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Title: Forty Centuries of Ink

Author: David Nunes Carvalho

Release date: October 1, 1998 [eBook #1483]
Most recently updated: April 2, 2015

Language: English

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CENTURIES OF INK ***

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Forty Centuries of Ink by David N. Carvalho.

FORTY CENTURIES OF INK

OR

A CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE CONCERNING INK AND ITS BACKGROUNDS

INTRODUCING INCIDENTAL OBSERVATIONS AND DEDUCTIONS, PARALLELS OF
TIME AND COLOR PHENOMENA, BIBLIOGRAPHY, CHEMISTRY, POETICAL
EFFUSIONS, CITATIONS, ANECDOTES AND CURIOSA TOGETHER WITH SOME
EVIDENCE RESPECTING THE EVANESCENT CHARACTER OF MOST INKS OF TO-
DAY AND AN EPITOME OF CHEMICO-LEGAL INK.

BY DAVID N. CARVALHO

PREFACE.

The unfortunate conditions surrounding the almost universal use of the
oddly named commercial and with few exceptions record inks, and the so-
called modern paper, is the motive for the writing of this book. The
numerous color products of coal tar, now so largely employed in the
preparation of ink, and the worse material utilized in the manufacture of the
hard- finished writing papers, menace the future preservation of public and
other records. Those who occupy official position and who can help to
ameliorate this increasing evil, should begin to do so without delay. Abroad
England, Germany and France and at home Massachusetts and Connecticut
have sought to modify these conditions by legislation and our National
Treasury Department only last year, in establishing a standard for its ink,
gives official recognition of these truths.

There is no "History of Ink;" but of ink history there is a wealth of
material, although historians have neglected to record information about the
very substance by which they sought to keep and transmit the chronicles
they most desired to preserve. From the beginning of the Christian era to
the present day, "Ink" literature, exclusive of its etymology, chemical
formulas, and methods of manufacture, has been confined to brief
statements in the encyclopedias, which but repeat each other. A half dozen
original articles, covering only some particular branch together with a few
treatises more general in their ramifications of the subject, can also be

found. Seventy lines about "writing ink" covering its history for nearly four
thousand years is all that is said in "The Origin and Progress of
Handwriting," a revised book of hundreds of pages of Sir Thomas Astle,
London, 1876, and once deemed the very highest authority.

The mass of ancient and comparatively modern documents which we
have inherited, chronicle nothing about the material with which they were
written. The more valuable of them are disfigured by the superscription of
newer writings over the partially erased earlier ones, thus rendering the
work of ascertaining their real character most difficult. Nevertheless, patient
research and advanced science have enabled us to intelligently study and
investigate, and from the evidence thus gained, to state facts and formulate
opinions that may perhaps outlast criticism.

The bibliographical story of "Ink" is replete with many interesting
episodes, anecdotes and poetical effusions. Its chemical history is a varied
and phenomenal one. Before the nineteenth century the ink industry was
confined to the few. Since then, it has developed into one of magnificent
proportions. The new departure, due to the discovery and development of
the "Aniline" family of fugitive colors, is noteworthy as being a step
backward which may take years to retrace.

The criminal abuse of ink is not infrequent by evil- disposed persons who
try by secret processes to reproduce ink phenomena on ancient and modern
documents. While it is possible to make a new ink look old, the methods
that must be employed, will of themselves reveal to the examiner the
attempted fraud, if he but knows how to investigate.

How to accomplish this as well as to give a chronological history on the
subject of inks generally, both as to their genesis, the effect of time and the
elements, the determination of the constituents and the constitution of inks,
their value as to lasting qualities, their removal and restoration, is the object

of this work. There is also included many court cases where the matter of
ink was in controversy; information respecting ancient MSS. and the
implements and other accessories of ink which have from time to time been
employed in the act of writing.

To make a comprehensive review of the past in its relationship to ink has
been my aim. In the construction of this work recourse has been had to the
so- called original sources of information. In these, the diversity of their
incomplete statements about different countries and epochs has offered
many obstacles. In presenting my own deductions and inferences, it is with
a desire to remove any impressions as to this volume being a mere
compilation. "Facts are the data of all just reasoning, and the elements of all
real knowledge. It follows that he is a wise man who possesses the greatest
store of facts on a given subject. A book, therefore, which assembles facts
from their scattered sources, may be considered as a useful and important
auxiliary to those who seek them." A prolonged and continuous intercourse
for over a quarter of a century with ancient and modern MSS., with books
and other literature, with laymen and chemists, with students and
manufacturers, together with the information and knowledge derived from
experiment and study of results may enable the author to make the subject
fairly clear. Effort has been made to avoid technical words and phrases in
that portion treating of the Chemistry of Inks.

This work will no doubt be variously considered. Criticism is expected,
indeed it is gladly invited, for thereby may follow controversy, discussion
and perhaps legislation, which will bring about results beneficial to those
who are to follow after us.

CONTENTS

I. GENESIS OF INK
II. ANTIQUITY OF INK
III. CLASSICAL INK AND ITS EXODUS
IV. CLASSICAL INK AND ITS EXODUS (Continued)
V. REVIVAL OF INK
VI. INK OF THE WEST
VII. EARLY MEDIAEVAL INK
VIII. MEDIAEVAL INK
IX. END OF MEDIAEVAL INK
X. RENAISSANCE INK
XI. ANCIENT INK TREATISES
XII. STUDY OF INK
XIII. STUDY OF INK
XIV. CLASSIFICATIONS OF INK
XV. OFFICIAL AND LEGAL INK
XVI. ENDURING INK
XVII. INK PHENOMENA
XVIII. INK CHEMISTRY
XIX. FRAUDULENT INK BACKGROUNDS
XX. FUGITIVE INK.
XXI. ANCIENT AND MODERN INK RECEIPTS
XXII. INK INDUSTRY.

XXIII. CHEMICO-LEGAL INK
XXIV. CHEMICO-LEGAL INK (Continued)
XXV. INK UTENSILS OF ANTIQUITY
XXVI. INK UTENSILS (Quill PEN v. Steel Pen)
XXVII. SUBSTITUTES FOR INK UTENSILS ("Lead" and other Pencils)
XXVIII. ANCIENT INK BACKGROUNDS (The Origin of Papyrus)
XXIX. ANCIENT INK BACKGROUNDS (Parchment and Vellum)
XXX. MODERN INK BACKGROUNDS (True Paper)
XXXI. MODERN INK BACKGROUNDS (Wood Paper and Safety Paper)
XXXII. CURIOSA (Ink and other Writing Materials)

FORTY CENTURIES OF INK

CHAPTER I.
GENESIS OF INK.

THE ORIGIN OF INK—COMPOSITION OF THE COLORED INKS OF ANTIQUITY—
ANCIENT NAMES FOR BLACK INKS—METHODS OF THEIR MANUFACTURE—THE
INVENTION OF "INDIAN" INK—THE ART OF DYEING HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED
—THE SYMBOLIC ESTIMATION OF COLORS—THE EMPLOYMENT OF TINCTURES
AS INKS—CONSIDERATION OF THE ANTIQUITY OF ARTIFICIAL INKS AND THE
BLACK INKS OF INTERMEDIATE TIMES—ORIGIN OF THE COLORED PIGMENTS OF
ANTIQUITY-CITATIONS FROM HERODOTUS, PLINY AND ARBUTHNOT—PRICES
CURRENT, OF ANCIENT INKS AND COLORS—WHY THE NATURAL INKS FORMERLY
EMPLOYED ARE NOT STILL EXTANT—THE KIND OF INK EMPLOYED BY THE
PRIESTS IN THE TIME OF MOSES—ILLUSTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS
IN ITS RELATIONSHIP TO WRITING IMPLEMENTS—THE USE OF BOTH RED AND
BLACK INK IN JOSEPH'S TIME—ITS OTHER HISTORY PRECEDING THE
DEPARTURE OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT—THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALL BUT A FEW
KINDS OF INK—INK TRADITIONS AND THEIR VALUE—STORY ABOUT THE
ORACLES OF THE SIBYLS—HOW THE ANCIENT HISTORIANS SOUGHT TO BE
MISLEADING—ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE BY RICHARDSON:

THE origin of Ink belongs to an era following the invention of writing.
When the development of that art had advanced beyond the age of stone
inscription or clay tablet, some material for marking with the reed and the
brush was necessary. It was not difficult to obtain black or colored mixtures
for this purpose. With their advent, forty centuries or more ago, begins the
genesis of ink.

The colored inks of antiquity included the use of a variety of dyes and
pigmentary colors, typical of those employed in the ancient art of dyeing, in
which the Egyptians excelled and still thought by many to be one of the lost
arts. The Bible and alleged contemporary and later literature make frequent
mention of black and many colors of brilliant hues.

In tracing the arts of handwriting and dyeing, some definite facts are to
be predicated as to the most remote history of ink.

The Hebrew word for ink is deyo, so called from its blackness. As
primitively prepared for ritualistic purposes and for a continuing period of
more than two thousand years, it was a simple mixture of powdered
charcoal or soot with water, to which gum was sometimes added.

The Arabian methods of making ink (alchiber) were more complex.
Lampblack was first made by the burning of oil, tar or rosin, which was
then commingled with gum and honey and pressed into small wafers or
cakes, to which water could be added when wanted for use.

About 1200 years before the Christian era, the Chinese perfected this
method and invented "Indian Ink," ostensibly for blackening the surface of
raised hieroglyphics, which "was obtained from the soot produced by the
smoke of pines and the oil in lamps, mixed with the isinglass (gelatin) of
asses' skin, and musk to correct the odour of the oil." Du Halde cites the
following, as of the time of the celebrated Emperor Wu-Wong, who
flourished 1120 years before Christ:

"As the stone Me (a word signifying blackening in the Chinese
language), which is used to blacken the engraved characters, can never
become white; so a heart blackened by vices will always retain its
blackness."

That the art of dyeing was known, valued and applied among early
nations, is abundantly clear. The allusions to "purple and fine raiment," to
"dyed garments," to "cloth of many colours," &c., are numerous in the
Bible. In a note to the "Pictorial Bible, after an allusion to the antiquity of
this art, and to the pre- eminence attached by the ancients to purple beyond
every other color, it is remarked: "It is important to understand that the
word purple, in ancient writings, does not denote one particular colour."

Many of the names of the dyestuffs have come down to us, some of them
still in use at this time and others obsolete. They were employed sometimes
as ink, and certain color values given to them, of which the more important
were blue, red, yellow, green, white, black, purple, gold and silver. Some
colors were estimated symbolically. White was everywhere the symbol of
purity and the emblem of innocence, and, just opposite, black was held up
as an emblem of affliction and calamity.

Green was the emblem of freshness, vigor and prosperity.

Blue was the symbol of revelation; it was pre-eminently the celestial
color blessed among heathen nations, and among the Hebrews it was the
Jehovah color, the symbol of the revered God. Hence, it was the color
predominant in Mosaic ceremonies.

Purple was associated as the dress of kings, with ideas of royalty and
majesty.

Crimson and scarlet, from their resemblance to blood, became symbolical
of life, and also an emblem of that which was indelible or deeply ingrained.

Later, in Christian times, only five colors were recognized as fitting for
theological meaning or expression: white, red, green, violet and black.

White was esteemed as being the union of all the rays of light, and is
often referred to as the symbol of truth and spotless purity. Red was
emblematic both of fire and love, while green from its analogy to the
vegetable world, was indicative of life and hope. Violet was considered the
color of penitence and sorrow. Blue was forbidden except as a color
peculiarly appropriated to the Virgin Mary, while black represented
universally sorrow, destruction and death.

The art of dyeing was also well understood and practiced in Persia in the
most ancient periods. The modern Persians have chosen Christ as their
patron, and Bischoff says at present call a dyehouse Christ's workshop,
from a tradition they have that He was of that profession, which is probably
founded on the old legend "that Christ being put apprentice to a dyer, His
master desired him to dye some pieces of cloth of different colors; He put
them all into a boiler, and when the dyer took them out he was terribly
frightened on finding that each had its proper color."

This, or a similar legend, occurs in the apocryphal book entitled, "The
First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ." The following is the passage:

"On a certain day also, when the Lord Jesus was playing with the boys,
and running about, He passed by a dyer's shop whose name was Salem, and
there were in his shop many pieces of cloth belonging to the people of that
city, which they designed to dye of several colors. Then the Lord, Jesus,
going into the dyer's shop, took all the cloths and threw them into the
furnace. When Salem came home and saw the cloth spoiled, he began to
make a great noise and to chide the Lord Jesus, saying: 'What hast Thou
done, unto me, O thou son of Mary? Thou hast injured both me and my
neighbors; they all desired their cloths of a proper color, but Thou hast
come and spoiled them all.' The Lord Jesus replied: 'I will change the color
of every cloth to what color thou desirest,' and then He presently began to

take the cloths out of the furnace; and they were all dyed of those same
colors which the dyer desired. And when the Jews saw this surprising
miracle they praised God."

The ancients used also a number of tinctures as ink, among them a brown
color, sepia, in Hebrew tekeleth. As a natural ink its origin antedates every
other ink, artificial or otherwise, in the world. It is a black-brown liquor,
secreted by a small gland into an oval pouch, and through a connecting duct
is ejected at will by the cuttle fish which inhabits the seas of Europe,
especially the Mediterranean. These fish constantly employ the contents of
their "ink bags" to discolor the water, when in the presence of enemies, in
order to facilitate their escape from them.

The black broth of the Spartans was composed of this product. The
Egyptians sometimes used it for coloring inscriptions on stone. It is the
most lasting of all natural ink substances.

So great is the antiquity of artificial ink that the name of its inventor or
date of its invention are alike unknown. The poet Whitehead refers to it as
follows:

Hard that his name it should not save,
Who first poured forth the sable wave."

The common black ink of the ancients was essentially different in
composition and less liable to fade than those used at the present time. It
was not a stain like ours, and when Horace wrote

"And yet as ink the fairest paper stains,
So worthless verse pollutes the fairest deeds,"

he must have had in mind the vitriolic ink of his own time.

But little information relative to black inks of the intermediate times has
come down to us, and it is conveyed through questioned writings of authors
who flourished about the period of the life of Jesus Christ; the Younger
Pliny and Dioscorides are the most prominent of them. They present many
curious recipes. One of these, suggested by Pliny, is that the addition of an
infusion of wormwood to ink will prevent the destruction of MSS. by mice.

From a memoir by M. Rousset upon the pigments and dyes used by the
ancients, it would appear that the variety was very considerable. Among the
white colors, they were acquainted with white lead; and for the blacks,
various kinds of charcoal and soot were used. Animal skins were dyed black
with gall apples and sulphate of iron (copper). Brown pigments were made
by mixing different kinds of ochre. Under the name of Alexander blue, the
ancients—Egyptians as well as Greeks and Romans—used a pigment
containing oxide of copper, and also one containing cobalt.

Fabrics were dyed blue by means of pastel-wood.

Yellow pigments were principally derived from weld, saffron, and other
native plants.

Vermilion, red ochre, and minium (red lead) were known from a remote
antiquity, although the artificial preparation of vermilion was a secret
possessed only by the Chinese.

The term scarlet as employed in the Old Testament was used to designate
the blood-red color procured from an insect somewhat resembling
cochineal, found in great quantities in Armenia and other eastern countries.
The Arabian name of the insect is Kermez (whence crimson). It frequents
the boughs of a species of the ilex tree: on these it lays its eggs in groups,
which become covered with a sort of down, so that they present the
appearance of vegetable galls or excrescences from the tree itself and are

described as such by Pliny XVI, 12, who also gave it the name of granum,
probably on account of its resemblance to a grain or berry, which has been
adopted by more recent writers and is the origin of the term "ingrain color"
as now in use. The dye is procured from the female grub alone, which,
when alive is about the size of the kernel of a cherry and of a dark red-
brown color, but when dead, shrivels up to the size of a grain of wheat and
is covered with a bluish mold. It has an agreeable aromatic smell which it
imparts to that with which it comes into contact. It was first found in
general use in Europe in the tenth century. About 1550, cochineal,
introduced there from Mexico, was found to be far richer in coloring matter
and therefore gradually superseded the older dyestuff.

Indigo was used in India and Egypt long before the Christian era; and it
is asserted that blue ribbons (strips) found on Egyptian mummies 4500
years old had been dyed with indigo. It was introduced into Europe only in
the sixteenth century.

The use of madder as a red dyestuff dates from very early times. Pliny
mentions it as being employed by the Hindoos, Persians and Egyptians. In
the middle ages the names sandis, warantia, granza, garancia, were applied
to madder, the latter (garance) being still retained in France. The color
yielding substance resides almost entirely in the roots.

Chilzon was the name given by the ancient Hebrews to a blue dye
procured from a species of shell-fish.

Herodotus, B. C. 443, asserts that on the shores of the Caspian Sea lived
a people who painted the forms of animals on their garments with vegetable
dyes:

"They have trees whose leaves possess a peculiar property; they reduce
them to powder, and then strip them in water; this forms a dye or coloring

matter with which they paint on their garments the figures of animals. The
impression is such that it cannot be washed out; it appears, indeed, to be
woven into the cloth, and wears as long as the garment itself."

We are informed by another ancient writer that the pagan nations were
accustomed to array the images of their gods in robes of purple. When the
prophet Ezekiel took up a lamentation for Tyre, he spoke of the "blue and
purple from the isles of Elishah" in which the people were clothed. This
reference is said to doubtless refer to the islands of the Aegian Sea, from
whence many claim , the Tyrians obtained the shell-fish,—the murex and
papura, which produced the dark-blue and bright-scarlet coloring materials,
the employment of which contributed so much to the fame of ancient Tyre.

Pliny the younger confirms this statement:

"The Tyrian-purple was the juice of the Purpurea, a shell-fish, the veins
of its neck and jaws secreting this royal color, but so little was obtained that
it was very rare and cost one thousand Denarii (about $150.00) per pound."

A more modern writer in discussing a crimson or ruby color says:

"By a mistaken sense the Latin word purpurus, has been called purple, by
all the English and French writers."

Arbuthnot, London, 1727, in his book "Ancient Coins, Weights and
Measures," as the result of his examinations of the most ancient records
estimates:

"The Purple was very dear; there were two sorts of Fishes whereof it was
made, the Pelagii, (which were those that were caught in the deep) and the
Buccini. The Pelagium per Pound was worth 50 Nummi, (8 s. 10 3/4 d.),
and the Buceinunt double that, viz. 17 s. 8 3/4 d. (Harduin reads a hundred

Pounds at that price.) The Tyrian double Dye per Pound could scarce be
bought for L35 9 s., 1 3/4 d."

The very ancient writers state that the most esteemed of the Tyrian
purples were those which compared in color with "coagulated bullocks'
blood." This estimation seems to go back to the time of the Phoenicians,
who were excessively fond of the redder shades of purple which they
obtained also from several varieties of shell-fish and comprehended under
two species; one (Buccinum) found in cliffs, and the other (Pelagia) which
was captured at sea. The first was found on the coasts of the Mediterranean
and Atlantic. The Atlantic shells afforded the darkest color, while those of
the Phoenician coast itself yielded scarlet shades of wonderful intensity.

Respecting the cost and durability of the Tyrian purple, it is related that
Alexander the Great found in the treasury of the Persian monarch 5,000
quintals of Hermione purple of great beauty, and 180 years old, and that it
was worth $125 of our money per pound weight. The price of dyeing a
pound of wool in the time of Augustus is given by Pliny, and that price is
equal to about $160 of our money. It is probable that his remarks refer to
some particular tint or quality of color easily distinguished, although not at
all clearly defined by Pliny. He also mentions a sort of purple, or hyacinth,
which was worth, in the time of Julius Caesar, 100 denarii (about $15 of our
money) per pound.

The best authorities of the present day, however, are of opinion that the
celebrated Tyrian-purple was extracted from a mollusk known as the
Janthina prolongata, a shell abundant in the Mediterranean and very
common near Narbonne, where the Tyrian purple dye-works were in
operation at least six hundred years before Christ.

The price current of some of the inks and colors of antiquity, as quoted
by Arbuthnot, are cited herewith:

Armenian purple 30 hs.=4 s. 10 1/3 d.

India purple from one Denarius, or 7 3/4 d. to 30
Denarii, 19 s. 4 1 2 d.

Pelagium, the juice of one sort fishes that dyed purple, 50 hs.=8 s. 0 7/8
d.

Buccinum the juice of the other fish that dyed purple, 100 hs.=16 s. 1 3/4
d.

Cinnabar 50 hs.=8 s. 0 7/8 d.

Tarentine red purple, price not mentioned.

Melinum, a sort of colour that came from Melos, one Nummus,=1 15/16
d.

Paretonium, a sort of colour that came from aegypt, very lasting, 6
Denarii,=3 s. 10 1/2 d.

Myrobalanus, 2 Denarii,=1 s. 3 1/2 d.

The last-named substance is the fruit of the Termi- nalia, a product of
China and the East Indies, best known as Myrabolams and must have been
utilized solely for the tannin they contain, which Loewe estimates to be
identical with ellago-tannic acid, later discovered in the divi-divi, a fruit
grown in South America, and bablah which is also a fruit of a species of
Acacia, well known also for its gum.

No monuments are extant of the ancient Myrabolam ink.

Antimony and galls were used by the Egyptian ladies to tint their eyes
and lashes and (who knows) to write with.

Many of the dyes employed as ink were those occurring naturally as
animal and vegetable products, or which could be produced therefrom by
comparatively simple means, otherwise we would not be confronted with
the fact that no specimens of ink writing of natural origin remain to us.

