful, interesting, and elegantly illustrated book. As to what
he says (in his seventh paragraph) about the inexpediency of “hazarding”
any effort to revive writing which has faded or become illegible, from
fear of “a suspicion of deceit,”—the caution must of course be limited
to cases where the words proposed to be restored to legibility have
reference to some question of disputed title, or other matter in
litigation or controversy. Mr. Astle would not have hesitated (any more
than Angelo Mai) to use any possible process for the restoration of a
_palimpsest_ manuscript of a long-lost work of Cicero or Livy, or of any
document worth the labor and the time requisite to revive the letters or
read them. Mr. Astle’s slight lapse of pen or mind in stating (eighth
paragraph) that “Blue or yellow ink was seldom used except in
_manuscripts_,” reminds us of Noah Webster’s reason, given in the first
edition of his quarto dictionary, for the use of the word “Iland”
instead of “Island,” viz., that the latter spelling was “found only in
books.” Perhaps the venerable Mr. Astle would have been as much
astonished to learn that he himself had always written manuscript,
whenever he put pen to paper, as the _Bourgeois Gentilhomme_, in
Moliere’s comedy, was to learn that he “had been speaking prose all his
life.”
A comparatively recent author gives the following as the sum and
substance of his knowledge on this division of the subject of our book.
WRITING-INKS.
Dark-colored liquids were used to stain letters previously engraved on
some hard substance, long before they were made to flow in the calamus
or pen for forming them on a smooth surface; and the Chinese made their
“Indian Ink” in the same manner as now, 1120 years before the Christian
Era; but, only used it, at that time, to blacken incised characters.[1]
Ink was termed by the ancient Latin authors _atramentum scriborium_,[2]
or _librarium_, to distinguish it from _atramentum sutorium_ or
_calchantum_. It was made of the soot of resin, or pounded charcoal, and
other substances, mixed with gum, and not, like ours, of vitriol,
gall-nuts, alum, &c. The earliest positive mention of ink is perhaps the
passage in Jeremiah, in the Vulgate, “_Ego scribebam in volumine,
atramento_.”[3]
Footnote 1:
Here we might add, without fear of contradiction, that _Ink_ is still
extensively used to “blacken characters,” without regard to the depth
of the incision.
Footnote 2:
The specimen of the English language which we quote, is not faultless;
and the _Latin_ is execrable. There is no such word as _scriborium_ in
any language, ancient or modern. The Romans called writing-ink
_atramentum scriptorum_.
Footnote 3:
_This_ is a very paltry piece of pedantry. Why could not this author
(who shows that he does not understand _Latin_,) give us the text in
English? The passage is in Jeremiah, chap. XXXVI, verse 18: “I wrote
them with _Ink_ in a book.” The only other references in the Bible to
_Ink_, are the following: 2 Corinthians, III, 3: “written not with
_Ink_, but the spirit.” 2 John, XII: “I would write with paper and
_Ink_.” 3 John, XIII: “I had many things to write, but I will not with
_Ink_.” Ezekiel, IX, 2: “with a writer’s _ink_-horn by his side.”
Gold liquids, and also silver, purple, red, green, and blue inks, were
eventually used in manuscripts after the fourth century,—red and gold
having been employed much earlier. St. Jerome speaks of rich
decorations, which must have been executed with colored inks; but,
before his time, Ovid alludes not only to the purple _charta_, made use
of for fine books, which were also tinged with an oil drawn from
cedar-wood, to preserve them, but, also to titles written in red ink,
which were the first kind of illuminations. The passage occurs in his
first elegy, “Ad Librum:”
“_Nec te purpureo velent vaccinia succo;
Non est conveniens luctibus ille color.
Nec titulus minio, nec cedro charta notetur.
Candida nec nigra cornua fronte geras._”
The last line proving, as Casley observes, that Ovid wrote upon a
_roll_.
This author, not having been kind enough to translate Ovid for us, we
are compelled to do it for him. This “Elegy” of the poet is addressed
“To his Book;” and the following words contain the meaning of the four
lines above quoted:
_Nor shall huckleberries stain [literally, VEIL] thee with purple juice:
That color is not becoming to lamentations.
Nor shall title (or “head-letter”) be marked with vermilion, or paper
with cedar,
Thou shalt carry neither white nor black horns on thy forehead (or
front, or frontispiece)._
The word “huckleberries,” we have rightly spelled here. The
dictionaries generally are wrong in spelling the word
“whortleberry.” Huckleberry, or Hockleberry, is found in the kindred
languages of Northern Europe.