The very few specimens of ink writing which have outlasted decay and
disintegration through so many ages, are found to be closely allied to
materials like bitumen, lampblack obtained from the smoke of oil- torches
or resins; or gold, silver, cinnabar and minium.

Josephus asserts that the books of the ancient Hebrews were written in
gold and silver.

"Sicca dewat" (A silver ink standeth), as the ancient
Arabic proverb runs.

Rosselini asserts:

"the monumental hireoglyphics of the Egyptians were almost invariably
painted with the liveliest tints; and when similar hireoglyphics were
executed on a reduced scale, and in a more cursive form upon papyri or
scrolls made from the leaves of the papyrus the pages were written with
both black and colored inks."

The early mode of ink writing in biblical times mentioned in Numbers v.
23, where It is said "the priest shall write the curses in a book, and blot
them out with the bitter water," was with a kind of ink prepared for the
purpose, without any salts of iron or other material which could make a
permanent dye; these maledictions were then washed into the water, which
the woman was obliged to drink, so that she drank the very words of the
execration. The ink still used in the East is almost all of this kind; a wet
sponge will obliterate the finest of their writings.

In the book of Jeremiah, chap. xxxvi. verse 18, it says: "Then Baruch
answered, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I
wrote THEM with ink in the book," and in Ezek. ix. 2, 3, 11, "Ink horn" is
referred to.

Six hundred years later in the New Testament is another mention of ink
"having many things to write unto you. I would not write with paper and
Ink," &c.; second epistle. of John, 12, and again in his third epistle, 13, "I
had many things to write, but I will not with pen and Ink write unto thee."

The illustrative history of the ancient Egyptians does not point to a time
before the reed was used as a pen. The various sculptures, carvings, pottery
and paintings, exhibit the scribes at work in their avocations, recording
details about the hands and ears of slaughtered enemies, the numbers of
captives, the baskets of wheat, the numerous animals, the tribute, the
treaties and the public records. These ancient scribes employed a cylindrical
box for ink, with writing tablets, which were square sections of wood with
lateral grooves to hold the small reeds for writing.

During the time Joseph was Viceroy of Egypt under Sethosis I, the first
of the Pharaohs, B. C. 1717, he employed a small army of clerks and
storekeepers throughout Egypt in his extensive grain operations. The scribes
whose duties pertained to making records respecting this business, used
both red and black inks, contained in different receptacles in a desk, which,
when not in use, was placed in a box or trunk, with leather handles at the
sides, and in this way was carried from place to place. As the scribe had two
colors of ink, he needed two pens (reeds) and we see him on the monuments
of Thebes, busy with one pen at work, and the other placed in that most
ancient pen-rack, behind the ear. Such, says Mr. Knight, is presented in a
painting at Beni Hassan.

The Historical Society of New York possesses a small bundle of these
pens, with the stains of the ink yet upon them, besides a bronze knife used
for making such pens (reeds), and which are alleged to belong to a period
not far removed from Joseph's time. The other history of ink, long
preceding the departure of Israel from Egypt, and with few exceptions until
after the middle ages, can only be considered, as it is intimately bound up in
the chronology and story of handwriting and writing materials. Even then it
must not be supposed that the history of ink is authentic and continuous
from the moment handwriting was applied to the recording of events; for
the earliest records are lost to us in almost every instance. We are therefore
dependent upon later writers, who made their records in the inks of their
own time, and who could refer to those preceding them only by the aid of
legends and traditions.

There is no independent data indicating any variation whatever in the
methods of the admixture of black or colored inks, which differentiates
them from those used in the earliest times of the ancient Egyptians,
Hebrews or Chinese. On the contrary if we exclude "Indian" and one of the
red inks, for a period of fourteen hundred years we find their number
diminishing until the first centuries of the Christian era. Exaggerated
tradition has described inks as well as other things and imagination is not
lacking. Some of these legends, in later years put in writing, compel us to
depend on translations of obscure and obsolete tongues, while the majority
of them are mingled with the errors and superstitious of the time in which
they were transcribed.

The value of such accounts depends upon a variety of circumstances and
we must proceed with the utmost caution and discrimination in examining
and weighing the authenticity of these sources of information.

If we reason that the art of handwriting did not become known to all the
ancient nations at once, but was gradually imparted by one to another, it
follows that records supposed to be contemporaneous, were made in some
countries at a much earlier period than in others. It must also be observed
that the Asiatic nations and the Egyptians practiced the art of writing many
centuries before it was introduced into Europe. Hence we are able to
estimate with some degree of certainty that ink-written accounts of some
Asiatic nations were made while Europe was in this respect buried in utter
darkness.

An interesting story which bears on this statement is told by Kennett, in
his "Antiquities of Rome," London, 1743, as to the discovery of ancient
MSS., five hundred and twenty years before the Christian era, of what even
then must have been remarkable:

"A strange old woman came once to Tarquinius Superbus with nine
books, which, she said, were the oracles of the Sybils, and proffered to sell
them. But the king making some scruple about the price, she went away and
burnt three of them; and returning with the six, asked the same sum as
before. Tarquin only laughed at the humour; upon which the old woman left
him once more; and after she had burnt three others, came again with them
that were left, but still kept to her old terms. The king now began to wonder
at her obstinacy, and thinking there might be something more than ordinary
in the business, sent for the augars (soothsayers) to consult what was to be
done. They, when their divinations were performed, soon acquainted him
what a piece of impiety he had been guilty of, by refusing a treasure sent to
him from heaven, and commanded him to give whatever she demanded for
the books that remained. The woman received her money, and delivered the
writings; and only, charging them by all means to keep them sacred,
immediately vanished. Two of the nobility were presently after chosen to be
the keepers of these oracles, which were laid up with all imaginable care in

the Capitol, in a chest under ground. They could not be consulted without a
special order of the Senate, which was never granted, unless upon the
receiving of some notable defeat; upon the rising of any considerable
mutiny, or sedition in the State; or upon some other extraordinary occasion;
several of which we meet with in Livy."

Some of the ancient historians even sought to be misleading respecting
the events not only of their own times, but of epochs which preceded them.
Richardson, in his "Dissertation on Ancient History and Mythology,"
published in 1778, remarks:

"The information received hitherto has been almost entirely derived
through the medium of the Grecian writers; whose elegance of taste,
harmony of language, and fine arrangement of ideas, have captivated the
imagination, misled the judgment, and stamped with the dignified title of
history, the amusing excursions of fanciful romance. Too proud to consider
surrounding nations, (if the Eyptians may be excepted) in any light but that
of barbarians; they despised their records, they altered their language, and
framed too often their details, more to the prejudices of their fellow
citizens, than to the standard of truth or probability. We have names of
Persian kings, which a Persian could not pronounce; we have facts related
they apparently never knew; and we have customs ascribed to them, which
contradict every distinguishing characteristic of an Eastern people. The
story of Lysimachus and one Greek historian may indeed, with justice, be
applied to many others. This prince, in the partition of Alexander's empire,
became King of Thrace: he had been one of the most active of that
conqueror's commanders; and was present at every event which deserved
the attention of history. A Grecian had written an account of the Persian
conquest; and be wished to read it before the king. The monarch listened
with equal attention and wonder: 'All this is very fine,' says he, when the

historian had finished, 'but where was I when those things were performed?'
"

CHAPTER II.
ANTIQUITY OF INK.

THE INVENTION OF THE ART OF WRITING—TO WHOM
IT BELONGS—ITS UTILIZATION BY NATIONS AND
INDIVIDUALS—WHEN IT IS FIRST MENTIONED IN THE
BIBLE—CITATIONS FROM THE ENCYCLOPaeDIA BRITANNICA
AND SMITHS DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE—SOME
REMARKS BY HUMPHREYS OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS
OF HANDWRITING—COMMENTS BY PLATO AND
THE COLLOQUY BETWEEN KING THAMUS AND THOTH,
THE EGYPTIAN GOD OF THE LIBERAL ARTS—FIRST
APPEARANCE OF INK WRITTEN ROLLS—DESTRUCTION
OF THE TEMPLES WHICH CONTAINED THEM—COMMENTS
OF THE HISTORIAN ROLLINS—DESTRUCTION
OF THE MOST ANCIENT CHINESE INK WRITTEN MSS.

THERE is a difference of opinion as to what nation belongs the honor of
the invention of the art of handwriting. Sir Isaac Newton observes:

"There is the utmost uncertainty in the chronology of ancient kingdoms,
arising from the vanity of each claiming the greatest antiquity, while those
pretensions were favoured by their having no exact account of time."

Its antiquity has been exhaustively treated by many writers; the best
known are Massey, 1763, The Origin and Progress of Letters;" Astle, 1803,

"The Origin and Progress of Writing;" Silvestre, "Universal Palaeography,"
Paris, 1839-41 ; and Humphreys, 1855, "The Origin and Progress of the Art
of Writing." They, with others, have sought to record the origin and gradual
development of the art of writing from the Egyptian Hieroglyphics of 4000
B. C.; the Chinese Figurative, 3000 B. C. ; Indian Alphabetic, 2000 or more
B. C. ; the Babylonian or Cuneiform, 2000 years B. C.; and the Phoenician
in which they include the Hebrew or Samaritan Alphabet, 2000 or more B.
C., down to the writings of the new or Western world of the Christian era.

The data presented and the arguments set forth, deserve profound respect,
and though we find some favoring the Egyptians, or the Phoenicians, the
Chaldeans, the Syrians, the Indians, the Persians or the Arabians, it is best
to accept the concensus of their opinion, which seems to divide between the
Phoenicians and the Egyptians as being the inventors of the foremost of all
the arts. "For, in Phoenicia, had lived Taaut or Thoth the first Hermes, its
inventor, and who later carried his art into Egypt where they first wrote in
pictures, some 2200 years B. C."

The art appears to have been first exercised in Greece and the West about
1500 or 1800 B. C., and like all arts, it was doubtless slow and progressive.
The Greeks refer the invention of written letters to Cadmus, merely because
he introduced them from Phoenicia, then only sixteen in number. To these,
four more were added by Simonides. Evander brought letters into Latium
from Greece, the Latin letters being at first nearly the same form as the
Greek. The Romans employed a device of scattering green sand upon
tables, for the teaching of arithmetic and writing, and in India a "sand box"
consisting of a surface of sand laid on a board the finger being utilized to
trace forms, was the method followed by the natives to teach their children.
It is said that such methods still obtain even in this age, in some rural
districts of England.

After the invention of writing well-informed nations and individuals kept
scribes or chroniclers to record in writing, historical and other events,
mingled with claims of antiquity based on popular legends.

These individuals were not always held in the highest esteem. Among the
Hebrews it was considered an honorable vocation, while the Greeks for a
long time treated its practitioners as outcasts. It was an accomplishment
possessed by the few even down to the fifteenth century of the Christian
era. The rulers of the different countries were deficient in the art and
depended on others to write their documents and letters to which they
appended their monogram or the sign of the Cross against their names as an
attestation. So late as A. D. 1516 an order was made in London to examine
all persons who could write in order to discover the authorship of a
seditious document.

The art of writing is not mentioned in the Bible prior to the time of
Moses, although as before stated, in Egypt and the countries adjacent
thereto it was not only known but practiced.

Its first mention recorded in Scripture will be found in Exodus xvii. v. 14;
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this, for a memorial, in a book; and
rehearse it in the ear of Joshua; for I will utterly put out the remembrance of
Amalek from under heaven." This command was given immediately after
the defeat of the Amalekites near Horeb, and before the arrival of the
Israelites at Mount Sinai.

It is observable, that there is not the least hint to induce us to believe that
writing was then newly invented; on the contrary, we may conclude, that
Moses understood what was meant by writing in a book; otherwise God
would have instructed him, as he had done Noah in building the Ark; for he
would not have been commanded to write in a book, if he had been ignorant
of the art of writing; but Moses expressed no difficulty of comprehension

when he received this command. We also find that Moses wrote all the
works and all the judgments of the Lord, contained in the twenty-first and
the two succeeding chapters of the book of Exodus, before the two written
tables of stone were even so much as promised. The delivery of the tables is
not mentioned till the eighteenth verse of the thirty-first chapter, after God
had made an end of communing with him upon the mount, though the ten
commandments were promulgated immediately after his third descent.

Moses makes frequent mention of ancient books of the Hebrews, but
describes none, except the two tables on which God wrote the ten
commandments. These he tells us, were of polished stone, engraven on both
sides and as Calmet remarks: "it is probable that Moses would not have
observed to us these two particulars so often as he does, were it not to
distinguish them from other books, which were made of tables, not of stone,
but of wood and curiously engraven, but on one side only."

It cannot be said that Moses uses any language which can be construed to
mean the employment of rolls of papyrus, or barks of trees, much less of
parchment. We have therefore reason to believe that by the term book, he
always means table-books, made of small thin boards or plates.

The edicts, as well as the letters of kings, were written upon tablets and
sent to the various provinces, sealed with their signets. Scripture plainly
alludes to the custom of sealing up letters, edicts and the tablets on which
the prophets wrote their visions.

The practice of writing upon rolls made of the barks of trees is very
ancient. It is alluded to in the Book of Job: "Oh! that mine adversary had
written a book; surely I would take it upon my shoulders, and bind it as a
crown to me." (Old version.) The new one runs: "And that I had the
indictment which mine adversary hath written!" The rolls, or volumes,
generally speaking, were written upon one side only. This is intimated by

Ezekiel who observes that he saw one of in extraordinary form written on
both sides: "And when I looked, behold, an Hand was sent unto me, and lo!
a roll of a book was therein; and he spread it before me, and it was written
within and without."

To have been able to write on dry tablets of wood or barks of trees with
the reed or brush, the then only ink-writing instruments in vogue would
have necessitated the employment of lampblack suspended in a vehicle of
thick gum, or in the form of a paint. Both of these maybe termed
pigmentary inks. The use of thin inks would have caused spreading or
blotting and thus rendered the writing illegible.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica generalizes its remarks on this subject:—

"The earliest writings were purely monumental and accordingly those
materials were chosen which were supposed to last the longest. The same
idea of perpetuity which in architecture finds its most striking exposition in
the pyramids was repeated, in the case of literary records, in the two
columns mentioned by Josephus, the one of stone and the other of brick, on
which the children of Seth wrote their inventions and astronomical
discoveries; in the pillars in Crete on which, according to Porphyry, the
ceremonies of the Corybantes were inscribed; in the leaden tablets
containinlu the works of Hesiod, deposited in the temple of the Muses, in
Boeotia; in the ten commandments on stone delivered by Moses; and in the
laws of Solon, inscribed on planks of wood. The notion of a literary
production surviving the destruction of the materials on which it was first
written—the 'momentum, aere perennius' of Horace's ambition—was
unknown before the discovery of substances for systematic transcription.

"Tablets of ivory or metal were in common use among the Greeks and
Romans. When made of wood—sometimes of citron, but usually of beech
or fir—their inner sides were coated with wax, on which the letters were

traced with a pointed pen or stiletto (stylus), one end of which was used for
erasure. It was with his stylus that Caesar stabbed Casca in the arm when
attacked by his murderers. Wax tablets of this kind continued in partial use
in Europe during the middle ages; the oldest extant specimen, now in the
museum at Florence, belongs to the year 1301."

Later the Hebrew Scriptures were written in ink or paint upon the skins
of ceremonially clean animals or even birds. These were rolled upon sticks
and fastened with a cord, the ends of which were sealed when security was
an object. They were written in columns, and usually upon one side, only.
The writing was from right to left; the upper margin was three fingers
broad, the lower one four fingers; a breadth of two fingers separated the
columns. The columns ran across the width of the sheet, the rolled ends of
which were held vertically in the respective hands. When one column was
read, another was exposed to view by unrolling it from the end in the left
hand, while the former was hidden from view by rolling up the end grasped
by the right band. The pen was a reed, the ink black, carried in a bottle
suspended from the girdle.

The Samaritan Pentateuch is very ancient, as is proved by the criticisms
of Talmudic writers. A copy of it was acquired in 1616 by Pietro della Valle,
one of the first discoverers of the cuneiform inscriptions. It was thus
introduced to the notice of Europe. It is claimed by the Samaritans of
Nablus that their copy was written by Abisha, the great-grandson of Aaron,
in the thirteenth year of the settlement of the land of Canaan by the children
of Israel. The copies of it brought to Europe are all written in black ink on
vellum or "cotton" paper, and vary from 12mo to folio. The scroll used by
the Samaritans is written in gold letters. (See Smith's "Dictionary of the
Bible," vol. III, pp. 1106-1118.) Its claims to great antiquity are not
admitted by scholars.

The enumeration of some of the modes of writing may be interesting:

The Mexican writing is in vertical columns, beginning at the bottom.

The Chinese and Japanese write in vertical columns, beginning at the top
and passing from left to right.

The Egyptian hieroglyphics are written invertical columns or horizontal
lines according to the shape and position of the tablet. It is said that with the
horizontal writing the direction is indifferent, but that the figures of men
and animals face the beginning of the line. With figures, the units stand on
the left.

The Egyptians also wrote from right to left in the hieratic and demotic
and enchorial styles. The Palasgians did the same, and were followed by the
Etruscans. In the demotic character, Dr. Brugsch remarks that though the
general direction of the writing was usually from right to left, yet the
individual letters were formed from left to right, as is evident from the
unfinished ends of horizontal letters when the ink failed in the pen.

In writing numbers in the hieratic and enchorial the units were placed to
the left. The Arabs write from right to left, but received their numerals from
India, whence they call them "Hindee," and there the arrangement of their
numerals is like our own, units to the right.

The following noteworthy passage is taken from
Humphreys' work "On the Origin and Progress of the
Art of Writing:"

"Nearly all the principal methods of ancient writing may be divided into
square capitals, rounded capitals, and cursive letters; the square capitals
being termed simply capitals, the rounded capitals uncials, and the small

letters, or such as had changed their form during the creation of a running
hand, minuscule. Capitals are, strictly speaking, such letters as retain the
earliest settled form of an alphabet; being generally of such angular shapes
as could conveniently be carved on wood or stone, or engraved in metal, to
be stamped on coins. The earliest Latin MSS. known are written entirely in
capitals like inscriptions in metal or marble. * * * * *

The uncial letters, as they are termed, appear to have arisen as writing on
papyrus or vellum became common, when many of the straight lines of the
capitals, in that kind of writing, gradually acquired a curved form, to
facilitate their more rapid execution. However this may be, from the sixth to
the eighth, or even 10th century, these uncials or partly rounded capitals
prevail.

"The modern minuscule, differing from the ancient cursive character,
appears to have arisen in the following manner: During the 6th and 7th
centuries, a kind of transition style prevailed in Italy and some other parts
of Europe, the letters composing which have been termed semi-uncials,
which, in a further transition, became more like those of the old Roman
cursive. This manner, when definitely formed, became what is now termed
the minuscule manner; it began to prevail over uncials in a certain class of
MSS. about the 8th century, and towards the 10th its general use was, with
few exceptions, established. It is said to have been occasionally used as
early as the 5th century; but I am unable to cite an authentic existing
monument. The Psalter of Alfred the Great, written in the 9th century, is in
a small Roman cursive hand, which has induced Casley to consider it the
work of some Italian ecclesiastic."

The learned who have made a life study of the history of the most ancient
manuscripts, mention them specifically in great number and of different
countries, which would seem to indicate that the art of handwriting had

made great strides in the very olden times; many nations had adopted it, and
B. C. 650 "it had spread itself over the (then known) greater part of the
civilized world."

We can well believe this to be true in reading about the ancient libraries,
notwithstanding that some rulers had sought to prohibit its exercise.

Plato, who lived B. C. 350, expresses his views of the importance of
writing in his imaginary colloquy between Thamus, king of Egypt, and
Thoth, the god of the liberal arts of the Egyptians; he acquaints us:

"That the discourse turned upon letters. Thoth maintained the value of
Writing, as capable of making the People wiser, increasing the powers of
Memory; to this the king dissented, and expressed his opinion that by the
exercise of this Art the multitude would appear to be knowing of those
things of which they were really ignorant, possessing only an idea of
Wisdom, instead of Wisdom itself."

Pythagoras, B. C. 532, we are informed by Astle:

"Went into Egypt where he resided twenty-two years; he was initiated
into the sacerdotal order, and, from his spirit of inquiry, he has been justly
said to have acquired a great deal of Egyptian learning, which he afterwards
introduced into Italy. The Pythagorean schools which he established in Italy
when writing was taught, were destroyed when the Platonic or new
philosophy prevailed over the former. Polybius (lib. ii. p. 175) and
Jamblichus (in vita Pythag.) mention many circumstances, relative to these
facts, quoted from authors now lost; as doth Porphyry, in his life of
Pythagoras."

For the hundred years or more following, however, the dissemination of
learning and the transcription of events was not to be denied. We find ink-

written volumes (rolls) relating to diverse subjects being loaned to one
another; correspondence by letter to and from distant lands of frequent
occurrence, and the art of handwriting regularly taught in the schools of
learning. Its progress was to be interrupted by the wars of the Persians. Mr.
Astle in calling attention to events which have contributed to deprive us of
the literary treasures of antiquity thus refers to them:

"A very fatal blow was given to literature, by the destruction of the
Phoenician temples, and of the Egyptian colleges, when those kingdoms,
and the countries adjacent, were conquered by the Persians, about three
hundred and fifty years before Christ. Ochus, the Persian general, ravaged
these countries without mercy, and forty thousand Sidonians burnt
themselves with their families and riches in their own houses. The
conqueror then drove Nectanebus out of Egypt, and committed the like
ravages in that country; afterwards he marched into Judea, where he took
Jericho, and sent a great number of Jews into captivity. The Persians had a
great dislike to the religion of the Phoenicians and the Egyptians; this was
one reason for destroying their books, of which Eusebius (De Preparat.
Evang.) says, they had a great number."

These losses, apparently, did not interfere with the progress of the art in
more western countries. Professor Rollin in his "Ancient History," 1823,
remarks:

"Ptolemy Soter, King of Egypt B. C. 285, had been careful to improve
himself in public literature, as was evident by his compiling the life of
Alexander, which was greatly esteemed by the ancients, but is now entirely
lost. In order to encourage the cultivation of the sciences, which he much
admired, he founded an academy at Alexandria, called the Museum, where
a society of learned men devoted themselves to philosophic studies, and the
improvement of all other sciences, almost in the same manner as those of

London and Paris. For this purpose, he began by giving them a library,
which was prodigiously increased by his successors.

"His son Philadelphus left a hundred thousand volumes in it at the time
of his death, and the succeeding princes of that race enlarged it still more,
till at last it consisted of seven hundred thousand volumes.

"This library was formed by the following method: All the Greek and
other books that were brought into Egypt were seized, and sent to the
Museum, where they were transcribed by persons employed for that
purpose. The copies were then delivered to the proprietors, and the originals
were deposited in the library.

"As the Museum was at first in that quarter of the city which was called
Bruchion, and near the royal palace, the library was founded in the same
place, and it soon drew vast numbers thither; but when it was so much
augmented, as to contain four hundred thousand volumes, they began to
deposit the additional books in the Serapion. This last library was a
supplement to the former, for which reason it received the appellation of its
Daughter, and in process of time had in it three hundred thousand volumes.

"In Caesar's war with the inhabitants of Alexandria, a fire, occasioned by
those hostilities, consumed the library of Bruchion, with its four hundred
thousand volumes. Seneca seems to me to be out of humour, when,
speaking of the conflagration, he bestows his censures both on the library
itself, and the eulogium made on it by Livy, who styles it an illustrious
monument of the opulence of the Egyptian kings, and of their judicious
attention to the improvement of the sciences. Seneca, instead of allowing it
to be such, would have it considered only as a work resulting from the pride
and vanity of those monarchs, who had amassed such a number of books,
not for their own use, but merely for pomp and ostentation. This reflection,
however, seems to discover very little sagacity; for is it not evident beyond

contradiction, that none but kings are capable of founding these magnificent
libraries, which become a necessary treasure to the learned, and do infinite
honour to those states in which they are established?

"The library of Serapion, did not sustain any damage, and it was
undoubtedly there that Cleopatra deposited those two hundred thousand
volumes from that of Pergamus, which was presented to her by Antony.
This addition, with other enlargements that were made from time to time,
rendered the new library of Alexandria more numerous and considerable
than the first; and though it was ransacked more than once, during the
troubles and revolutions which happened in the Roman empire, it always
retrieved its losses, and recovered its number of volumes. In this condition
it subsisted for many ages, displaying its treasures to the learned and
curious, till the seventh century, when it suffered the same fate with its
parent, and was burnt by the Saracens, when they took that city in the year
of our Lord 642. The manner by which this misfortune happened is too
singular to be passed over in silence.

"John, surnamed the Grammarian, a famous follower of Aristotle,
happened to be at Alexandria, when the city was taken; and as he was much
esteemed by Amri Ebnol As, the general of the Saracen troops, he entreated
that commander to bestow upon him the Alexandrian library. Amri replied,
that it was not in his power to grant such a request; but that he would write
to the Khalif, or emperor of the Saracens, for his orders on that head,
without which he could not presume to dispose of the library. He
accordingly wrote to Omar, the then Khalif, whose answer was, that if those
books contained the same doctrine with the Koran, they could not be of any
use, because the Koran was sufficient in itself, and comprehended all
necessary truths; but if they contained any particulars contrary to that book,
they ought to be destroyed. In consequence to this answer, they were all
condemned to the flames, without any further examination; and, for that

purpose, were distributed among the public baths; where, for the space of
six months, they were used for fuel instead of wood. We may from hence
form a just idea of the prodigious number of books contained in that library;
and thus was this inestimable treasure of learning destroyed!

The Museum of Bruchion was not burnt with the library which was
attached to it. Strabo acquaints us, in his description of it, that it was a very
large structure near the palace, and fronting the port; and that it was
surrounded with a portico, in which the philosophers walked. He adds, that
the members of this society were governed by a president, whose station
was so honourable and important, that, in the time of the Ptolemies, he was
always chosen by the king himself, and afterwards by the Roman emperor;
and that they had a hall where the whole society ate together at the expense
of the public, by whom they were supported in a very plentiful manner."

Among the other events contributing to the deplorable losses which
mankind has sustained in this respect, a sad one was when the most ancient
ink writings of the Chinese were ordered to be destroyed by their emperor
Chee-Whange-Tee, in the third century before Christ, with the avowed
purpose that everything should begin anew as from his reign. The small
portion of them which escaped destruction were recovered and preserved by
his successors.

CHAPTER III.
CLASSICAL INK AND ITS EXODUS.

THE MATERIALS AND METHODS EMPLOYED IN PREPARING THE INK MSS. OF
ANTIQUITY—THE INTRODUCTION OF PARCHMENT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR
PAPYRUS—MODE OF WRITING ON PARCHMENT—HOW SEPARATE PIECES WERE
FIRST JOINED INTO BOOK FORM—EVIDENCE OF THE CHARACTER OF WRITING
UTENSILS TO BE FOUND IN ANCIENT PICTURES—SOME FORMULAS BY THE
YOUNGER PLINY AND HIS CONTEMPORARY DIOSCORIDES—HOW THE GREEKS

AND ROMANS KEPT THEIR PAPYRI FROM BREAKING—WHEN BLACK INK BEGAN
TO FALL INTO DISUSE AND ITS CAUSE—THE ADOPTION OF THE STYLUS AND ITS
ACCOMPANYING SHEETS OF LEAD, IVORY, METAL AND WOOD COATED WITH
WAX—THE EFFORTS MADE TO RESUME THE USE OF SOME INK WHICH WOULD
BIND TO PARCHMENT—WHY THERE ARE NO ORIGINAL MSS. EXTANT
BELONGING TO THE TIME OF CHRIST—THE INVENTION OF THE VITRIOLIC INKS
—HUMPHREY'S BLUNDER IN LOCATING DATES OF EARLY GREEK MSS.—THE
DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF HERCULANEUM AND POMPEII—AWAKENING OF
INTEREST AGAIN ABOUT THE EMPLOYMENT OF INKS—REDISCOVERIES OF SOME
OF THE MORE REMOTE ANCIENT RECIPES—THE WRITERS IN GOLD AND SILVER
—RECORDED INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATED MSS.—PASSAGE FROM THE BOOK OF
JOB WRITTEN BY ST. JEROME—DENIAL OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF TANNO-
GALLATE OF IRON INK IN THE FOURTH CENTURY— DESTRUCTION OF THE
INSPIRED WRITINGS BY ORDER OF THE ROMAN SENATE—THE ECLIPSE OF
CLASSICAL LITERATURE AND DISMEMBERMENT OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE—POEM
ON THE THOUSAND YEARS KNOWN AS THE DARK AGES WHICH FOLLOWED.

THEOPHRASTUS says that the papyrus books of the ancients were no
other than rolls prepared in the following manner: Two leaves of the rush
were plastered together, usually with the mud of the Nile, in such a fashion
that the fibres of one leaf should cross the fibres of the other at right angles;
the ends of each being then cut off, a square leaf was obtained, equally
capable of resisting fracture when pulled or taken hold of in any direction.
In this form the papyri were exported in great quantities. In order to form
these single leaves into the "scapi," or rolls of the ancients, about twenty
were glued together end to end. The writing was then executed in parallel
columns a few inches wide, running transversely to the length of the scroll.
To each end of the scrolls were attached round staves similar to those we
use for maps. To these staves, strings, known as "umbilici," were attached,
to the ends of which bullae or weights were fixed. The books when rolled
up, were bound up with these umbilici, and were generally kept in
cylindrical boxes or capsae, a term from which the Mediaeval "capsula," or
book-cover was derived. "The mode in which the students held the rolls in
order to read from them is well shown in a painting in the house of a
surgeon at Pompeii. One of the staves, with the papyrus rolled round it, was
held in each hand, at a distance apart equal to the width of one or more of
the transverse columns of writing. As soon as the eye was carried down to

the bottom of a column, one hand rolled up and the other unrolled sufficient
of the papyrus to bring a fresh column opposite to the reader's eye, and so
on until the whole was wound round one of the staves, when, of course, the
student had arrived at the end of his book."

Eumenes, king of Pergamus, being unable to procure the Egyptian
papyrus, through the jealousy of one of the Ptolemies, who occupied
himself in forming a rival library to the one which subsequently became so
celebrated at Pergamus, introduced the use of Parchment properly "dressed"
for taking ink and pigments and hence the derivation of the word
"pergamena" as applied to parchment or vellum, the former substance being
the prepared skin of sheep, and the latter of calves.

The sheets of parchment were joined end to end, as the sheets of papyrus
had been, and when written upon, on one side only, and in narrow columns
across the breadth of the scroll, were rolled up around staves and bound
with strings, to which seals of wax were occasionally attached, in place of
the more common leaden bullae.

The custom of dividing wax, ivory, wood and metal MSS. into pages and
in this way into book form is said by Suetonius to have been introduced by
Julius Caesar, whose letters to the Senate were so made up, and after whose
time the practice became usual for all documents either addressed to, or
issuing from that body, or to or from the Emperors. As that form
subsequently crept into general use, the books were known as "codices;"
and hence the ordinary term as applied to manuscript volumes.

All classes of "books," the reeds for writing in them, the inkstands, and
the "capsae" or "scrinia," the boxes in which the "scapi" or rolls were kept,
are minutely portrayed in ancient wall-paintings and ivory diptychs (double
tablets), and which may belong to a period near the beginning of the
Christian era.

Pliny and Dioscorides have given the formulas for the writing inks used
by the Greek and Roman scribes immediately before and during their time.
Pliny declares that the ink of the bookmakers was made of soot, charcoal
and gum, although he does not state what fluid was employed to commingle
them. He does, however, mention to an occasional use of some acid
(vinegar) to give the ink a binding property on the papyrus.

Dioscorides, however, specifies the proportions of this "soot" ink.
Another formula alluded to by the same author calls for a half ounce each
of copperas (blue) and ox-glue, with half pound of smoke black made from
burned resin. He adds, "is a good application in cases of gangrene and is
useful in scalds, if a little thickened and employed as a salve." De Vinne
speaks of this as a "crude" receipt which will enable one to form a correct
opinion of the quality of scientific knowledge then applied to medicine and
the mechanical arts; also that these mixtures which are more like shoe
blacking than writing fluid were used with immaterial modifications by the
scribes of the dark ages.

The old Greeks and Romans had no substitute for the papyrus, which was
so brittle that it could not be folded or creased. It could not be bound up in
books, nor could it be rolled up unsupported. It was secure only when it had
been wound around a wooden or metal roller.

After the wholesale destruction of the libraries of ink-written MSS., the
black inks began to fall into disuse; their value in respect to quality
gradually deteriorated, caused by the displacement of gummy vehicles, and
a consequent absence of any chance of union between the parchment or
papyrus and the dry black particles, which could be "blown" or washed off.
To employ any other kind of ink except one of natural origin like the juice
of berries which soon disappeared, was forbidden by prevailing religious
customs. Such conditions naturally merged into others, in the shape of "ink"

substitutes for writing; the stylus, with its accompanying sheets or tablets of
ivory, wood, metal and wax came into popular vogue and so continued for
many centuries, even after the employment of ink for writing purposes had
been resumed.

Ovid, in his story of Caunus and Byblis, illustrates the use of the tables
(tablets), and he lived at the time of the birth of Christ, thus translated:

"Then fits her trembling hands to Write:
One holds the Wax, the Style the other guides,
Begins, doubts, writes, and at the Table chides;
Notes, razes, changes oft, dislikes, approves,
Throws all aside, resumes what she removes.
********
"The Wax thus filled with her successless wit,
She Verses in the utmost margin writ."

He also makes reference to inks, in the passage taken from 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."

which Davids translates as follows:

"TO HIS BOOK.

"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 vermillion, or
paper with cedar,
Thou shalt carry neither white nor black horns on thy forehead
(or front, or frontispiece)."

The traditions handed down as of this era relating to the efforts to find
some substitute for "Indian" ink which would not only "bind" to parchment
and vellum but also would be satisfactory to the priests, are more or less
confirmed by the younger Pliny, and makes it safe to assume that several
were invented and employed in writing, though possessing but little lasting
qualities. Their use and natural disappearance is perhaps the real cause of
the fact that there are no original MSS. extant dating as of or belonging to
the time immediately preceding or following the birth of Christ, or indeed
until long after his death.

There is some authority though for the statement that at this time two
vitriolic substances were used in the preparation of black ink,—a slime or
sediment (Salsugo) and a yellow vitriolic earth (Misy). This last-named
mineral, is unquestionably the same natural chemical mentioned by writers,
which about the end of the first century was designated "kalkanthum" or
"chalkanthum" and possessed not only the appearance of, but the virtues of
what we know as blue copperas or sulphate of copper. It continued in use as
long as men were unacquainted with the art of lixiviating salt, or, in other
words, as long as they had no vitriol manufactories. Commingled with
lampblack, bitumen or like black substances in gummy water, it was
acceptable to the priests for ritualistic writings and was in general vogue for
several centuries thereafter under the name of (blue) "vitriolic" ink,
notwithstanding the fact that there could not be any lasting chemical union
between such materials.

It was the so-called "vitriolic" ink, which is said to have "corroded the
delicate leaves of the papyrus and to have eaten through both parchment
and vellum."

These deductions, however, do not agree with some of the historians and
scholars like Noel Humphreys, author of the "Origin and Progress of the Art
of Writing," London, 1855, a recognized authority on the subject of ancient
MSS., who but repeats in part the text of earlier writers, when he says, p.
101:

"Examples of early Greek MSS. of the last century previous to the
Christian era are not confined to Egyptian sources; the buried city of
Herculaneum, in Italy, partially destroyed about seventy- nine years before
the Christian era, and injured by subsequeut eruptions, till totally destroyed
by the most violent eruption of Vesuvius on record, that of the year 471 A.
D. having yielded several specimens."

The MSS. examples mentioned in the citation, must of necessity refer to
specimens of writing made with "vitriolic" and even more ancient inks.
They are to be considered in conjunction with the historical fact that these
cities were buried for more than sixteen hundred years, counting from the
first eruption, before they were brought to light (Herculaneum was
discovered A. D. 1713 and Pompeii, forty years later); also that they must
have been subjected to intense heat and a long period of decay which could
only operate to rob them of all traces of natural ink phenomena.
Furthermore, the information Mr. Humphreys seeks to convey, dates
contemporaneously with the first eruption of Vesuvius, which occurred
seventy-nine years AFTER the Christian era and not seventy-nine years
BEFORE it.

This stupendous blunder involves a period of one hundred and fifty-eight
years; if it is rectified, the "early Greek MSS." are shown to emanate from

the second half of the first century following the birth of Christ and
confirming to some extent the deductions hereinbefore made, although the
probabilities are that they belong to later periods, included in the third and
fourth centuries.

It is affirmed that the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius A. D. 79, did not entirely
destroy the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and that they emerged from
their ruins in the reign of the Emperor Titus. They are also mentioned as
inhabited cities in the chart of Peutinger, which is of the date of
Constantine.

The next eruption, A. D. 471, was probably the most frightful on record if
we exclude the volcanic eruption of Mt. Pelee, which occurred in
Martinique, West Indies, in 1902, destroying thirty thousand human beings
in fifteen minutes and devastating nearly the entire island. From
Marcellinus we learn that the ashes of the Vesuvius volcano were vomited
over a great portion of Europe, reaching to Constantinople, where a festival
was instituted in commemoration of the strange phenomenon. After this, we
hear no more of these cities, but the portion of the inhabitants who escaped
built or occupied suburbs at Nola in Campania and at Naples. In the latter
city, the Regio Herculanensium, or Quarter of the Herculaneans, an
inscription marked on several lapidary monuments, indicates the part
devoted to the population driven from the doomed city.

The ancient inkstand found at Herculaneum, said to contain a substance
resembling a thick oil or paint characteristic of a material which it is
alleged, "some of the manuscripts have been written in a sort of relievo,
visible in the letters when a 'leaf' is held to the light in a horizontal
direction," it is not impossible, indeed it is quite probable, belonged to an
era centuries later than the period to which it has been assigned.

"No perfect papyri, but only fragments, have been found at Pompeii. At
Herculaneum, up to the year 1825, 1,756 had been obtained, besides many
others destroyed by the workmen, who imagined them to be mere sticks of
charcoal. Most of them were found in a suburban villa, in a room of small
dimensions, ranged in presses round the sides of the room, in the center of
which stood a sort of rectangular bookcase.

"Sir Humphry Davy, after investigating their chemical nature, arrived at
the conclusion that they had not been carbonized by heat, but changed by
the long action of air and moisture; and he visited Naples in hopes of
rendering the resources of chemistry available towards deciphering these
long-lost literary treasures. His expectations, however, were not fully
crowned with success, although the partial efficacy of his methods was
established; and he relinquished the pursuit at the end of six months, partly
from disappointment, partly from a belief that vexatious obstacles were
thrown in his way by the jealousy of the persons to whom the task of
unrolling had been intrusted. About five hundred volumes have been well
and neatly unrolled. It is rather remarkable that, as far as can be learned, no
manuscript of any known standard work has been found, nor, indeed, any
production of any of the great luminaries of the ancient world. The most
celebrated person of whom any work has been found is Epicurus, whose
treatise, De Natura, has been successfully unrolled. This and a few other
treatises have been published. The library in which this was found appears
to have been rich in treatises on the Epicurean philosophy. The only Latin
work which it contained was a poem, attributed to Rabirius, on the war of
Caesar and Antony."

Beginning with A. D. 200, the employment of inks became more and
more constant and popular. Rediscoveries of ancient formulas belonging to
a more remote antiquity multiplied in number. Silver ink was again quite
common in most countries. Red ink made of vermilion (a composition of

mercury, sulphur and potash) and cinnabar (native mercuric sulphide) were
employed in the writing of the titles as was blue ink made of indigo, cobalt
or oxide of copper. Tyrian purple was used for coloring the parchment or
vellum. The "Indian" inks made by the Chinese were imported and used in
preference to those of similar character manufactured at home. The stylus
and waxed tablets though still used, in a measure gave way to the
reawakened interest in ink and ink writings.

A greater facility in writing, due to the gradual reduction in size of the
uncial (inch) letters was thereby attained.

There were "writers in gold" and "writers in silver" who travelled from
the East into Greece and who bad found their way before the third century
into the very heart of Rome. Their business was to embellish the manuscript
writings of those times. It was considered en regale for authors to
"illuminate" their MSS. and those who failed to do so suffered in popularity.

These authors frequently allude to their use of red, black and secret inks.

Martial in his first epistle points out the bookseller's shop opposite the
Julian Forum where his works may be obtained "smoothed with pumice
stone and decorated with purple." Seneca mentions books ornamented "cum
imaginabus." Varro is related by the younger Pliny to have illustrated his
works by pictures of more than seven hundred illustrious persons. Martial
dwells on the edition of Virgil, with his portrait as a frontispiece.

The earliest recorded instance of the richer adornments of golden
lettering on purple or rose-stained vellum is given by Julius Capitolinus in
his life of the Emperor Maximinus the younger. He therein mentions that
the mother of the emperor presented to him on his return to his tutor (early
in the third century), a copy of the works of Homer, written in gold upon
purple vellum.

The fugitive character, as before stated, of a great many of the colored
inks, and indeed most of the black ones which were undoubtedly employed,
is the principal reason why so few specimens of them remain to us. Those
which have proved themselves so lasting in character as to be still extant,
bear evidence of extreme care in the preparation of both the inks and the
materials on which the writings appear. Perhaps one of the finest
illustrations of this practice is to be found in a book of the Four Gospels of
Italian origin, discovered in the tenth century (a work of the fourth century)
and deposited in the Harlein Library. This book is written in "Indian" ink
and possesses magnificently embellished and illuminated letters at the
beginning of each Gospel, which are on vellum stained in different colors.

St. Jerome calls attention to this class of books in a well-known passage
of his preface to the Book of Job, also written in the fourth century, where
he explains as translated:

"Let those who will have old books written in gold and silver on purple
parchment, or, as they are commonly called, in uncial-letters,—rather
ponderous loads than books,—so long as they permit me and mine to have
copies, and rather correct than beautiful books."

It has been said that the Tanno-gallate of Iron Inks (iron salts, nut-galls
and gum) were first used in the fourth century. There is positively no
credible authority for such a statement, nor is there a single monument in
the shape of a documentary specimen of ink writing of that one or an earlier
century made with such an ink in any public or private library and as far as
known in existence.