Diplomas were seldom written in gold or colored inks; but some charters
of the German Emperors are known, not only in gold, but on purple
vellum; and Leukfeld mentions one of the year 912, ornamented also with
figures; while several early English charters have gold initial letters,
crosses, &c. The black ink that has kept its color best, in mediaeval
manuscripts, is that used from the tenth to the thirteenth century. The
signatures of the Eastern Emperors are frequently in red ink.
Colored inks were common in mediaeval manuscripts,—the red being most
usual for titles, which has given rise to the term _Rubric_. The writers
of books (that is, the copyists,) often appended their names to the end
of the work, generally in ink of a different color from that of the body
of the work, stating the time and place in which the work was executed.
To this may be added, with advantage, some instructive account of
WRITING INSTRUMENTS,
whose history is closely connected, to a great extent, with that of
writing FLUIDS.
The Egyptian, and all other oriental and ancient scribes, who wrote upon
stone, employed (of course) some instrument similar in character to the
chisel of our modern tomb-stone cutters, or monument letterers. So with
the Greeks and Romans, writing on surfaces of wax or wood, the
instruments were the graphium, or glypheion, (the graver,) and the
stilus, or caelum, all of steel or iron. When the use of a dark-colored
liquid or _Ink_ was introduced, there arose a necessity for instruments
of very different material, and great flexibility, in opposition to the
unyielding rigidity of the tools previously employed. Then were invented
the first implements properly called Pens, or really resembling what we
so denominate and use. These were universally made of vegetable
material, growing in the tubular form, of convenient size, as the
_calamus_, _arundo_, _juncus_, and, in general terms, the smaller stems
of various plants called “reeds” and “rushes” in English. We have
already mentioned the uniform employment of the hair-pencil, or brush,
by the Chinese, from the most ancient time of their writing. The quill,
or feather-pen, was introduced during the fourth century.
We have alluded to the _palimpsest_ manuscripts. This is the term
applied to parchments that have been twice written upon,—the first
writing being effaced to make room for the second. During the period
commonly called “the dark ages,” the monks and other scribes, copyists
or book-makers, were in the habit of effacing the letters from old
manuscripts, in order to make a clean surface for a new writing. In this
way was caused the deplorable destruction of an immense and an
inestimably valuable amount of ancient literature, of Greek and Roman
history, poetry, eloquence and philosophy, merely to make room for
mass-books, and other works of stupid superstition and mis-directed
devotion, or, of scholastic theology and philosophy, now long ago
universally condemned and exploded. Within the past and present
generation, however, the learned world has been delighted by the
surprising recovery of some of these long-lost treasures, through the
skilful and ingenious labors of the deservedly famous Cardinal Angelo
Mai, and others, whose researches in the libraries of Rome, Milan,
Padua, Naples, Florence, and other cities, have resulted in the
restoration of inestimably precious writings, thus partially obliterated
or obscured.
Brande’s Dictionary of Literature, Science, and Art, gives a brief
summary of the same general facts in the article “Palimpsest.”
The fullest and most elaborate exposition of the composition and
manufacture of Ink which we have been able to find, however, is in the
great French “Dictionnaire des Arts et Manufactures,” by an association
of distinguished _savans_, in two volumes, imperial octavo, Paris, 1853,
article, ENCRE.
But, of all articles and treatises on the subject, which we have
examined, that in the English Penny Cyclopaedia has the merit of
containing, if not the best and longest account, a very good and
satisfactory one,—because it expresses all the essential facts in the
fewest and best-chosen because perfectly intelligible words. As we do
not attempt to furnish a text-book for ink-manufacturers, we do not
transcribe in full, or translate, from these and other works of great
value on this subject.
That modern inks do not resist the decomposing and destructive power of
chemical agents (whether acids, alkalies, saline bodies or elements,) as
well as the ancient inks, is the result of a necessity existing in their
very composition and invention, and even in the use for which they were
designed, and to which they are applied. A _dye_ (like modern ink) is
the result of chemical action, and is therefore subject to chemical
re-agents; yet, when well made, it is proof against mechanical action,
such as washing, rubbing, and scraping; nor can it be removed from paper
to which it is applied, without destroying that material, or rendering
that part of it practically useless. But, on the other hand, the ancient
inks, which resist all chemical processes, can be removed by mechanical
action, such as has been named. If a new ink were compounded of the two,
possessing the best properties of each, any writing executed with it
could be effaced by the joint or successive action of mechanical and
chemical applications.
It must be borne in mind that the ancient inks had one use for which
writing ink is now never required; and that was in making books, or
multiplying copies of manuscripts indefinitely for _general reading_, or
_publication_. The invention and universal employment of the art of
printing has wholly done away with that.