About A. D. 390 the inspired writings (often termed pagan) of the
classical countries, or at least the copies or extracts of them, upon a special
search made by order of the Roman Senate, including those already
mentioned as of the time of Tarquin (some nine hundred years earlier), were

gathered up in Greece, Italy and other parts and destroyed, because, as we
are informed, this Roman Senate had embraced the Christian faith and
furthermore "such vanities began to grow out of fashion; till at last Stilicho
burnt them all under Honorius (a son of Theodosius the Great), for which he
is so severely censured by the noble poet Rutilius, in his ingenious
itinerary."

Not only Roman Arms the Wretch betrayed
To barbarous Foes; before that cursed Deed,
He burnt the Writings of the sacred Maid,
We hate Althaea for the fatal Brand;
When Nisius fell, the weeping Birds complained:
More cruel he than the revengeful Fair;
More cruel heth at Nisius' Murderer.
Whose impious Hands into the Flames have thrown
The Heavenly Pledges of the Roman Crown,
Unrav'lling all the Doom that careful Fate had spun."

The destruction of Rome by Alaric, King of the Western Goths, A. D.
410, and the subsequent dismemberment of the entire Roman Empire by the
barbarians of the North who followed in his wake, announced that ancient
history had come to an end.

It may be truly said as well that the ending of the ancient history of the
black and colored writing inks which began in the obscurity of tradition
between 2000 and 1800 B. C., a period of some 2200 years, was also
contemporaneous with these events.

The eclipse of ink-written literature for at least 500 of the 1000 years
which followed, and known as the Middle or "Dark" Ages, except in the
Church alone, who seem to have kept up the production of manuscript
books principally for ecclesiastical and medical purposes was complete.

Hence, any information pertaining to those epochs about ink, writing
materials and ink writings, must be sought for in the undestroyed records
and the ink writings themselves left by the fathers of the Church. All else is
tainted and of doubtful authority.

********

"When waned the star of Greece was there no cry,
To rouse her people from their lethargy?
Was there no sentry on the Parthenon—
No watch-fire on the field of Marathon,
When science left the Athenian city's gate,
To seek protection from a nameless fate?
The sluggish sentry slept—no cry was heard
No hands the glimm'ring watch-fire's embers stirr'd.
Fair science unmolested left the land,
That she had nurtured with maternal hand;
And wandered forth some genial spot to find,
Where she might rear her altar to the mind.
"Long thro' the darken'd ages of a world,
Back to primeval chaos rudely hurled,
She journey'd on amid the gath'ring gloom,
A spectre form emerging from the tomb.
Earth had no resting place—no worshipper—
No dove returned with olive branch to her:
Her lamp burned dimly, yet its flick'ring light,
Guided the wanderer thro' the lengthen'd night.
Oft in her weary search, she paused the while,
To catch one gleam of hope—one favour'd smile;
But the dim mists of ignorance still threw,
Their blighting influence o'er the famish'd few,

Who deigned to look upon that lustrous eye,
Which pierced the ages of futurity.

"For ten long centuries she groped her way,
Through gloom, and darkness, ruin and decay;
Yet came at last the morning's rosy light,
A thousand echoes hail'd the glorious sight—
Joy thrill'd the universe—one iningled cry
Of exultation, pealed along the sky!
Science came forth in richer robes arrayed
She trod a pathway ne'er before essayed;
Up the steep mount of fame she fleetly pressed,
And hung her trophies on its gilded crest."

CHAPTER IV.
CLASSICAL INK AND ITS EXODUS (CONTINUED).

DESTRUCTION OF THE PERGAMUS LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA— SOME
OBSERVATIONS BY SIR THOMAS ASTLE —COMPARISON OF HIS STATEMENTS
WITH THOSE OF PROFESSOR ANTHON RELATIVE TO FRAGMENTS OF ANTIQUITY
WHICH REMAIN—AUTHENTICITY OF THEM NOT DISTURBED IF THEY ARE OF
PROPER AGE —TAYLOR'S VIEWS ON THIS SUBJECT.

THE storming of Alexandria and the destruction of the Pergamus library,
composed largely of ink-written volumes, by the Saracens, A. D. 642, has
already been reverted to. Astle observes:

"Thus perished by fanatical madness, the inestimable Alexandrian library,
which is said to have contained at that time upwards of five hundred
thousand volumes; and from this period, barbarity and ignorance prevailed
for several centuries. In Italy and all over the west of Europe learning was

in a measure extinguished, except some small remains which were
preserved in Constantinople.

"Theodosious, the younger, was very assiduous in augmenting this
library, by whom, in the latter end of the fourth century, it was enlarged to
one hundred thousand volumes, above one-half of which were burnt in the
fifth century by the Emperor Leo the First, so famous for his hatred to
images.

"The inhabitants of Constantinople had not lost their taste for literature in
the beginning of the thirteenth century, when this city was sacked by the
Crusaders, in the year 1205; the depredations then committed are related in
Mr. Harris's posthumous works, vol. ii, p. 301, from Nicetas the Choniate,
who was present at the sacking of this place. His account of the statues,
bustos, bronzes, manuscripts, and other exquisite remains of antiquity,
which then perished, cannot be read by any lover of arts and learning
without emotion.

"The ravages committed by the Turks who plundered Constantinople, in
the year 1453, are related by Philelphus, who was a man of learning, and
was tutor to aeneas Sylvius (afterwards pope, under the name of Pius the
Second) and was an eye-witness to what passed at that time. This tutor says,
that the persons of quality, especially the women, still preserved the Greek
language uncorrupted. He observes, that though the city had been taken
before, it never suffered so much as at that time; and adds, that, till that
period, the remembrance of ancient wisdom remained at Constantinople,
and that no one among the Latins was deemed sufficiently learned, who had
riot studied for some time at that place; he expressed his fear that all the
works of the ancients would be destroyed.

"Still, however, there are the remains of three libraries at Constantinople:
the first is called that of Constantine the Great; the second is for all ranks of

people without distinction; the third is in the palace, and is called the
Ottoman library; but a fire consumed a great part of the palace, and almost
the whole library, when as is supposed, Livy and a great many valuable
works of the ancients perished. Father Possevius has given an account of
the libraries at Constantinople, and in other parts of the Turkish dominions,
in his excellent work entitled, Apparatus Sacer. (He calls attention to no less
than six thousand authors.)

Many other losses of the writings of the ancients have been attributed to
the zeal of the Christians, who at different periods made great havock
amongst the Heathen authors. Not a single copy of the work of Celsus is
now to be found, and what we know of that work is from Origen, his
opponent. The venerable fathers, who employed themselves in erasing the
best works of the most eminent Greek or Latin authors, in order to
transcribe the lives of saints or legendary tales upon the obliterated vellum,
possible mistook these lamentable depredations for works of piety. The
ancient fragment of the 91st book of Livy, discovered by Mr. Bruns, in the
Vatican, in 1772, was much defaced by the pious labours of some well-
intentioned divine. The Monks made war on books as the Goths had done
before them. Great numbers of manuscripts have also been destroyed in this
kingdom (Great Britain) by its invaders, the Pagan Danes, and the
Normans, by the civil commotions raised by the barons, by the bloody
contests between the houses of York and Lancaster, and especially by the
general plunder and devastations of monasteries and religious houses in the
reign of Henry the Eighth; by the ravages committed in the civil war in the
time of Charles the First, and by the fire that happened in the Cottonian
library, October 23, 1731."

Mr. Astle's comments on the volumes or remnants of volumes which
remain to us, becomes most interesting in the lights thrown on them by

Professor Anthon in his "Classical Dictionary," 1841, which are quoted in
part following those of Mr. Astle.

Mr. Astle remarks:

"The history of Phoenicia by Sanconiatho, who was a contemporary with
Solomon, would have been entirely lost to us, had it not been for the
valuable fragments preserved by Eusebius."

Says Prof. Anthon:

"Sanchoniathon, a Phoenician author, who if the fragments of his works
that have reached us be genuine, and if such a person ever existed, must be
regarded as the most ancient writer of whom we have any knowledge after
Moses. As to the period when be flourished, all is uncertain. He is the
author of three principal works, which were written in Phoenician. They
were translated into the Greek language by Herennius Philo, who lived in
the second century of our era. It is from this translation which we obtain all
the fragments of Sanchoniathon that have reached our times. Philo had
divided his translation into nine books, of which Porphyry made use in his
diatribe against the Christians. It is from the fourth book of this lost work
that Eusebius took, for an end directly opposite to this, the passages which
have come down to us. And thus we have those documents relating to the
mythology and history of the Phoenicians from the fourth hand."

Mr. Astle continues:

"Manetho's History of Egypt, and the History of Chaldea, by Berosus,
have nearly met with the same fate."

From Anthon:

"Berosus; a Babylonian historian. He was a priest of the temple of Belus
in the time of Alexander. The ancients mention three books of his of which
Josephus and Eusebius have preserved fragments. Annius of Viterbo
published a work under the name of Berosus, which was soon discovered to
be a forgery."

By Astle:

"The Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus consisted likewise of forty
books, but only fifteen are now extant; that is, five between the fifth and the
eleventh, and the last ten, with some fragments collected out of Photius and
others."

By Anthon:

"Diodorus, surnamed Siculus, a contemporary of Julius Caesar and
Agustus. He published a general history in forty books, under the title
'Historical Library,' which covered a period of 1138 years. We have only a
small part remaining of this vast compilation. These rescued portions we
owe to Eusebius, to John Malala and other writers of the lower empire, who
have cited them in the course of their works. He is the reputed author of the
famous sophism against motion. 'If any body be moved, it is moved in the
place where it is, or in a place where it is not, for nothing can act or suffer
where it is not, and therefore there is no such thing as motion.' "

By Astle:

"The General History of Polybius originally contained forty books; but
the first five only, with some extracts or fragments, are transmitted to us."

By Anthon:

"Polybius, an eminent Greek historian, born about, B. C. 203. Polybius
gave to the world various historical writings, which are entirely lost with
the exception of his General History. It embraced a period of 53 years. Of
the forty books which it originally comprehended, time has spared only the
first five entire. Of the rest, as far as the seventeenth, we have merely
fragments though of considerable size. Of the remaining books we have
nothing left except what is found in two merger abridgments which the
Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in the tenth century caused to be
made of the whole work."

From Astle:

"Dionysius Halicarnassensis wrote twenty books of Roman antiquities,
extending from the siege of Troy, to the Punic war A. U. C. 488; but only
eleven of them are now remaining, which reach no further than the year of
Rome 312."

From Anthon:

"He was born in the first century B. C. His principal work was 'Roman
Antiquities.' It originally consisted of twenty books, of which the first ten
remain entire. Dionysius wrote for the Greeks, and his object was to relieve
them from the mortification which they felt at being conquered by a race of
barbarians, as they considered the Romans to be. And this he endeavored to
effect by twisting and forging testimonies, and botching up the old legends,
so as to make out a prima facie proof of the Greek origin of the city of
Rome. Valuable additions were made in 1816, by Mai, from an old MSS."

By Astle:

"Appian is said to have written the Roman History in twenty-four books;
but the greatest part of the works of that author is lost."

By Anthon:

"He was the author of a Roman History in twenty-four books which no
longer exist entire; the parts missing have been supplied but was not written
by Appian but is a mere compilation from Plutarch's Lives of Crassus and
Antony."

By Astle:

"Dion Cassius wrote eighty books of history, but only twenty-five are
remaining, with some fragments, and an epitome of the last twenty by
Xiphilinus."

By Anthon:

"His true name was Cassius, born A. D. 155; —we have fragments
remaining of the first thirty- six books, they comprehend a period from B.
C. 65 to B. C. 10;—they were found by Mai in two Vatican MSS., which
contain a sylloge or collection made by Maximus Planudes (who lived in
the fourteenth century. He was the first Greek that made use of the Arabic
numerals as they are called)."

Mr. Astle further observes:

"The Emperor Tacitus ordered ten copies of the works of his relation, the
historian, to be made every year which he sent into the different provinces
of the empire; and yet, notwithstanding his endeavours to perpetuate these
inestimable works, they were buried in oblivion for many centuries. Since
the restoration of learning an ancient MSS. was discovered in a monastery
in Westphalia, which contained the most valuable part of his annals; but in
this unique manuscript, part of the fifth, seventh, ninth and tenth books are
deficient, as are part of the eleventh, and the latter part of the sixteenth. This

MSS. was procured by that great restorer of learning Pope Leo X., under
whose patronage it was printed at Rome in 1515; he afterwards deposited it
in the Vatican library, where it is still preserved. Thus posterity is probably
indebted to the above magnificent Pontiff, for the most valuable part of the
works of this inimitable historian."

Accounts which differentiate in their descriptive details of questioned
ink-written fragments of antiquity and on the genuineness or authenticity of
which rests the truth or falsity of ancient history or other literature, serve to
taint such remains with a certain degree of suspicion and doubt. When,
however, in the light of investigation, the materials of which they are
composed are found to approach closely the age they purport to represent,
then it is that such fragments can be said to have fairly established their
own identity.

Taylor asserts:

"The remote antiquity of a manuscript is of ten established by the
peculiar circumstance of its existing BENEATH another writing. Some
invaluable manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures, and not a few precious
fragments of classic literature, have been thus brought to light.

"The age of a manuscript may often be ascertained with little chance of
error, by some such indications as the following:—the quality or appearance
of the INK, the nature of the material; that is to say, whether it be soft
leather, or parchment, or the papyrus of Egypt, or the bombycine paper; for
these materials succeeded each other, in common use, at periods that are
well known;— the peculiar form, size, and character of the writing; for a
regular progression in the modes of writing may be traced by abundant
evidence through every age from the remotest times;—the style of the
ornaments or illuminations, as they are termed, often serves to indicate the
age of the book which they decorate.

"From such indications as these, more or less definite and certain, ancient
manuscripts, now extant, are assigned to various periods, extending from
the sixteenth, to the fourth century of the Christian era; or perhaps, in one or
two instances, to the third or second. Very few can claim an antiquity so
high as the fourth century; but not a few are safely attributed to the seventh;
and a great proportion of those extant were unquestionably executed in the
tenth; while many belong to the following four hundred years. It is,
however, to be observed, that some manuscripts, executed at so late a time
as the thirteenth, or even the fifteenth century, afford clear internal evidence
that, by a single remove only, the text they contain claims a REAL
antiquity, higher than that even of the oldest existing copy of the same
work. For these older copies sometimes prove, by the peculiar nature of the
corruptions which have crept into the text, that they have been derived
through a long series of copies; while perhaps the text of the more modern
manuscripts possesses such a degree of purity and freedom from all the
usual consequences of frequent transcription, as to make it manifest that the
copy from which it was taken, was so ancient as not to be far distant from
the time of the first publication of the work."

CHAPTER V.
REVIVAL OF INK.

THE DISAPPEARANCE AND PRESERVATION OF INK WRITINGS, AS ESTIMATED BY
LA CROIX—COMMENTS OF OTHER WRITERS—DE VINNE'S INTERESTING
EXPLANATIONS OF THE STATUS QUO OF MANUSCRIPT WRITINGS DURING THE
DARK AGES WHICH PRECEDED THE INVENTION OF PRINTING—PRICES PAID FOR
BOOKS IN ANCIENT TIMES—LIMITATIONS OF HANDWRITING AND HANDWRITING
MATERIALS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FIFTH CENTURY—WHO CONTROLLED
THE RECORDS ABOUT THEM—INVENTION OF THE QUILL PEN—THE CAUSE OF
INCREASED FLUIDITY OF INKS—ORIGIN OF THE SECRETA—CHARACTER OF
INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THEM—IMPROVEMENT OF BLACK INKS IN THE
EIGHTH CENTURY AND EMPLOYMENT OF POMEGRANITE INK.

LA CROIX' preface to his "Science and Literature of the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance," refers to the Dark Ages:

"In the beginning of the Middle Ages, at the commencement of the fifth
century, the Barbarians made an inroad upon the old world; their renewed
invasions crushed out, in the course of a few years, the Greek and Roman
civilization; and everywhere darkness succeeded to light. The religion of
Jesus Christ was alone capable of resisting this barbarian invasion, and
science and literature, together with the arts, disappeared from the face of
the earth, taking refuge in the churches and monasteries. It was there that
they were preserved as a sacred deposit, and it was thence that they
emerged when Christianity had renovated pagan society. But centuries and
centuries elapsed before the sum of human knowledge was equal to what it
had been at the fall of the Roman empire. A new society, moreover, was
needed for the new efforts of human intelligence as it resumed its rights.
Schools and universities were founded under the auspices of the clergy and
of the religious corporations, and thus science and literature were enabled to
emerge from their tombs. Europe, amidst the tumultuous conflicts of the
policy which made and unmade kingdoms, witnessed a general revival of
the scholastic zeal; poets, orators, novelists, and writers increased in
numbers and grew in favour; savants, philosophers, chemists and
alchemists, mathematicians and astronomers, travellers and naturalists,
were awakened, so to speak, by the life-giving breath of the Middle Ages;
and great scientific discoveries and admirable works on every imaginable
subject showed that the genius of modern society was not a whit inferior to
that of antiquity. Printing, was invented, and with that brilliant discovery,
the Middle Ages, which had accomplished their work of social renovation,
made way for the Renaissance, which scattered abroad in profusion the
prolific and brilliant creations of Art, Science, and Literature."

This author to some extent discredits himself, however, p. 455, where he
remarks:

"Long before the invasions of the Barbarians the histories written by
Greek and Latin authors concerning the annals of the ancient peoples had
been falling into disfavor. Even the best of them were little read, for the
Christians felt but slight interest in these pagan narratives, and that is why
works relating to the history of antiquity were already so scarce."

Another authority writing on the same subject discusses it from a
different standpoint, remarking:

"As in the middle ages invention busied itself with instruments of torture,
and as in our days it is taken up almost as much with the destructive engines
of war as with the productive arts of peace, so in those early ages it applied
itself to the fabrication of idols, to the mechanism and theatrical
contrivances for mysteries and religious ceremonies. There was then no
desire to communicate discoveries, science was a sort of freemasonry, and
silence was effectually secured by priestly anathemas; men of science were
as jealous of one another as they were of all other classes of society. If we
wish to form a clear picture of this earliest stage of civilization, an age
which represents at once the naivete of childhood and the suspicious
reticence of senility, we must turn our eyes to the priest, on the one hand,
claiming as his own all art and science, and commanding respect by his
contemptuous silence; and, on the other hand, to the mechanic plying the
loom, extracting the Tyrian dye, practising chemistry, though ignorant of its
very name, despised and oppressed, and only tolerated when he furnished
Religion with her trappings or War with arms. Thus the growth of chemistry
was slow, and by reason of its backwardness it was longer than any other art
in ridding itself of the leading-strings of magic and astrology. Practical
discoveries must have been made many times without science acquiring

thereby any new fact. For to prevent a new discovery from being lost there
must be such a combination of favorable circumstances as was rare in that
age and for many succeeding ages. There must be publicity, and publicity is
of quite recent growth; the application of the discovery must be not only
possible but obvious, as satisfying some want. But wants are only felt as
civilization progresses. Nor is that all; for a practical discovery to become a
scientific fact it must serve to demonstrate the error of one hypothesis, and
to suggest a new one, better fitted for the synthesis of existing facts. But
(some) old beliefs are proverbially obstinate and virulent in their opposition
to newer and truer theories which are destined to eject and replace them. To
sum up, even in our own day, chemistry rests on a less sound basis than
either physics, which had the advantage of originating as late as the 17th
century, or astronomy, which dates from the time when the Chaldean
shepherd had sufficiently provided for his daily wants to find leisure for
gazing into the starry Heavens."

The observations of a still earlier commentator are of the same general
nature. He says:

"In the first ages of Christianity, when the fathers of the Church, the
Jews, and the Heathen philosophers were so warmly engaged in
controversy, there is reason to believe that pious frauds were not
uncommon: and that when one party suspected forgeries, instead of an
attempt at confutation, which might have been difficult, they had recourse
perhaps to a countermine: and either invented altogether, or eked out some
obscure traditional scraps by the embellishments of fancy. When we
consider, amongst many literary impositions of later times, that
Psalmanazar's history of Formosa was, even in this enlightened age and
country (England, about 1735), considered by our most learned men as
unquestionably authentic, till the confession of the author discovered the
secret, I think it is not difficult to conceive how forgeries of remote events,

before the invention of printing and the general diffusion of knowledge
might gain an authority, and especially with the zealous, hardly inferior to
that of the most genuine history."

De Vinne, however, in his "Invention of Printing," New York, 1878, best
explains the status quo of those times, relative not only to book (MSS.)
making, and methods of circulation, but the causes which led up to their
eventual disappearance and the literary darkness which ensued. His remarks
are so pertinent that they are quoted at length:

"The civilization of ancient Rome did not require printing. If all the
processes of typography had been revealed to its scholars the art would not
have been used. The wants of readers and writers were abundantly supplied
by the pen. Papyrus paper was cheap, and scribes were numerous; Rome
had more booksellers than it needed, and books were made faster than they
could be sold. The professional scribes were educated slaves, who, fed and
clothed at nominal expense, and organized under the direction of wealthy
publishers, were made so efficient in the production of books, that
typography, in an open competition, could have offered few advantages.

"Our knowledge of the Roman organization of labor in the field of
bookmaking is not as precise as could be wished; but the frequent notices of
books, copyists and publishers, made by many authors during the first
century, teach us that books were plentiful. Horace, the elegant and
fastidious man of letters, complained that his books were too common, and
that they were sometimes found in the hands of vulgar snobs for whose
entertainment they were not written. Martial, the jovial man of the world,
boasted that his books of stinging epigrams were to be found in everybody's
hands or pockets. Books were read not only in the libraries, but at the baths,
in the porticoes of houses, at private dinners and in mixed assemblies. The
business of bookmaking was practised by too many people, and some were

incompetent. Lucian, who had a keen perception of pretense in every form,
ridicules the publishers as ignoramuses. Strabo, who probably wrote
illegibly, says that the books of booksellers were incorrect.

"The price of books made by slave labor was necessarily low. Martial
says that his first book of epigrams was sold in plain binding for six
sesterces, about twenty-four cents of American money; the same book in
sumptuous binding was valued at five denarii, about eighty cents. He
subsequently complained that his thirteenth book was sold for only four
sesterces, about sixteen cents. He frankly admits that half of this sum was
profit, but intimates, somewhat ungraciously, that the publisher Tryphon
gave him too small a share. Of the merits of this old disagreement between
the author and publisher we have not enough of facts to justify an opinion.
We learn that some publishers, like Tryphon and the brothers Sosii,
acquired wealth, but there are many indications that publishing was then, as
it is now, one of the most speculative kinds of business. One writer chuckles
over the unkind fate that sent so many of the unsold books of rival authors
from the warehouses of the publisher, to the shops of grocers and bakers,
where they were used to wrap up pastry and spices; another writer says that
the unsold stock of a bookseller was sometimes bought by butchers and
trunk makers.

"The Romans not only had plenty of books but they had a manuscript
daily newspaper, the Acta Diurna, which seems to have been a record of the
proceedings of the senate. We do not know how it was written, nor how it
was published, but it was frequently mentioned by contemporary writers as
the regular official medium for transmitting intelligence. It was sent to
subscribers in distant cities, and was, sometimes, read to an assembled
army. Cicero mentions the Acta as a sheet in which he expected to find the
city news and gossip about marriages and divorces.

"With the decline of power in the Roman empire came the decline of
literature throughout the world. In the sixth century the business of
bookmaking had fallen into hopeless decay. The books that had been
written were seldom read, and the number of readers diminished with every
succeeding generation. Ignorance pervaded in all ranks of society. The
Emperor Justin I, who reigned between the years 518 and 527, could not
write, and was obliged to sign state papers with the form of stencil plate that
had been recommended by Quintilian. Respect for literature was dead. In
the year, 476, Zeno, the Isaurian, burned 120,000 volumes in the city of
Constantinople. During the year 640, Amrou, the Saracen, fed the baths of
Alexandria for six months with the 500,000 books that had been
accumulating for centuries in its famous library of the Serapion. Yet books
were so scarce in Rome at the close of the seventh century that Pope Martin
requested one of his bishops to supply them, if possible, from Germany.
The ignorance of ecclesiastics in high station was alarming. During this
century, and for centuries afterward, there were many bishops and
archbishops of the church who could not sign their names. It was asserted at
a council of the church held in the year 992, that scarcely a single person
was to be found in Rome itself who knew the first elements of letters.
Hallam says, 'To sum up the account of ignorance in a word, it was rare for
a layman of any rank to know bow to sign his name.' He repeats the
statements that Charlemagne could not write, and Frederic Barbarossa
could not read. John, king of Bohemia, and Philip, the Hardy, king of
France, were ignorant of both accomplishments. The graces of literature
were tolerated only in the ranks of the clergy; the layman who preferred
letters to arms was regarded as a man of mean spirit. When the Crusaders
took Constantinople, in 1204, they exposed to public ridicule the pens and
inkstands that they found in the conquered city as the ignoble arms of a
contemptible race of students.

"During this period of intellectual darkness, which lasted from the fifth
until the fifteenth century, a period sometimes described, and not
improperly, as the dark ages, there was no need for any improvement in the
old method of making books. The world was not then ready for typography.
The invention waited for readers more than it did for types; the multitude of
book buyers upon which its success depended had to be created. Books
were needed as well as readers. The treatises of the old Roman sophists and
rhetoricians, the dialectics of Aristotle and the schoolmen, and the
commentaries on ecclesiastical law of the fathers of the church, were the
works which engrossed the attention of men of letters for many centuries
before the invention of typography. Useful as these books may have been to
the small class of readers for whose benefit they were written, they were of
no use to a people who needed the elements of knowledge."

In the more ancient times, however, when MSS. books (rolls) were not
quite so plentiful there was seemingly no difficulty in obtaining large sums
for them.

Aristotle, died B. C. 322, paid for a few books of Leusippus, the
philosopher, three Attick talents, which is about $3,000. Ptolemy
Philadelphus is said to have given the Athenians fifteen talents, an
exemption from tribute and a large supply of provisions for the MSS. of
aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides written by themselves.

Arbuthnot, discussing this subject, remarks that Cicero's head, "which
should justly come into the account of Eloquence brought twenty-five
Myriads of Drachms, which is the equivalent of $40,000. Also, "the prices
of the magical books mentioned to be burnt in the Acts of the Apostles is
five. Myriads of Pieces of Silver or Drachms."

Picolimini relates that the equivalent of eighty golden crowns was
demanded for a small part of the works of Plutarch.

If we are to believe any of the accounts, the environment of the art of
handwriting and handwriting materials at the beginning of the fifth century
had contracted within a small compass, due principally to the general
ignorance of the times.

As practiced it was pretty much under the control of the different
religious denominations and the information obtainable about inks from
these sources is but fragmentary. What has come down to us of this
particular era is mostly found on the old written Hebrew relics, showing
that they at least had made no innovations in respect to the use of their
ritualistic deyo.

The invention of the quill pen in the sixth century permitted a degree of
latitude in writing never before known, the inks were made thinner and
necessarily were less durable in character. Greater attention was given to
the study and practice of medicine and alchemy which were limited to the
walls of the cloister and secret places. The monk physicians endeavored by
oral instructions and later by written ones to communicate their ink-making
methods not only of the black and colored, but of secret or sympathetic
inks, to their younger brethren, that they might thus be perpetuated. All the
traditional and practical knowledge they possessed was condensed into
manuscript forms; additions from other hands which included numerous
chemical receipts for dyeing caused them to multiply; so that as occasion
required from time to time, they were bound up together booklike and then
circulated among favored secular individuals, under the name of "Secreta."

The more remote of such treatises which have come down to us seem to
indicate the trend of the researches respecting what must have been in those
times unsatisfactory inks. Scattered through them appear a variety of
formulas which specify pyrites (a combination of sulphur and metal),
metals, stones and other minerals, soot, (blue) vitriol, calxes (lime or chalk),

dye-woods, berries, plants, and animal colors, some of which if made into
ink could only have been used with disastrous results, when permanency is
considered.

The black ink formulas of the eighth century are but few, and show
marked improvement in respect to the constituents they call for, indicating
that many of those of earlier times had been tried and found wanting. One
in particular is worthy of notice as it names (blue) vitriol, yeast, the lees
(dregs) of wine and the rind of the pomegranate apple, which if
commingled together would give results not altogether unlike the
characteristic phenomena of "gall" ink. Confirmation of the employment of
such an ink on a document of the reign of Charlemigne in the beginning of
the ninth century on yellow-brown Esparto (a Spanish rush) paper, is still
preserved. Specimens of "pomegranate" ink, to which lampblack and other
pigments had been added of varying degrees of blackness, on MSS., but
lessening in number as late as the fourteenth century, are still extant in the
British Museum and other public libraries.

CHAPTER VI.
INK OF THE WEST.

REMARKS OF ARCH-DEACON CARLISLE—WHEN READING AND WRITING CEASED
TO BE MYSTERIES—ORIGIN OF THE WORDS CLERK AND SIGN—SCARCITY OF
MANUSCRIPTS —FOUNDING OF IRISH SCHOOLS OF LEARNING IN THE SEVENTH
CENTURY—MONKS NOT PERMITTED TO USE ARTIFICIAL LIGHT IN PREPARING
MSS.—OBSERVATIONS OF MADAN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF WRITING DURING THE
DARK AGES—INK- WRITTEN MSS. TREASURES.

THE ancient history of the art of writing in more northern sections of the
Western world, William Nicolson, Arch-Deacon of Carlisle, author of "The
English Historical Library," London, 1696, tells very quaintly:

"The Danes register'd their more considerable transactions upon Rocks;
or on parts of them, hewen into various Shapes and Figures. On these they
engrav'd such Inscriptions as were proper for their Heathen Alters,
Triumphal Arches, Sepulchral Monuments and Genealogical Histories of
their Ancestors. Their writings of less concern (as Letters, Almanacks, &c.)
were engraven upon Wood: And because Beech was most plentiful in
Demnark, (tho Firr and Oak be so in Norway and Sweden) and most
commonly employ'd in these Services, form the word Bog (which in their
Language is the Name of that sort of Wood) they and all other Northern
Nations have the Name of Book. The poorer sort used Bark; and the Horns
of Rain- Deer and Elks were often finely polish'd and shaped into Books of
several Leaves. Many of these old Calendars are likewise upon Bones of
Beasts and Fishes: But the Inscriptions on Tapestry, Bells, Parchment and
Paper, are of later use.

"Some other Monuments may be known to be of a Danish Extraction, tho
they carry nothing of a Runic Inscription. Few of their Temples were
cover'd; and the largest observ'd by Wormius (at Kialernes in Island) was
120 foot in length, and 60 in breadth.

"The next Monument of Age is their Edda Islandorum; the meaning of
which Appellation they that publish the Book hardly pretend to understand.
As far as I can give the Reader any satisfaction, he is to. know that Island
was first inhabited (in the year 874) by a Colony of Norwegians; who
brought hither the Traditions of their Forefathers, in certain metrical
Composures, which (as is usual with Men transplanted into a Foreign Land)
were here more zealously and carefully preserv'd and kept in memory than
by the Men of Norway themselves. About 240 years after this (A. D. 1114)
their History began to be written by one Saemund, surnam'd Frode or the
wise; who (in nine years' travel through Italy, Germany and England) had
amass'd together a mighty Collection of Historical Treatises. With these he

return'd full fraught into Island; where he also drew up an account of the
affairs of his own Country. Many of his Works are now said to be lost: But
there is still an Edda, consisting of several Odes (whence I suspect its Name
is derived) written by many several hands, and at different times, which
bears his Name. The Book is a Collection of Mythological Fables, relating
to the ancient State and Behaviour of the Great Woden and his followers, in
terms poetical and adapted to the Service of those that were employ'd in the
composure of their old Rhymes and Sonnets.

"There is likewise extant a couple of Norwegian Histories of good
Authentic Credit; which explains a great many particulars relating to the
Exploits of the Danish Kings in Great Britain, which our own Historians
have either wholly omitted or very darkly recorded. The former of these
was written soon after the year 1130, by one Theodoric a Monk, who
acknowledges his whole Fabrick to be built upon Tradition, and that the old
Northern History is no where now to be had save only ab Islendingorum
antiquis Carminibus.

" 'Tis a very discouraging Censure which Sir William Temple passes
upon all the Accounts given us of the Affairs of this Island, before the
Romans came and Invaded it. The Tales (says he) we have of what pass'd
before Caesar's Time, of Brute and his Trojans, of many Adventures and
Successions, are cover'd with the Rust of Time, or Involv'd in the Vanity of
Fables or pretended Traditions; which seem to all Men obscure or uncertain,
but to be forged at pleasure by the Wit or Folly of their first Authors, and
not to be regarded. And again; I know few ancient Authors upon this
Subject (of the British History) worth the pains of perusal, and of Dividing
or Refining so little Gold out of so much course Oar, or from so much
Dross. But some other Inferiour People may think this worth their pains;
since all Men are not born to be Ambassadors: And, accordingly, we are
told of a very Eminent Antiquary who has thought fit to give his Labours in

this kind the Title of Aurum, ex Stercore. There's a deal of Servile Drudgery
requir'd to the Discovery of these riches, and such as every Body will not
stoop to: for few Statesmen and Courtiers (as one is lately said to have
observ'd in his own Case) care for travelling in Ireland, or Wales, purely to
learn the Language.

"A diligent Enquirer into our old British Antiquities would rather observe
(with Industrious Leland) that the poor Britains, being harass'd by those
Roman Conquerours with continual Wars, could neither have leisure nor
thought for the penning of a Regular History: and that afterwards their
Back-Friends, the Saxons, were (for a good while) an Illiterate Generation;
and minded nothing but Killing and taking Possession. So that 'tis a wonder
that even so much remains of the Story of those Times as the sorry
Fragments of Gildas; who appears to have written in such a Consternation,
that what he has left us looks more like the Declamation of an Orator, hired
to expose the miserable Wretches, than any Historical Account of their
Sufferings."

Palgrave asserts that reading and writing were no longer mysteries after
the pagan age, but were still acquirements almost wholly confined to the
clergy.

The word "clericus" or "clerk," became synonymous with penman, the
sense in which it is still most usually employed. If a man could write, or
even read, his knowledge was considered as proof presumptive that he was
in holy orders. If kings and great men had occasion to authenticate any
document, they subscribed the "sign" of the cross opposite to the place
where the "clerk" had written their name. Hence we say, to sign a deed or a
letter.

Books (MSS.) were extremely rare amongst the Scandinavian and
northern nations. Before their communication with the Latin missionaries,

wood appears to have been the material upon which their runes were chiefly
written: and the verb "write," which is derived from a Teutonic root,
signifying to scratch or tear, is one of the testimonies of the usage. Their
poems were graven upon small staves or rods, one line upon each face of
the rod; and the Old English word "stave," as applied to a stanza, is
probably a relic of the practice, which, in the early ages, prevailed in the
West. Vellum or parchment afterwards supplied the place of these materials.
Real paper, manufactured from the pellicle of the Egyptian reed or papyras,
was still used occasionally in Italy, but it was seldom exported to the
countries beyond the Alps; and the elaborate preparation of the vellum,
upon which much greater care was bestowed than in the modern
manufacture, rendered it a costly article; so much so, that a painstaking
clerk could find it worth his while to erase the writing of an old book, in
order to use the blank pages for another manuscript. The books thus
rewritten were called "codices rescripti," or "palimpsests." The evanescent
traces of the first layer of characters may occasionally be discerned beneath
the more recent text which has been imposed upon them.

In Ireland, first known as the Isle of Saints, was founded in the seventh
century a great school of learning which included writing and illuminating,
which passed to the English by way of the monasteries created by Irish
monks in Scotland. Their earliest existing MSS. are said to belong to that
period. In the Irish scriptoriums (rooms or cells for writing) of the
Benedictine monasteries where they were prepared, so particular were the
monks that the scribes were forbidden to use artificial light for fear of
injuring the manuscripts.

Most interesting and entertaining are the observations of Falconer
Madan, a modern scholar of some repute. Of the history of writing in ink
during the "Dark Ages" he says:

"In the seventh and eighth centuries we find the first tendency to form
national hands, resulting in the Merovingian or Frankish hand, the
Lombardic of Italy, and the Visigothic of Spain. These are the first difficult
bands which we encounter; and when we remember that the object of
writing is to be clear and distinct, and that the test of a good style is that it
seizes on the essential points in which letters differ, and puts aside the
flourishes and ornaments which disguise the simple form, we shall see how
much a strong influence was needed to prevent writing from becoming
obscure and degraded. That influence was found in Charles the Great.

"In the field of writing it has been granted to no person but Charles the
Great to influence profoundly the history of the alphabet. With rare insight
and rarer taste he discountenanced the prevalent Merovingian hand, and
substituted in eclectic hand, known as the Carolingian Minuscule, which
way still be regarded as a model of clearness and elegance. The chief
instrument in this reform was Alcuin of York, whom Charles placed, partly
for this purpose, at the head of the School of Tours in A. D. 796. The
selection of an Englishman for the post naturally leads us to inquire what
hands were then used in England, and what amount of English influence the
Carolingian Minuscule, the foundation of our modern styles, exhibits.

"If we gaze in wonder on the personal influence of Charles the Great in
reforming handwriting, we shall be still more struck by the spectacle
presented to us by Ireland in the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries. It is the
great marvel in the history of writing. Modern historians have at last
appreciated the blaze of life, religions, literary, and artistic, which was
kindled in the 'Isle of Saints' within a century after St. Patrick's coming
(about A. D. 450); how the enthusiasm kindled by Christianity in the Celtic
nature so far transcended the limits of the island, and indeed of Great
Britain, that Irish missionaries and monks were soon found in the chief
religious centres of Gaul, Germany, Switzerland, and North Italy, while

foreigners found their toilsome way to Ireland to learn Greek! But less
prominence has been given to the artistic side of this great reflex movement
from West to East than to the other two. The simple facts attest that in the
seventh century, when our earliest existing Irish MSS. were written, we find
not only a style of writing (or indeed two) distinctive, national, and of a
high type of excellence, but also a school of illumination which, in the
combined lines of mechanical accuracy and intricacy, of fertile invention of
form and figure and of striking arrangements of colour, has never been
surpassed. And this is in the seventh century—the nadir of the rest of
Europe!

"It is certain that Alcuin was trained in Hiberno- Saxon calligraphy, so
that we may be surprised to find that the writing which, under Charles the
Great, he developed at Tours, bears hardly a trace of the style to which he
was accustomed. En revanche, in the ornamentation and illumination of the
great Carolingian volumes which have come down to our times, we find
those constant, persistent traces of English and Irish work which we seek
for in vain in the plainer writing.

"This minuscule superseded all others almost throughout the empire of
Charles the Great, and during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries
underwent very little modification. Even in the two next centuries, though it
is subject to general modification, national differences are hardly
observable, and we can only distinguish two large divisions, the group of
Northern Europe (England, North France, Italy, and Spain). The two
exceptions are, that Germany, both in writing and painting, has always
stood apart, and lags behind the other nations of Western Europe in its
development, and that England retains her Hiberno-Saxon hand till after the
Conquest of 1066. It may be noted that the twelfth century produced the
finest writing ever known—a large, free and flowing form of the minuscule
of Tours. In the next century comes in the angular Gothic hand, the

difference between which and the twelfth century hand may be fairly
understood by a comparison of ordinary German and Roman type. In the
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the writing of each century
may be discerned, while the general tendency is towards complication, use
of abbreviations and contractions, and development of unessential parasitic
forms of letters.

"The Book of Kells, the chief treasure of Trinity College, Dublin, is so-
called from having been long preserved at the Monastery of Kells, founded
by Columba himself. Stolen from thence, it eventually passed into
Archbishop Ussher's hands, and, with other parts of his library, to Dublin.
The volume contains the Four Gospels in Latin, ornamented with
extraordinary freedom, elaboration, and beauty. Written apparently in the
seventh century, it exhibits, both in form and colour, all the signs of the full
development and maturity of the Irish style, and must of necessity have
been preceded by several generations of artistic workers, who founded and
improved this particular school of art. The following words of Professor
Westwood, who first drew attention to the peculiar excellences of this
volume, will justify tile terms made use of above: 'This copy of the
Gospels, traditionally asserted to have belonged to Columba, is
unquestionably the most elaborately executed MS. of early art now in
existence, far excelling, in the gigantic size of the letters in the frontispieces
of the Gospel, the excessive minuteness of the ornamental details, the
number of its decorations, the fineness of the writing, and the endless
variety of initial capital letters with which every page is ornamented, the
famous Gospels of Lindisfarne in the Cottonian Library. But this MS. is still
more valuable on account of the various pictorial representations of
different scenes in the life of our Saviour, delineated in a style totally unlike
that of every other school.' "

CHAPTER VII.
EARLY MEDIAEVAL INK.

CONTROVERSIES AMONG HEBREW SCHOLARS RELATING TO RITUALISTIC INKS
—THE CLASS OF INKS EMPLOYED BY THE FRENCH AND GERMAN JEWS—
CONVENTION OF REPRESENTATIVES FROM JEWISH CENTERS—SUBMISSION OF
THEIR DIFFERENCES TO MAIMONIDES—HE DEFINES TALMUDIC INK—SIXTH
CENTURY REFERENCE TO "GALL" INK—ASSERTION OF HOTZ-OSTERWALD THAT
EXCLUSIVE OF THE INDIAN INK, THE WRITING PIGMENTS OF ANTIQUITY HAVE
NEVER BEEN INVESTIGATED—HIS BELIEF THAT YEAST FORMED A PORTION OF
THEM—SOME OTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THIS SUBJECT—ANCIENT FORMULAS
ABOUT THE LEES OF WINE IN INK-MAKING—COMMENTS ON INK-MAKING BY
PLINY—ANCIENT FORMULA OF POMEGRANATE INK— SECRETA BY THE MONK
THEOPHILUS—WHAT THE, THORN TREE HE REFERS TO REALLY IS—IDENTITY OF
THE MYROBOLAM INK OF THE MOST REMOTE ANTIQUITY WITH THE
POMEGRANATE INK OF THE MIDDLE AGES— THE USES OF THE ACACIA TREE.

MOST of the documents of early mediaeval times which remain to us
containing ink in fairly good condition, like charters, protocols, bulls, wills,
diplomas, and the like, were written or engrossed with "Indian" ink, in
which respect we of the present century continue to follow such established
precedent when preparing important written instruments. It is not
remarkable, therefore, that the black inks of the seventh, eighth, ninth and
tenth centuries preserve their blackness so much better than many
belonging to succeeding ages, including a new class of inks which could not
stand the test of time.

During the twelfth and first years of the thirteenth centuries there were
bitter controversies among Talmudic (Hebrew) scholars, relative to the
character of the ink to be employed in the preparation of ritualistic writings.
Nice distinctions were drawn as to the real meaning of the word deyo as
understood by the Jews of the western part of the world, and the Arabic
word alchiber, as then understood nearer Palestine and the other eastern
countries.