Of INDELIBLE INKS, or those used for marking fabrics of cotton, linen,
&c., for the identification of ownership, it is not necessary to give
any particular description. Their ordinary composition is very generally
understood to be a solution of nitrate of silver, or some similar
caustic, applied with a pen of proper material, to a portion of the
surface of the cloth, which has been previously prepared by the
absorption of a gummy or mucilaginous fluid dried upon it under
pressure.
SYMPATHETIC INKS are fluids employed in coloring drawings made for
parlor amusement, or the diversion of children and youth. As, for
instance, a landscape drawn in ordinary colors with a wintry aspect,
cloudy or sombre sky, snow on the ground, and leafless trees, if
properly touched with sympathetic inks, will, at any time, when brought
near a fire, or otherwise subjected to a certain degree of warmth,
change to the hues of summer, the sky becoming of a clear blue, the
trees in full foliage, and the turf rich with grass, each with its
appropriate shade of verdure, as also flowers of their various natural
colors, &c., according to the fancy of the artist, the whole
disappearing as the picture grows cold. The chloride, the nitrate, the
acetate, and the sulphate of cobalt, form sympathetic inks,—the first,
blue, and (with the addition of nickel,) green; the second, red.
Chloride of copper gives a gamboge yellow; bromide of copper, a fine
rich brown.
Letters written with a solution of acetate of lead, are invisible until
exposed to the action of sulphuretted hydrogen, which makes them
distinct, with the lustrous greyish black of sulphuret of lead, the same
substance which is called galena when it occurs as lead-ore. A weak
infusion of galls or other vegetable astringent, will, if applied to
paper in the form of letters, become legible when touched with any
solution of iron. If written with a solution of ferro-cyanide of potash,
letters will remain invisible until touched with a solution of sulphate
of iron.
IMPORTANCE OF GOOD INK.
Astle speaks very impressively and justly on this point; and we
contribute to this part of our subject by calling attention to facts
almost daily occurring or brought to notice in this country, especially
in the older cities and states, where town-records, parish-registers,
and other documents of ancient date, and of high importance in history,
chronology, and genealogy, (as well as in regard to the title and
inheritance of estates,) are found obscured and obliterated, causing
losses, public and private, that need but to be mentioned to be properly
estimated.
In the appendix will be found a fac-simile of a sheet upon which various
specimens of ink were thoroughly and fairly tested, which is a brief but
emphatic demonstration of a difference of qualities by difference of
results.
To show what can be done in the preservation of writing on material even
frailer than such paper as we employ, we need but produce the specimen
of Egyptian writing on papyrus, pronounced by Champollion to have been
executed more than sixteen hundred (1600) years before the birth of
Christ, yet still in preservation and legible, as may be seen by the
representation we give of it.
This is undoubtedly as old as any specimen of phonetic characters or
written letters (representing sounds, not ideas or objects,) extant,
made by marking with a fluid upon any substance. There are inscriptions
of letters upon stone, for which an earlier date of 4000 years B.C., is
claimed with truth. But this is INK-writing, absolutely 3500 years old!
The Chinese assert that they had the art of writing at a period 2950
years before Christ; but they have no records or monuments of that date;
and their characters even to the present time, are entire words,
representing objects, ideas or things, not sounds. In the art of
printing, they pretend to have preceded the European nations about 2400
years, dating their invention of it from the tenth century before
Christ. But they have never advanced beyond the first form of the
art—letters engraved on solid wooden blocks—the very method in use by
Koster, and his associates, until the invention of moveable types by
John Gansfleisch, otherwise named John Gutenberg or Guttemberg, in 1435.
In both arts, writing and printing alike, the Chinese have remained
stiff, solid and immovable at the first step, with the characteristic
unchangeability of the yellow races of Eastern Asia, so opposite to the
indefinitely progressive and self-improving energy of the nations whose
progenitors proceeded west from the original source and centre of the
earth’s population. The same ink serves the Chinese both for writing and
printing, as does the same kind of paper. This ink they invented about
the end of the first century of the Christian era; before which time
they wrote on boards or bamboos. Having next proceeded to the use of
silken cloth for these purposes, the preparation of paper from that
material naturally followed. Their ink, being carbonaceous and
oleaginous, is, of course, (like that of the Egyptians and all the other
ancients,) unfading, and unalterable by chemical agencies, though
capable of being effaced or obscured by watery applications or exposure.
As to their claim of having _invented_ the art of printing, we shall
have something to say hereafter.