The French Jews were using "tusche" (typical of the "Indian" ink), while
the Germans were employing "pomegranate" and "gall" inks.
Representatives from interested religious Jewish centers came together and
resolved to submit their differences for final adjustment to Maimonides,
born in Spain, A. D. 1130 , and died A. D. 1204—the then greatest living
Hebrew theologian and authority on biblical and rabbinical laws.
Discarding all side issues, their differences were seemingly incorporated
into three questions and thus propounded to him:

1. Is the Talmudic deyo identical with alchiber?

2. Of what ingredient should the Talmudic deyo consist, if it is not the
same as alchiber?

3. Is alchiber to be understood as relating to the gall-apple and
chalkanthum (blue vitriol)?

To the first and third questions Maimonides declared that deyo and
alchiber were not identical; and for the reasons that the Talmud declares
deyo to be a writing material which does not remain on the surface on
which it is placed and to be easily effaced. On the other hand alchiber
contains gum and other things which causes it to adhere to the writing
surface.

To the second question he affirmed that the Talmud distinguishes a
double kind of deyo, one containing little or no gum and being a fluid, and
the other referring to "pulverized coal of the vine, soot from burning olive
oil, tar, rosin and honey, pressed into plates to be dissolved in water when
wanted for use." Furthermore, while the Talmud excludes the use of certain
inks of which iron vitriol was one, it does not exclude atramentum,
(chalkanthum, copper vitriol), because the Talmud never speaks of it. He
insisted that the Talmud requires a dry ink (deyo).

As one of the last entries made in the Talmud (a great collection of legal
decisions by the ancient Rabbis, Hebrew traditions, etc., and believed to
have been commenced in the second century of the Christian era) is claimed
to belong to the sixth century, mentions gall-apples and iron (copper)
vitriol, it must have referred to "gall" ink. Further investigation discloses
the fact that such galls were of Chinese origin and as we know they do not
contain the necessary ferment which the aleppo and other galls possess for
inducing a transformation of the tannin into gallic acid, no complete union
could therefore obtain. Hence the value of this composition was limited
until the time when yeast and other materials were introduced to overcome
its deficiencies.

Hotz-Osterwald of Zurich, antiquarian and scholar, has asserted that with
the exception of the carbon inks employed on papyrus, the writing pigments
of antiquity and the Middle Ages have scarcely been investigated. The dark
to light-brown pigment, hitherto a problem, universally used on parchment,
he contends upon historical, chemical and microscopic evidence is identical
with oeno-cyanin and was prepared for the most part from yeast, and was
first employed as a pigment. Contrary to the general opinion it contains no
iron, except frequently accidental traces, and after its appearance in Greece
in the third century, it formed almost exclusively the ink of the ancient
manuscripts, until displaced by the gallate inks, said to have been
introduced by the Arabians. These accidental traces of iron were due to the
employment of iron vessels in the making of the ink.

My own observations in this direction confirm and establish the fact that
it was the custom in the early centuries of the Christian era to utilize yeast
or an analogous compound as part of the composition of ink, to which was
added sepia, or the rind of the pomegranate apple previously dissolved by
heat in alkaline solutions.

This analogous compound was probably the material procured from wine
lees (dregs), deposited after fermentation has commenced, and which after
considerable application of heat yields not only most of the tannin
contained in the stones and fruit stalks, but a viscid compound characteristic
of gelatine and of a red-purple color which in course of time changes to
brown.

Bloxam says that the coloring matter of grapes and of red wine appears to
be "cyanin."

One of the methods of treating wine lees, as translated in the eighteenth
century from an old Italian secreta, is sufficiently curious to partly quote:

"Dry the Lees (dregs) of wine with a gentle fire and fill with them two
third of a large earthen Retort, place this retort in a reverberatory furnace,
and fitting it to a large receiver, give a small fire to it to heat the Retort by
degrees, and drive forth an insipid phlegm; when vapours begin to rise, you
must take out the phlegm and luting carefully the junctures of your vessels,
quicken the fire little by little until you find the receiver filled with white
clouds; continue it in this condition, and you perceive the receiver to cool,
raise the fire to the utmost extremity, and continue it so, until there arise no
more vapours. When the vessels are cold unlute the receiver, and shaking it
to make the Volatile salt, which sticks to it, fall to the bottom, pour it all
into a bolt-head; fit it to a Head with a small receiver; lute well the
junctures and placing it in sand, give a little fire under it, and the volatile
salt will rise and stick to the head, and the top of the Bolt-head; take off
your head and set on another in its place; gather your salt and stop it tip
quickly, for it easily dissolves into a liquor; continue the fire, and take care
to gather the Salt according as you see it appear; but when there rises no
more salt, a liquor will distill, of which you must draw about three ounces,
and put out the fire," &c.

The "lees of wine," in connection with the ancient methods of ink-
making is also referred to by the younger Pliny in his twenty-fifth book,
which the Edinburgh Review has carefully translated and printed:

"INK (or literally) BLACKING.—Ink also may be set down among the
artificial (or compound) drugs, although it is a mineral derived from two
sources. For, it is sometimes developed in the form of a saline
efflorescence,—or is a real mineral of sulphureous color—chosen for this
purpose. There have been painters who dug up from graves colored coals
(CARBON). But all these are useless and new-fangled notions. For it is
made from soot in various forms, as (for instance) of burnt rosin or pitch.
For this purpose, they have built manufactories not emitting that smoke.
The ink of the very best quality is made from the smoke of torches. An
inferior article is made from the soot of furnaces and bath-house chimneys.
There are some (manufacturers) also, who employ the dried lees of wine;
and they do say that if the lees so employed were from good wine, the
quality of the ink is thereby much improved. Polygnotus and Micon,
celebrated painters at Athens, made their black paint from burnt grape-
vines; they gave it the name of TRYGYNON. APELLES, we are told, made
HIS from burnt ivory, and called it elephantina 'ivory-black.' Indigo has
been recently imported,— a substance whose composition I have not yet
investigated. The dyers make theirs from the dark crust that gradually
accumulates on brass-kettles. Ink is made also from torches (pine-knots),
and from charcoal pounded fine in mortars. 'The cuttlefish' has a remarkable
qualify in this respect; but the coloring-matter which it produces is not used
in the manufacture of ink. All ink is improved by exposure to the sun's rays.
Book-writers' ink has gum mixed with it,—weavers' ink is made up with
glue. Ink whose materials have been liquified by the agency of an acid is
erased with great difficulty."

There are but few exceptions respecting the general sameness of ink
receipts of the succeeding centuries, one of which is the "Pomegranate,"
credited to the seventh century but really belonging to an earlier period:

"Of the dried Pommegranite (apple) rind take an ounce, boil it in a pint of
water until 3/4 be gone; add 1/2 pint of small beer wort and once more boil
it away so that only a 1/4 pint remain. After you shall have strained it,
boiling hot through a linnen cloth and it comes cold, being then of a
glutinous consistence, drop in a 'bit' of Sal Alkali and add as much warm
water as will bring it to a due fluidity and a gold brown color for writing
with a pen."

Following this formula and without any modifications, I obtained an
excellent ink of durable quality, but of poor color, from a standpoint of
blackness.

A less ancient "Secreta," signed by the Italian monk "Theophilus," who
lived about the commencement of the eleventh century, is most interesting:

"To make ink, cut for yourself wood of the thorn-trees in April or May,
before they produce flowers or leaves, and collecting them in small bundles,
allow them to lie in the shade for two, three, or four weeks, until they are
somewhat dry. Then have wooden mallets, with which you beat these thorns
upon another piece of hard wood, until you peel off the bark everywhere,
put which immediately into a barrelful of water. When you have filled two,
or three, or four, or five barrels with bark and water, allow them so to stand
for eight days, until the waters imbibe all the sap of the bark. Afterwards
put this water into a very clean pan, or into a cauldron, and fire being placed
under it, boil it; from time to time, also, throw into the pan some of this
bark, so that whatever sap may remain in it may be boiled out. When you
have cooked it a little, throw it out, and again put in more; which done, boil
down the remaining water unto a third part, and then pouring it out of this

pan, put it into one smaller, and cook it until it grows black and begins to
thicken; add one third part of pure wine, and putting it into two or three new
pots, cook it until you see a sort of skin show itself on the surface; then
taking these pots from the fire, place them in the sun until the black ink
purifies itself from the red dregs. Afterwards take small bags of parchment
carefully sewn, and bladders, and pouring in the pure ink, suspend them in
the sun until all is quite dry; And when dry, take from it as much as you
wish, and temper it with wine over the fire, and, adding a little vitriol, write.
But, if it should happen through negligence that your ink be not black
enough, take a fragment of the thickness of a finger and putting it into the
fire, allow it to glow, and throw it directly into the ink."

After reciting many receipts which pertain to other arts, this good old
monk concludes:

"When you shall have re-read this often, and have committed it to your
tenacious memory, you shall thus recompense me for this care of
instruction, that, as often as you shall successfully have made use of my
work, you pray for me for the pity of omnipotent God, who knows that I
have written these things which are here arranged, neither through love of
human approbation, nor through desire of temporal reward, nor have I
stolen anything precious or rare through envious jealousy, nor have I kept
back anything reserved for myself alone; but, in augmentation of the honour
and glory of His name, I have consulted the progress and hastened to aid the
necessities of many men."

The "thorn" trees which Theophilus mentions are asserted by some
writers (with whom I do not agree) to be those commonly known as the
"Norway spruce," a species of pine of lofty proportions sometimes rising to
the height of 150 feet with a trunk from four to five feet in diameter. It lives
to a great age believed to exceed in many instances 450 years. The leaves

(needles, thorns) are short but stand thickly upon the branches and are of a
dusky green color shining on the upper surface; the fruit is nearly
cylindrical in form and of a purple color covered with scales ragged at the
edges. It is a native of Europe and Northern Asia. It furnishes the material
known as Burgundy pitch which is obtained by removing the juice which is
secreted in the bark of the tree; it is purified by a melting process and
straining either through a cloth or a layer of straw. It gives forth a peculiar
odor not unpleasant, resembling turpentine. The Burgundy pitch or rosin is
soluble in hot alcohol (spirits of wine).

An ink prepared after the method laid down by this monk, assuming that
he referred to the spruce-pine, while troublesome to write with, would be
almost as lasting as "Indian" ink and would be most difficult to erase from
parchment into which it would be absorbed due to its alcoholic qualities.

"The ink," remarks Montfaucon, "which we see in the most ancient
Greek manuscripts, has evidently lost much of its pristine blackness; yet
neither has it become altogether yellow or faint, but is rather tawny or deep
red, and often not far from a vermillion." While there are some monuments
of this kind of ink in fair condition of the fourth and succeeding centuries,
they aggregate but a very small proportion of the vast number of principally
Indian ink specimens which remain to us of those epochs. As exemplars,
however, of a forgotten class of inks belonging to a still more remote
antiquity, careful research adduces certain proof of their existence more
than nine hundred years before the Christian era commenced.

Reference has earlier been made to the ancient Myrobolam ink, which
was characteristically the same in color phenomena as those which
Montfaucon mentions. These "tawny" colored inks I estimate were products
obtained from the "thorn" trees spoken of by the monk Theophilus. The
thorn trees were of two species. The pomegranate, anciently called the

"Punic apple," because it was largely employed by the Carthagenians for
the purposes of dyeing and tanning; and the acacia, known in Egyptian
times as the lotus. The former was held in such high esteem that the
Arabians and Egyptians made it an emblem to designate one of their dieties
and termed it raman.

The products of these thorn, trees were collectively used together as ink,
most of the tannin being obtained from the pomegranate, and the gum from
the acacia.

CHAPTER VIII.
MEDIAEVAL INK.

INK SECRETAS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY COMPARED WITH EARLIER ONES—
APPEARANCE OF TANNO-GALLATE OF IRON INK IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY—
ITS INTRODUCTION LOCATES THE EPOCH WHEN THE MODERN INK OF TO-DAY
FIRST CAME INTO VOGUE—ITS APPROVAL AND ADOPTION BY THE FATHERS OF
THE CHURCH—THE INVENTION NOT ITALIAN BUT ASIATIC—ITS ARRIVAL FROM
ASIA FROM THE WEST AND NOT THE EAST—APPEARANCE ABOUT THE SAME
TIME OF LINEN OR MODERN PAPER—SETTLEMENT OF OLD CONTROVERSIES
ABOUT ANCIENT SO-CALLED COTTON PAPER-DE VINNE'S COMMENT ABOUT
PAPER AND PAPER-MAKING—CURIOUS CONTRACT OF THE FOURTEENTH
CENTURY.

THE "Secretas" of the twelfth century, in so far as they relate to methods
of making ink, indicate many departures from those contained in the more
ancient ones. Frequent mention is made of sour galls, aleppo galls, green
and blue vitriol, the lees of wine, black amber, sugar, fish-glue and a host of
unimportant materials as being employed in the admixture of black inks.
Combinations of some of these materials are expressed in formulas, the
most important one of which details with great particularity the
commingling together of an infusion of nut-galls, green vitriol (sulphate of

iron) and fish-glue (isinglass); the two first (tanno-gallate of iron) when
used alone, forms the sole base of all unadulterated "gall" inks.

Dates are appended to some of these ink and other formulas. The "tanno-
gallate of iron" one has, however, no date. But as it appears closely
following a date of A. D. 1126, it must have been written about that time.

Documents, public and private, bearing dates nearly contemporary with
that era, written in ink of like type, are still extant, confirming in a
remarkable degree the "Secreta" formula, and establishing the fact that the
first half of the twelfth century marks the epoch in which the "gall" or
modern ink of today came into vogue.

Its adoption by the priests stamped it with the seal of the Church and the
arrival from the West about the same period of flax or linen paper with the
added fact that these assimilated so well together, later placed them both on
the popular basis which has continued to the present time.

While the Secreta which contains the "gall" ink formula is of Italian
origin, the invention of this ink belongs solely to an Asiatic country, from
whence in gradual stages by way of Arabia, Spain and France, it finally
reached Rome. Thence, through the Church, information about it was
conveyed to wherever civilization existed.

We are not confined in our investigations of ancient MSS. to any
particular locality or date, as the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries are prolific of "gall" ink monuments covering an immense
territory. Such inks when used unadulterated, remain in an almost pristine
color condition; while the other inks to which some pigment or color had
been added, probably to make them more agreeable in appearance and more
free-flowing, with a mistaken idea of improving them, are much discolored

and in every instance present but slight indications of their original
condition.

The question of the character of the paper employed during these eras,
composed of different kinds of fibrous vegetable substances, possesses
some importance when discussing its relationship to inks. Many authors
certify to the manufacture and use of "cotton" in the eleventh, twelfth and
later centuries. Madan, however, in treating this subject, makes the
following comments which are in line with my own observations:

"Paper has for long been the common substance for miscellaneous
purposes of ordinary writing, and has at all times been formed exclusively
from rags (chiefly of linen) reduced to pull), poured out on a frame in a thin
watery sheet, and gradually dried and given consistence by the action of
heat. It has been a popular belief, found in every book till 1886 (now
entirely disproved, but probably destined to die hard), that the common
yellowish thick paper, with rough fibrous edge, found especially in Greek
MSS. till the fifteenth century, was paper of quite another sort, and made of
cotton (charta bombycna, bombyx being usually silk, but also used of any
fine fibre such as cotton). The microscope has at last conclusively shown
that these two papers are simply two different kinds of ordinary linen-rag
paper."

De Vinne speaking, of paper and paper-making says:

"The gradual development of paper-making in Europe is but imperfectly
presented through these fragmentary facts. Paper may have been made for
many years before it found chroniclers who thought the manufacture
worthy of notice. The Spanish paper-mills of Toledo which were at work in
the year 1085, and an ancient family of paper-makers which was honored
with marked favor by the king of Sicily in the year 1102, are carelessly
mentioned by contemporary writers as if paper-making was an old and

established business. It does not appear that paper was a novelty at a much
earlier period. The bulls of the popes of the eighth and ninth centuries were
written on cotton card or cotton paper, but no writer called attention to this
card, or described it as a new material. It has been supposed that this paper
was made in Asia, but it could have been made in Europe. A paper-like
fabric, made from the barks of trees, was used for writing by the
Longobards in the seventh century, and a coarse imitation of the Egyptian
papyrus, in the form of a strong brown paper, had been made by the
Romans as early as the third century. The art of compacting in a web the
macerated fibres of plants seems to have been known and practised to some
extent in Southern Europe long before the establishment of Moorish paper-
mills.

"The Moors brought to Spain and Sicily not an entirely new invention,
but an improved method of making paper, and what was more important, a
culture and civilization that kept this method in constant exercise. It was
chiefly for the lack of ability and lack of disposition to put paper to proper
use that the earlier European knowledge of paper- making was so barren of
results. The art of book- making as it was then practised was made
subservient to the spirit of luxury more than to the desire for knowledge.
Vellum was regarded by the copyist as the only substance fit for writing on,
even when it was so scarce that it could be used only for the most expensive
books. The card-like cotton paper once made by the Saracens was certainly
known in Europe for many years before its utility was recognized. Hallam
says that the use of this cotton paper was by no means general or frequent,
except in Spain or Italy, and perhaps in the south of France, until the end of
the fourteenth century. Nor was it much used in Italy for books.

"Paper came before its time and had to wait for recognition. It was sorely
needed. The Egyptian manufacture of papyrus, which was in a state of
decay in the seventh century, ceased entirely in the ninth or tenth. Not many

books were written during this period, but there was then, and for at least
three centuries afterwards, an unsatisfied demand for something to write
upon. Parchment was so scarce that reckless copyists frequently resorted to
the desperate expedient of effacing the writing on old and lightly esteemed
manuscripts. It was not a difficult task. The writing ink then used was
usually made of lamp-black, gum and vinegar; it it had but a feeble
encaustic property, and it did not bite in or penetrate the parchment. The
work of effacing this ink was accomplished by moistening the parchment
with a weak alkaline solution and by rubbing it with pumice stone. This
treatment did not entirely obliterate the writing, but made it so indistinct
that the parchment could be written over the second time. Manuscripts so
treated are now known as palimpsests. All the large European public
libraries have copies of palimpsests, which are melancholy illustrations of
the literary tastes of many writers or bookmakers during the Middle Ages.
More convincingly than by argument they show the utility of paper.
Manuscripts of the Gospels, of the Iliad, and of works of the highest merit,
often of great beauty and accuracy, are dimly seen underneath stupid
sermons, and theological writings of a nature so paltry that no man living
cares to read them. In Some instances the first writing has been so
thoroughly scrubbed out that its meaning is irretrievably lost.

"Much as paper was needed, it was not at all popular with copyists; their
prejudice was not altogether unreasonable, for it was thick, coarse, knotty,
and in every way unfitted for the display or ornamental penmanship or
illumination. The cheaper quality, then known as cotton paper, was
especially objectionable. It seems to have been so badly made as to need
governmental interference. Frederick II, of Germany, in the year 1221,
foreseeing evils that might arise from bad paper, made a decree by which he
made invalid all public documents that should be put on cotton paper, and
ordered them within two years to be transcribed upon parchment. Peter II,
of Spain, in the year 1338, publicly commanded the paper-makers of

Valencia and Xativa to make their paper of a better quality and equal to that
of an earlier period.

"The better quality of paper, now known as linen paper, had the merits of
strength, flexibility, and durability in a high degree, but it was set aside by
the copyists because the fabric was too thick and the surface was too rough.
The art of calendering or polishing papers until they were of a smooth,
glossy surface, which was then practised by the Persians, was unknown to,
or at least unpractised by, the early European makers. The changes or
fashion in the selection of writing papers are worthy of passing notice. The
rough hand-made papers so heartily despised by the copyists of the
thirteenth century are now preferred by neat penmen and skilled
draughtsmen. The imitations of mediaeval paper, thick, harsh, and dingy,
and showing the marks of the wires upon which the fabric was couched, are
preferred by men of letters for books and for correspondence, while highly
polished modern plate papers, with surfaces much more glossy than any
preparation of vellum, are now rejected by them as finical and effeminate.

"There is a popular notion that the so-called inventions of paper and
xylographic printing were gladly welcomed by men of letters, and that the
new fabric and the new art were immediately pressed into service. The facts
about to be presented in succeeding chapters will lead to a different
conclusion. We shall see that the makers of playing cards and of image
prints were the men who first made extended use of printing, and that self-
taught and unprofessional copyists were the men who gave encouragement
to the manufacture of paper. The more liberal use of paper at the beginning
of the fifteenth century by this newly- created class of readers and book-
buyers marks the period of transition and of mental and mechanical
development for which the crude arts of paper- making and of black
printing had been waiting for centuries. We shall also see that if paper had
been ever so cheap and common during the Middle Ages, it would have

worked no changes in education or literature; it could not have been used by
the people, for they were too illiterate; it would not have been used by the
professional copyists, for they preferred vellum and despised the substitute.

"The scarcity of vellum in one century, and its abundance in another, are
indicated by the size of written papers during the same periods. Before the
sixth century, legal documents were generally written upon one side only;
in the tenth century the practice of writing upon both sides of the vellum
became common. During the thirteenth century valuable documents were
often written upon strips two inches wide and but three and a half inches
long. At the end of the fourteenth century these strips went out of fashion.
The more general use of paper had diminished the demand for vellum and
increased the supply. In the fifteenth century, legal documents on rolls of
sewed vellum twenty feet in length were not uncommon. All the valuable
books of the fourteenth century were written on vellum. In the library of the
Louvre the manuscripts on paper, compared to those on vellum, were as one
to twenty-eight; in the library of the Dukes of Burgundy, one-fifth of the
books were of paper. The increase in the proportion of paper books is a fair
indication of the increasing popularity of paper; but it is obvious that
vellum was even then considered as the more suitable substance for a book
of value."

The curious contract belonging to the fourteenth century which follows,
is a literal copy of the original. It does not seem to specify whether the book
is to be made of vellum or paper. In other respects the minute details no
doubt prevented any misunderstanding between the contracting parties.

"August 26th, 1346—There appeared Robert Brekeling, scribe, and
swore that he would observe the contract made between him and Sir John
Forber, viz., that the said Robert would write one Psalter with the Kalender
for the work of the said Sir John for 5 s. and 6 d.; and in the same Psalter, in

the same character, a Placebo and a Dirige, with a Hymnal and Collectary,
for 4 s. and 3 d. And the said Robert will illuminate ('luminabet') all the
Psalms with great gilded letters laid in with colours; and all the large letters
of the Hymnal and Collectary will he illuminate with gold and vermillion,
except the great letters of double feasts, which shall be as the large gilt
letters are in the Psalter. And all the letters at the commencement of the
verses shall be illuminated with good azure and vermillion; and all the
letters at the beginning of the Nocturns shall be great uncial (unciales)
letters, containing V. lines, but the Beatus Vir and Dixit Dominus shall
contain VI. or VII. lines; and for the aforesaid illumination and for colours
he [John] will give 5 s. 6 d., and for gold he will give 18 d., and 2 s. for a
cloak and fur trimming. Item one robe—one coverlet, one sheet, and one
pillow."

CHAPTER IX.
END OF MEDIAEVAL INK.

THE SECRETAS PRECEDE ALCHEMY AND CHEMISTRY—EFFORT TO IMPROVE
GALL INKS—VARIATIONS IN INK COLORS—THE USE OF RED INK IN THE NINTH
AND TENTH CENTURIES—COLOR COMPARISONS BETWEEN INK WRITINGS OF
ITALY, GERMANY, FRANCE, ENGLAND AND SPAIN—HOW TO DETERMINE THE
ANTIQUITY OF MSS.—PRACTICES WHICH OBTAINED IN MONASTIC LIBRARIES OF
VARIOUS COUNTRIES—-KINDS OF INK EMPLOYED IN LITURGICAL WRITINGS—
THE PUBLIC SCRIBES AND THEIR EMPLOYMENTS—EFFORTS TO COUNTERFEIT
OLD SCRIPT IN EARLY PRINTED BOOKS—WHEN THEY WERE ABANDONED.

IT is well known that alchemy preceded chemistry and hence the Secreta
came first. When the formula for making a real "gall" ink had ceased to be a
secret, chemistry was then but little understood. It is not a matter for
wonder, therefore, to learn that "gall" ink of the first half of the twelfth
century was low in grade and poor in quality. It was a muddy fluid easily
precipitated and it deteriorated quickly. A century or more of experimenting

was needed to modify or overcome defects, as well as to gain information
about the chemical value of the different tannins, the relative proportions of
each constituent and the correct methods in its admixture.

There is no written account of this ink being manufactured as an industry
until over three hundred years later. Hence, as it appears so frequently of
varying degrees of color on documents of the intervening centuries, we are
compelled to assume that it was compounded by individuals who had
neither chemical knowledge, nor who had made a study or a business of
ink-making. Notwithstanding which, its progress seems to have been
comparatively rapid and like the same ink of the present day was to be
obtained of any quality or kind, whether unadulterated or containing some
added color.

Intense black or a black tinged with red-brown characterizes the color of
the inks found on the very earliest MSS. Their lasting color phenomena, due
to the employment of lampblack and kindred substances even after a lapse
of so many ages, is at this late day of no particular moment as they but
prove the virtues of the different types of "Indian" inks.

A different set of facts are evident in the inks of mediaeval times which
are found to greatly vary according to their ages and locality. But few black
inks of the ninth and tenth centuries remain to us. In the MSS. of those
centuries a red ink was the prevailing one even to the extent of entire
volumes being written with it. In Italy and many other portions of Southern
Europe specimens now extant, when compared with those belonging to
Germany and other more northern countries, are seen to be blacker and this
is also true when those of France and England are compared, the blacker
inks belonging to France. With the gradual disappearance of the so-called
"Dark Ages," the ink found on Spanish written MSS. of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, are notedly of intense blackness while those of some of

the other countries appear of a rather faded gray color, and in the sixteenth
century, this gray color effect prevailed all over the Christian world.

To revert again to the ink phenomena of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries which are of Italian origin. In no section of that country or of
Europe during those centuries do ink creations possess, in so marked a
degree, the variety of color qualities that are seen on those of the city of
Florence. Indeed it may be truly said that during those periods more ink
written MSS. were produced in that place than all the rest of Europe. These
productions of MSS. were not confined to simple ink writings. The heads of
religious orders and rulers of the country liked to have artists near them to
illuminate their missals and sacred books, besides the decorating of walls in
their churches and palaces.

Through this art of illuminating and the painting of miniatures in MSS.
books, "oil" painting took root and the day for mere symbols and
hieroglyphics was over.

In that city of scholars and wealth it was a fashion and later the custom to
acquire Greek, Latin and Oriental MSS. and copy them for circulation and
sale. The prices offered were sufficient to stimulate the search and zeal for
them. We learn that in the year 1400 "on the square of the Duoma a
spacciatore was established whose business was to sell manuscripts often
full of mistakes and blunders." Nicholas V, before he became Pope, was
nicknamed "Tommaso the Copyist." He is said to have presented to the
Vatican library as a gift five thousand volumes of his own creation.

The information of these increasing demands for ancient documents of
any kind spread over Europe and portions of Asia, bringing into Florence a
great quantity of them, as well as many scholars and copyists. Shiploads of
the works of the Byzantine historians arrived from the Golden Horn, and
the city became a vast manufactory for duplicating or forging ancient MSS.

Parchment and vellum were too costly to employ very much, so most of
them were of paper. Vespaciano, one of the many engaged in this business
and who lived in 1464, found it necessary in order to reduce the cost of
production, to become a paper merchant. In writing to a friend he says:

"I engaged forty-five copyists and in twenty- two months had completed
two hundred volumes, which included some Greek and Latin as well as
many Oriental writings."

The reading and judging of manuscripts are now known as the science of
diplomatics. To determine their antiquity or genuineness requires the nicest
distinctions and care, irrespective of alleged dates (whether exhibited by
Roman numbers or the Arabic one which we continue to employ, and which
first made their appearance near the commencement of the twelfth century).
The inks as already mentioned and used on them, as we shall see, serve
fully as much in estimating authenticity or genuineness as does combined
together,—the style of the writing, the miniatures, vignettes and arabesques
(if any), the colors, covers, materials, ornamentation and the character of
their contents.

With the re-establishment of learning in the fifteenth century and the
creation of alleged stable governments, who may perhaps have realized the
necessity for an ink of enduring good commercial and record qualities, so-
called "gall" inks were chosen as best possessing them, and were made and
employed with varying results even more than the ancient "Indian" inks.

Mediaeval practices in relation to ink and other writing materials as well
as the monastic libraries of which England, France, Germany and Italy
possessed many during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and more particularly the
fifteenth centuries, were governed by established rules.

The libraries of such institutions were placed by the abbot under the sole
charge of the "armarian," an officer who was made responsible for the
preservation of the volumes under his care; be was expected frequently to
examine them, lest damp or insects should injure them; he was to cover
them with wooden covers to preserve them and carefully to mend and
restore any damage which time or accident might cause; he was to make a
note of any book borrowed from the library, with the name of the borrower;
but this last rule applied only to the less valuable portion of it, as the "great
and precious books" could only be lent by the permission of the abbot
himself. It was also the duty of the armarian to have all the books in his
charge marked with their correct titles, and to keep a perfect list of the
whole. Some of these catalogues are still in existence and are curious and
interesting in their exemplification of the kinds of ink employed and as
indicative of the state of literature in the Middle Ages, besides presenting
the names of many authors whose works have never reached us. It was also
the duty of the armarian, under the orders of his superior, to provide the
transcribers of manuscripts with the writings which they were to copy, as
well as all the materials necessary for their labors, to make bargains as to
payment, and to superintend the work during their progress.

These transcribers, Mr. Maitland in his "Dark Ages" tells us, were monks
and their clerks, some of whom were so skilled that they could perform all
the different branches. They were exhorted by the rules of their order to
learn writing, and to persevere in the work of copying manuscripts as being
one most acceptable to God; those who could not write were recommended
to bind books. This was in line with the behest of the famous monk Alciun
who lived in the eighth century and who entreated all to employ themselves
in copying books, saying:

"It is a most meritorious work, more useful to the health than working in
the fields, which profits only a man's body, while the labour of a copyist

profits his soul."

When black ink was used in liturgical writings, the title page and heads
of chapters were written in red ink; whence comes the term rubric. Green,
purple, blue and yellow inks were sometimes used for words, but chiefly for
ornamenting capital letters.

A large room was in most monasteries set apart for such labors and here
the general transcribers pursued their avocations; in addition, small rooms
or cells, known also as scriptoria, occupied by such monks as were
considered, from their piety and learning, to be entitled to the indulgence,
and used by them for their private devotions, as well as for the purpose of
transcribing works for the use of the church or library. The scriptoria were
frequently enriched by donations and bequests from those who knew the
value of the works carried on in them, and large estates were often devoted
to their support.

"Meanwhile along the cloister's painted side,
The monks—each bending low upon his book
With head on hand reclined—their studies plied;
Forbid to parley, or in front to look,

Lengthways their regulated seats they took:
The strutting prior gazed with pompous mien,
And wakeful tongue, prepared with prompt rebuke,
If monk asleep in sheltering hood was seen;
He wary often peeped beneath that russet screen.

"Hard by, against the window's adverse light,
Where desks were wont in length of row to stand,
The gowned artificers inclined to write;
The pen of silver glistened in the hand

Some of their fingers rhyming Latin scanned;
Some textile gold from halls unwinding drew,
And on strained velvet stately portraits planned;
Here arms, there faces shown in embryo view,
At last to glittering life the total figures grew."
—FOSBROOKE.

The public scribes of those days were employed mostly by secular
individuals, although subject to be called upon at any moment by the fathers
of the church. They worked in their homes except when any valuable work
was to be copied, then in that of their employer, who boarded and lodged
them during the time of their engagement.

To differentiate the character of the class of pigments or materials then
employed in making colored inks, from those of the more ancient times is
difficult; because we not only find many of like character but of larger
variety. These were used more for purposes of illuminating and
embellishing than for regular writing.

Even when printing had been invented spaces were frequently left, both
in the block books and in the earliest movable type, for the illumination by
hand, of initial letters so as to deceive purchasers into the belief that the
printed type which was patterned closely after the forms of letters employed
in MSS. writings was the real thing. The learned soon discovered such
frauds and thereafter these practices were abandoned.

CHAPTER X.
RENAISSANCE INK.

INK OF GRAY COLOR BELONGING TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY AND ITS CAUSES
—INFLUENCE OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH RESPECTING INK DURING THE
DARK AGES—THE REFORMATION AND HOW IT AFFECTED MEDIAEVAL MSS.—
REMARKS OF BALE ABOUT THEIR DESTRUCTION— QUAINT INK RECEIPT OF 1602
—SELECTION FROM THE TWELFTH NIGHT RELATING TO PEN AND INK—
GENERAL CONDITIONS WHICH OBTAINED UNTIL 1626—THE FRENCH
GOVERNMENT AWARDS AN INK CONTRACT IN THAT YEAR—OTHER
GOVERNMENTS ADOPT THE FRENCH FORMULA—INKS OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY ALMOST PERFECT IN THEIR COLOR PHENOMENA— NO ADDED COLOR
EMPLOYED IN THEIR MANUFACTURE.

THE gray color of most of the inks found on documents written in the
sixteenth century is a noteworthy fact. Whence its cause is a matter for
considerable speculation. The majority of these inks unquestionably belong
to the "gall" class and if prepared after the formulas utilized in preceding
centuries should indicate like color phenomena. As these same peculiarities
exist on both paper, vellum and parchment, it cannot be attributed to their
use. Investigations in many instances of the writings indicate the exercise of
a more rapid pen movement and a consequent employment of inks of
greater fluidity than those of an earlier history. Such fluidity could only be
obtained by a reduction of the quantity of gummy vehicles together with an
increase of ink acidity. The acids which had theretofore been more or less
introduced into inks, except oxalic acid, could not effect such results.
Consequently, as the monuments of this gray ink phenomena are to be
found belonging to all the portions of the Christian world, with a uniformity
that is certainly remarkable, it becomes a fair deduction to assume that the
making of inks bad passed into the hands of regular manufacturers who
adulterated them with "added" color.

We can well believe that the influences which the fathers of the Church
exerted during the thousand years known as the "Dark Ages," in respect to
ink and kindred subjects, must have been very great. That they endeavored
to perpetuate for the benefit of succeeding generations in book and other
forms, this kind of information, which they distributed throughout the world
we know to be true. Most of these sources of ink information, however,

gradually disappeared as constituting a series of sad events in the unhappy
war which followed their preparation.

The Reformation began in Germany in the first quarter of the sixteenth
century, and with it the eighty years of continual religious warfare which
followed. During this period the priceless MSS. books of information,
historical, literary and otherwise, contained in the monastic libraries outside
of Italy were burnt.

We are told:

"In England cupidity and intolerance destroyed recklessly. Thus, after the
dissolution of monastic establishments, persons were appointed to search
out all missals, books of legends, and such 'superstitious books' and to
destroy or sell them for waste paper; reserving only their bindings, when, as
was frequently the case, they were ornamented with massive gold and
silver, curiously chased, and often further enriched with precious stones;
and so industriously had these men done their work, destroying all books in
which they considered popish tendencies to be shown by illumination, the
use of red letters, or of the Cross, or even by the—to them —mysterious
diagrams of mathematical problems— that when, some years later, Leland
was appointed to examine the monastic libraries, with a view to the
preservation of what was valuable in them, he found that those who had
preceded him had left little to reward his search."

Bale, himself an advocate for the dissolution of monasteries, says:

"Never had we bene offended for the losse of our lybraryes beyng so
many in nombre and in so desolute places for the moste parte, yf the chief
monuments and moste notable workes of our excellent wryters had bene
reserved, yf there had bene in every shyre of Englande but one solemyne
lybrary for the preservacyon of those noble workes, and preferrments of

good learnyuges in our posteryte it had bene yet somewhat. But to destroye
all without consyderacyon is and wyll be unto Englande for ever a most
horryble infamy amonge the grave senyours of other natyons. A grete
nombre of them wych purchased of those superstycyose mansyons reserved
of those lybrarye bokes, some to serve theyr jaks, some to scoure theyr
candelstyckes, and some to rubb theyr bootes . some they solde to the
grossers and sope sellers, and some they sent over see to the bokebynders,
not in small nombre, but at tymes whole shippesful. I knowa merchant man,
whyche shall at thys tyme be namelesse, that boughte the content-, of two
noble lybraryes for xl shyllyngs pryce, a shame it is to be spoken. Thys
stuffe hathe he occupyed in the stide of greve paper for the space of more
than these ten years, and yet hathe store ynough for as many years to come.
A prodyguous example is thys, and to be abhorred of all men who love
theyr n atyon as they shoulde do."

Passing to later epochs, A. D. 1602, the following quaint receipt proves
interesting as showing that the "gall" inks were well known at that time:

"To make common Ink, of Wine take a quart,
Two ounces of Gumme, let that be a part;
Five ounces of Galls, of Cop'res take three,
Long standing doth make it the better to be;
If Wine ye do want, raine water is best,
And then as much stuffe as above at the least,
If the Ink be too thick, put Vinegar in,
For water doth make the colour more dimme."

Shakespeare in his Twelfth Night III, 2, has also referred to them in the
following amusing strain:

"Go write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief; it is no matter how
witty, so it be eloquent, and full of invention; taunt him with the license of

ink; if thou thou'st him thrice, it shall nor be amiss; and as many lies as will
lie on a sheet of paper, although the sheet were big enough for the bed of
Ware in England, set 'em down; go, about it. Let there be gall enough in thy
ink, though thou write with a goose pen, no matter: about it."

The general black ink conditions for a period of at least three hundred
years, if we exclude the sixteenth century, had been but repetitions of each
other. They so remained until the year 1626, when the French government
concluded an arrangement with a chemist by the name of Guyot, for the
manufacture of a "gall" ink WITHOUT added color and which thereby
guaranteed and insured more sameness in respect to desirable ink qualities.
That government with a few modifications relative to the proportions of
ingredients continued its employment, which was followed by the
contemporaneous writers. Other governments later partially adopted the
French formulas while some of them gave the matter no attention, although
their records and those of the cities or towns not only of Europe but early
America, the United States and Canada are found in most instances to have
been written with an ink of this character.

Where prior to 1850, inks containing a different base (with the single
exception of indigo) were used, they have either disappeared or nearly so
and it is not an infrequent occurrence among those who are accustomed to
examine old records to find that signatures or dates to valuable instruments,
pages of writings and indeed sometimes the writings in an entire book are
more or less obliterated.

The black inks of a large portion of the seventeenth century, on
documents of every kind, are found to be nearly perfect as to color
conditions, which is evidence of the extreme care used in their preparation
and the exclusion of "added" color in ink manufacture.

CHAPTER XI.

ANCIENT INK TREATISES.

INK TREATISES OF THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES
—JOHN BAPTISTA PORTA AUTHOR OF THE FIRST—SECRET INKS—-NERI,
CANEPARIUS, BOREL, MERRET, KUNCKEL AND OTHER AUTHORS WHO REFER TO
INK MANUFACTURE—PROGRESS OF THE ART OF HANDWRITING ILLUSTRATED
IN THE NAMES OF OVER A HUNDRED CALLIGRAPHERS CHRONOLOGICALLY
ARRANGED.

THE literature of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on the
subject of black and colored ink formulas, secret inks, etc., is both
diversified and of considerable importance. The following authors and
citations are deemed the most noteworthy:

John Baptista Porta, of Naples, born A. D. 1445 and died A. D. 1515, is
best known as the inventor of the "camera obscuro;" was also the author of
many MSS. books compiled; he says,

"As the results of discussions of long years held at my own house which
is known as de Secreti, and into which none can enter unless he claim to be
an inventor of new discoveries."

Two of these treatises which were extant in the first half of the
seventeenth century, dated respectively 1481 and 1483, dwell at great
length on SECRET inks and specifically mention as translated into the
English of the time "sowre galls in white wine," and "vitriol;" repeating
Italian formulas pertaining to the "Secreta" of the twelfth century.

About secret ink he tells us:

"There are many and almost infinite ways to write things of necessity,
that the Characters shall not be seen, unless you dip them into waters, or put

them near the fire, or rub them with dust, or smeer them over. * * * * * * *
*

"Let Vitriol soak in Boyling water: when it is dissolved, strain it so long
till the water grow clear: with that liquor write upon paper: when they are
dry they are not seen. Moreover, grinde burnt straw and Vinegar: and what
you will write in the spaces between the former lines, describe at large.
Then boyl sowre Galls in white Wine, wet a spunge in the liquor: and when
you have need, wipe it upon the paper gently, and wet the letters so long
until the native black colour disappear, but the former colour, that was not
seen, will be made apparent. Now I will show in what liquors paper must be
soaked to make letters to be seen. As I said, Dissolve Vitriol in water: then
powder Galls finely, and soak them in water: let them stay there twenty-four
hours: filtre them through a linen cloth, or something else, that may make
the water clear, and make letters upon the paper that you desire to have
concealed: send it to your Friend absent: when you would have them
appear, dip them in the first liquor, and the letters will presently be seen. * *
******

If you write with the juice of Citrons, Oranges, Onyons, or almost any
sharp things, if you make it hot at the fire, their acrimony is presently
discovered: for they are undigested juices, whereas they are detected by the
heat of the fire, and then they show forth those colours that they would
show if they were ripe. If you write with a sowre Grape that would be
black, or with Cervices; when you hold them to the fire they are concocted,
and will give the same colour they would in due time give upon the tree,
when they were ripe. Juice of Cherries, added to Calamus, will make a
green: to sow- bread a red: so divers juices of Fruits will show divers
colours by the fire. By these means Maids sending and receiving love-
letters, escape from those that have charge of them. There is also a kind of
Salt called Ammoniac: this powdered and mingled with water, will write

white letters, and can hardly be distinguished from the paper, but hold them
to the fire, and they will shew black."

With respect to the preparation of black and colored inks and also colors:
Antonio Neri, an Italian author and chemist who lived in the sixteenth
century, in his treatise seems not only to have laid the foundation for most
of the receipts called attention to by later writers during the two hundred
years which followed, but to have been the very first to specify a proper
"gall" ink and its formula, as the most worthy of notice.

Pietro Caneparius, a physician and writer of Venice, A. D. 1612, in his
work De Atrametis, gives a more extensive view about the preparation and
composition of inks and adopts all that Neri had given, though he never
quotes his name, and adds—"hitherto published by no one." He does
however mention many valuable particulars which were omitted by Neri.
Most of his receipts are about gold, silver and nondescript inks, with
directions for making a great variety for secret writing and defacing. This
book revised and enlarged was republished in London, 1660.

In 1653 Peter Borel, who was physician to Louis XIV, King, of France
published his "Bibliotheca Chemica," which contains a large number of ink
receipts, two of which may be characterized as "iron and gall" ones. They
possess value on account of the relative proportions indicated between the
two chemicals. The colored ones, including gold, silver and sympathetic
inks are mostly repetitions of those of Neri and Caneparius. The French
writers, though, speak of his researches in chemistry as "somewhat
credulous."

Christopher Merret, an English physician and naturalist, born A. D. 1614,
translated Neri into our language in 1654, with many notes of his own about
him; his observations have added nothing of value to the chemistry of inks.

Johann Kunckel, a noted German chemist and writer in 1657, republished
in the German language Neri's work with Merret's notes, and his own
observations on both. He also inserted many other processes as the result of
considerable research and seems to have been thoroughly conversant with
the chemistry of inks, advocating especially the value and employment of a
tanno-gallate of iron ink for record purposes.

Salmon, A. D. 1665, in his Polygraphics, proceeds to give instructions
relative to inks which notwithstanding their merit are confounded with so
many absurdities as to lessen their value for those who were unable to
separate truth from falsehood; but he nevertheless dwells on the virtues of
the "gall" inks.

Jacques Lemort, a Dutch chemist of some note, issued a treatise, A. D.
1669, on "Ink Formulas and Colors," seemingly selected from the books of
those who had preceded him. He expresses the opinion that the "gall" inks if
properly compounded would give beneficial results.

Formulas for making inks are found tucked away in some of the very old
literature treating of "curious" things. One of them which appeared in 1669
directs: "to strain out the best quality of iron employ old and rusty nails;"
another one says, that the ink when made is to remain in an open vessel "for
thirty days and thirty nights, before putting it in a parchment bag."

An English compendium of ink formulas, published in 1693, calls
attention to many formulas for black inks as well as gold, silver, and the
colored ones; no comment, however, is made in respect to any particular
one being better than another as to permanency, and these conditions would
seem to have continued for nearly a century later, though the art of
handwriting was making giant strides.

It is a remarkable fact that notwithstanding the numerous devotees to that
art which included many of the gentler sex, reproductions of whose skill in
"Indian" ink are to be found engraved in magnificent publications, both in
book and other forms, there is no mention in them or in any others included
within this period about the necessity of using any other DURABLE ink for
record or commercial purposes.

As indicative in some degree of the progress of the art of handwriting and
handwriting materials, commencing A. D. 1525 and ending A. D. 1814, I
present herewith a compilation of the names of over one hundred of the best
known calligraphers and authors of the world, and not to be found as a
whole in any public or private library. It is arranged in chronological order.

1525.

The first English essay on the subject of "Curious Calligraphy" was by a
woman who from all accounts possessed most remarkable facility in the use
of the pen as well as a knowledge of languages. Her name was Elizabeth
Lucar; as she was born in London in 1510 and died 1537, her work must
have been accomplished when only fifteen years of age.

1540.

Roger Ascham, best known as the tutor of
Queen Elizabeth.

1570.

Peter Bales, author of many works, "The Writing Schoolmaster," which
he published in three parts, being the best known. He was also a
microscopic writer. His rooms were at the sign of "The Hand and Golden
Pen," London.

1571.

John de Beauchesne, teacher of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King
James I. Author of many copy books.

1588.

John Mellis, "Merchants Accounts," etc.

1600.

Elizabeth Jane Weston, of London and Prague, wrote many poems in old
Latin.

1600.

Hester Inglis, "The Psalms of David."

1601.

John Davies, "The Writing Schoolmaster, or
Anatomy of Fair Writing."

1616.

Richard Gething, "The Hand and Pen; 1645, "Chirographia" and many
others.

1618.

Martin Billingsley, "The Writing Schoolmaster, or the Anatomie of Fair
Writing." This author was writing master to King Charles I.

1622.

David Brown, who was scribe to King James I.
"Calligraphia."

1622.

William Comley, "Copy-Book of all the most usual English Hands," etc.

1646.

Josiah Ricrafte, "The Peculiar Character of the Oriental Languages."

1650.

Louis Hughes, "Plain and Easy Directions to
Fair Writing."

1650.

John Johnson, "The Usual Practices of Fair and Speedy Writing."

1651.

John Clithers, "The Pens Paradise," dedicated to Prince Charles.

1652.

James Seamer, "A Compendium of All the
Usual Hands Written in England."

1657.

Edward Cocker, penman and engraver, famous in his time for the number
and variety of his productions. Author of "The Pen's Triumph," "The Artist's
Glory," "England's Penman," and many more.

1659.

James Hodder, "The Penman's Recreation," etc.

1660.

John Fisher, "The Pen's Treasury."

1663.

Richard Daniel, "A Compendium of many hands of Various Countries."

1669.

Peter Story or Stent, "Fair Writing of Several
Hands in Use."

1678.

William Raven, "An Exact Copy of the Court
Hand."

1680.

Peter Ivers, famous for his engrossing and drawings.

1680.

Thomas Watson, "Copy-Book of Alphabets."

1681.

John Pardie, "An Essay on the German Text and Old Print Alphabets."

1681.

Thomas Weston, "Ancilla Calligraphiae."

1681.

Peter Gery, "Copy book of all the Hands in use, Performed according to
the Natural Freeness of the Pen."

1681.

William Elder, "Copy-book of the most useful and necessary Hands now
used in England."

1683.

John Ayers, "Tutor to Penmanship," and many others.

1684.

Caleb Williams, "Nuncius Oris," written and engraved by himself.

1693.

Charles Snell, "The Penman's Treasury Opened;" 1712, "Art of Writing
in Theory and Practice;" 1714, "Standard Rules," etc.

1695.

Richard Alleine, writing master.

1695.

Eleazer Wigin, "The Hand and Pen."

1695.

John Sedden, "The Penman's Paradise."

1696.

John Eade, writing master.

1699.

Joseph Alleine, published several books about writing and accounts.

1699.

Robert More, "The Writing Masters Assistant." 1725. "The General
Penman."

1700.

John Beckham, father of the celebrated George Beckham, wrote and
engraved several pieces for "The Universal Penman."

1700.

Edward Smith, "The Mysteries of the Pen in fifteen Hands, Unfolded,"
etc.

1700.

Henry Legg, "Writing and Arithmetic."

1702.

William Banson, "The Merchants Penman."

1703.

John Dundas, microscopic writer.

1705.

George Shelley, "The Penmans Magazine."
In 1730 he wrote several pages for "Bickman's
Universal Penman."

1708.

John Clark, "The Penmans Diversion."

1709.

James Heacock, writing master.

1709.

George Shelley, "Natural writing in all hands."

1711.

George Bickham, one of the most famous of writers of his time, born
1684, died 1758, author of "The Universal Penman." He published many
works. 1711, "The British Penman;" 1731, "Penmanship in its utmost
Beauty and Extent" and "The Universal Penman" are the best known.

1709.

John Rayner, "Paul's Scholars Copy-Book."

1711.

Humphrey Johnson, "Youth's Recreation: a
Copy-Book of Writing done by Command of
Hand."

1712.

William Webster, writing and mathematics. 1730, wrote several pages for
"The Universal Penman."

1713.

Thomas Ollyffe, "The Hand and Pen." 1714,
"The Practical Penman."

1717.

William Brooks, "Delightful Recreation for the Industrious." Contributor
to "The Universal Penman."

1717.

Abraham Nicholas, "Various Examples of Penmanship." 1722, "The
Compleat Writing Master." Wrote also for "The Universal Penman."

1719.

Ralph Snow, "Youths Introduction to Handwriting."

1720.

William Richards, "The Complete Penman."

1723.

John Jarman, "A System of Court Hands."

1724.

Henry Lune, "Round Hand Complete."

1725.

John Shortland, writing master and contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1725.

Edward Dawson, writing master and contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1726.

Moses Gratwick, writing master and contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1727.

John Langton, "The Italien Hand."

1728.

John Day, writing master and contributor to
"The Universal Penman."

1729.

Gabriel Brooks, writing master and contributor to, "The Universal
Penman."

1730.

William Keppax, writing master and contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1730.

John Bland, "Essay in Writing." Also contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1730.

Solomon Cook, "The Modish Round Hand."

1730.

William Leckey, "A Discourse on the Use of the Pen." Contributor to
"The Universal Penman."

1730.

Peter Norman, writing master and contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1730.

Wellington Clark, writing master and contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1730.

Zachary Chambers, "Vive la Plume." Contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1733.

Bright Whilton, writing master and contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1734.

Timothy Treadway, writing master and contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1738.

George J. Bickham, writing master; also wrote for "Bickham's Universal
Penman."

1739.

Emanuel Austin, writing master; he wrote 22 pages in "The Universal
Penman."

1739.

Samuel Vaux, writing master and contributor to "The Universal Penman."

1740.

Jeremiah Andrews, writing master and tutor to King George III.

1740.

Nathaniel Dove, "The Progress of Time," and contributor to "The
Universal Penman."

1741.

John Blande, "Essay in Writing; 1730, contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1741.

Richard Morris, writing master and contributor to "The Universal
Penman."

1747.

Mary Johns, microscopic writer and author.

1749.

Charles Woodham, "A Specimen of Writing, in the most Useful Hands
now Practised in England."

1750.

John Oldfield, "Honesty." He wrote one piece in "The Universal
Penman."

1750.

Joseph Champion, "The Parallel or Comparative
Penmanship." 1762, "The Living Hands."

1751.

Edward Lloyd, "Young Merchants Assistant."

1758.

Richard Clark, "Practical and Ornamental Penmanship."

1760.

Benjamin Webb, writer of copy books, etc.

1762.

William Chinnery, "The Compendious Emblematist."

1763.

William Massey, "The Origin and Progress of Letters," containing
valuable information about the art.

1769.

John Gardner, "Introduction to the Counting
House."

1780.

Edward Powell, writing master and designer.

1784.

E. Butterworth, "The Universal Penman" in two parts, published in
Edinburgh.

1795.

William Milns, "The Penman's Repository."

1799.

William G. Wheatcroft, "The Modern Penman."

1814.

John Carstairs, "Tachygraphy, or the Flying
Pen." 2. "Writing made easy, etc."

Illustrated works on the subject of penmanship of contemporaneous times
and not of English origin are but few. The best known are:

1543.

Luduvico Vicentino, "A Copy book" published in Rome, seems to have
been the first.

1570.

Il perfetto Scrittore (The Perfect Writer) by
Francesco Cresci, published in Rome.

1605.

Spieghel der Schrijkfkonste (or Mirror of Penmanship) written by Van
den Velde, published in Amsterdam.

1612.

"Writing and Ink Recipes," by Peter Caniparius,
Venice and London.

1700.

Der Getreue Schreibemeister (or True Writing Master), by Johann Friedr
Vicum, published in Dresden.

From 1602 to 1709 many "Indian" ink specimens were extant and are still
of the different schools of penmanship. The productions of Phrysius,
Materot and Barbedor illustrating the French style, Vignon, Sellery and
others, for the Italian hand, and Overbique and Smythers for the German
text, and Ambrosius Perlengh and Hugo, with a few more, complete the list.

CHAPTER XII.

STUDY OF INK.

LACK OF INTEREST AS TO THE COMPOSITION OF INK DURING PART OF THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY—THE CONDITIONS WHICH THEN PREVAILED NEARLY
THE SAME AS THE PRESENT TIME—CHEMISTRY OF INK NOT UNDERSTOOD—
THIS LACK OF INFORMATION NOT CONFINED TO ANY PARTICULAR COUNTRY—
LEWIS, IN 1765, BEGINS A SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION ON THE SUBJECT OF INKS
—THE RESULTS AND HIS CONCLUSIONS PUBLISHED IN 1797—THE ROYAL
SOCIETY OF ENGLAND IN 1787 RECEIVES COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE INFERIORITY
OF INKS —ITS SECRETARY READS A PAPER THE SAME YEAR—THE PAPER CITED
IN FULL—DR. BOSTOCK IN 1830 COMMUNICATES TO THE SOCIETY OF ARTS WHAT
HE ESTIMATES TO BE THE CAUSES OF IMPERFECTIONS IN INK— ACTION OF THE
FRENCH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES— COMPLICATIONS SURROUNDING THE
MANUFACTURE OF INK ONLY THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.

THE increasing demands for ink, and the lack of interest as to its
composition during the eighteenth century, if viewed in the same lights
which prevail in our own times, permitted the general manufacture of cheap
grades of ink which possessed no very lasting qualities. The chemistry of
Inks was not fully understood, indeed we find Professer Turner of the
College of Edinburgh declaring in 1827:

"Gallic acid was discovered by Scheele in 1786, and exists ready formed
in the bark of many trees, and in gall-nuts. It is always associated with
tannin, a substance to which it is allied in a manner hitherto unexplained. It
is distinguished from tannin by causing no precipitate in a solution of
gelatine. With a salt of iron it forms a dark blue coloured compound, which
is the basis of ink. The finest colour is procured when the peroxide and

protoxide of iron are mixed together. This character distinguishes gallic acid
from every other substance excepting tannin."

The general lack of information or knowledge respecting ink chemistry
or its time-phenomena was not confined to any particular country, and it
does not appear that any general or specific attention was scientifically
directed to it until 1765, when William Lewis, F. R. S., an English chemist,
publicly announced that he proposed to investigate the subject. His
experimentations covered a period of many years and their results and his
theories as to the phenomena of inks were published in 1797. The most
valuable of his conclusions were that an excess of iron salt in the ink is
detrimental to color permanence (such ink becoming brown on exposure)
and also that acetic acid in the menstruum provides an ink of greater body
and blackness than sulphuric acid does (a circumstance due to the smaller
resistance of acetic acid to the formation of iron gallo-tannate). Many of his
other observations were later shown to have been erroneous. Dr. Lewis was
the first to advocate log- wood as a tinctorial agent in connection with iron
and gall compositions.

Ribaucourt, a French ink maker, in 1798 determined that an excess of
galls is quite as injurious to the permanence of ink as an excess of iron.

Pending the completion of the researches of Lewis, the Royal Society of
England, affected by complaints from all quarters relative to the inferiority
of inks as compared with those of earlier times, brought the subject to the
attention of many of its members for discussion and advice. Its secretary,
Charles Blagden, M. D., read a paper before the society, June 28, 1787,
which was published in the "Philosophical Transactions" and widely
circulated. It is so interesting that copious extracts are given:

"In a conversation some time ago with my friend Thomas Astle, Esq., F.
R. S. and A. S., relative to the legibility of ancient MSS. a question arose,

whether the inks in use eight or ten centuries ago, which are often found to
have preserved their colour remarkably well, were made of different
materials from those employed in later times, of which many are already
become so pale as scarcely to be read. With a view to the decision of this
question, Mr. Astle obligingly furnished me with several MSS., on
parchment and vellum, from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries inclusively,
some of which were still black, and others of different shades of colour,
from a deep yellowish brown to a very pale yellow, in some parts so faint as
to be scarcely visible. On all of these I made experiments with the chemical
re-agents which appeared to me best adapted to the purpose, namely, alkalis
both simple and phlogisticated, the mineral acids, and infusions of galls.

"It would be tedious and superfluous to enter into a detail of the
particular experiments, as all of them, one instance only excepted, agreed in
the general result, to shew that the ink employed anciently, as far as the
above-mentioned MSS. extended, was of the same nature as the present; for
the letters turned of a reddish or yellow brown with alkalis, became pale,
and were at length obliterated, with the dilute mineral acids, and the drop of
acid liquor which had extracted a letter, changed to a deep blue or green on
the addition of a drop of phlogisticated alkali; moreover, the letters acquired
a deeper tinge with the infusion of galls, in some cases more, in others less.
Hence it is evident, that one of the ingredients was iron, which there is no
reason to doubt was joined with the vitriolic acid; and the colour of the
more perfect MSS. which in some was deep black, and in others purplish
black, together with the restitution of that colour, in those which had lost it,
by the infusion of galls, sufficiently proved that another of the ingredients
was a stringent matter, which from history appears to be that of galls. No
trace of a black pigment of any sort was discovered, the drop of acid which
had completely extracted a letter, appearing of an uniform pale ferrugineous
color, without an atom of black powder, or other extraneous matter, floating
in it.

"As to the durability of the more ancient inks, it seemed, from what
occurred to me in these experiments, to depend very much on a better
preparation of the material upon which the writing was made, namely, the
parchment or vellum; the blackest letters being those which had sunk into it
deepest. Some degree of effervescence was commonly to be perceived
when the acids came into contact with the surface of these old vellums. I
was led, however, to suspect, that the more modern; for in general the tinge
of colour, produced by the phlogisticated alkali in the acid laid upon them,
seemed less deep; which, however, might depend in part upon the length of
time they have been kept: and perhaps more gum was used in them, or
possible they were washed over with some kind of varnish, though not such
as gave gloss.

"One of the specimens sent me by Mr. Astle, of the fifteenth century, and
the letters were those of an engrossing hand, angular, without any FINE
strokes, broad and very black. On this none of the above-mentioned re-
agents produced any considerable effect; most of them seemed to make the
letters blacker, probably by cleaning the surface; and the acids, after having
been rubbed strongly on the letters, did not strike any deeper tinge with the
phlogisticated alkali. Nothing had a sensible effect toward obliterating these
letters but what took off part of the surface of the vellum, when small rolls,
as of a dirty matter, were to be perceived. It is therefore unquestionable, that
no iron was used in this ink; and from its resistance to the chemical
solvents, as well as a certain clotted appearance in the letters when
examined closely, and in some places a slight degree of gloss, I have little
doubt but they were formed with a composition of a black, sooty or
carbonaceous powder and oil, probably something like our present printer's
ink, and am not without suspicion that they were actually printed (a
subsequent examination of a larger portion of this supposed MSS. has
shown that it is really a part of a very ancient printed book).

"Whilst I was considering of the experiments to be made, in order to
ascertain the composition of ancient inks, it occurred to me that perhaps one
of the best methods of restoring legibility to decayed writing might be to
join phlogisticated alkali with the remaining calx of iron, because, as the
quantity of precipitate formed by these two substances very much exceeds
that of the iron alone, the bulk of the colouring matter would thereby be
greatly augmented. M. Bergman was of opinion that the blue precipitate
contains only between a fifth and a sixth part of its weight of iron, and
though subsequent experiments tend to show that, in some cases at least, the
proportion of iron is much greater, yet upon the whole it is certainly true,
that if the iron left by the stroke of a pen were joined to the colouring matter
of phlogisticated alkali, the quantity of Prussian blue thence resulting would
be much greater than the quantity of black matter originally contained in the
ink deposited by the pen, though perhaps the body of colour might not be
equally augmented. To bring the idea to the test, I made a few experiments
as follows:

"The phlogisticated alkali was rubbed upon the bare writing in different
quantities, but in general with little effect. In a few instances, however, it
gave a bluish tinge to the letters, and increased their intensity, probably
where something of an acid nature had contributed to the diminution of
their colour.

"Reflecting that when phlogisticated alkali forms its blue precipitate with
iron the metal is first usually dissolved in an acid, I was next induced to try
the effect of adding a dilute mineral acid to writing besides the alkali. This
answered fully to my expectations, the letters changing very speedily to a
deep blue colour, of great beauty and intensity.

"It seems of little consequence as to the strength of colour obtained,
whether the writing be first wetted with the acid, and then the phlogisticated

alkali be touched upon it, or whether the process be inverted, beginning
with the alkali; but on another account I think the latter way preferable. For
the principal inconvenience which occurs in the proposed method of
restoring MSS. is, that the colour frequently spreads, and so much blots the
parchment as to detract greatly from the legibility; now this appears to
happen in a less degree when the alkali is put on first, and the dilute acid is
added upon it.

"The method I have hitherto found to answer best has been to spread the
alkali thin with a feather or a bit of stick cut to a blunt point, though the
alkali has occasioned no sensible change of colour, yet the moment that the
acid comes upon it, every trace of a letter turns at once to a fine blue, which
soon acquires its full intensity, and is beyond comparison stronger than the
colour of the original trace had been. If now the corner of a bit of blotting
paper be carefully and dexterously applied near the letters, in order to suck
up the superfluous liquor, the staining of the parchment may be in a great
measure avoided: for it is this superfluous liquor which absorbing part of
the colouring matter from the letters becomes a dye to whatever it touches.
Care must be taken not to bring the blotting paper in contact with the letters,
because the colouring matter is soft whilst wet, and may easily be rubbed
off. The acid I have chiefly employed has been the marine; but both the
vitriolic and nitrous succeed very well. They should undoubtedly be so far
diluted as not to be in danger of corroding the parchment, after which the
degree of strength does not seem to be a matter of much nicety.

"The method now commonly practiced to restore old writings, is by
wetting them with an infusion of galls in white wine."

(See a complicated process for the preparation of such a liquor in
Caneparius De Atramentis, A. D. 1660, p. 277)

"This certainly has a great effect; but is subject, in some degree, to the
same inconvenience as the phlogisticated alkali, of staining the substance
on which the writing was made. Perhaps if, instead of galls themselves, the
peculiar acid of or other matter which strikes the black with iron were
separated from the simple astringent matter, for which purpose two different
processes are given by Piesenbring and by Scheele, this inconvenience
might be avoided. It is not improbable, likewise, that a phlogisticated alkali
might be prepared better suited to this object than the common; as by
rendering it as free as possible from iron, diluting it to a certain degree, or
substituting the volatile alkali for the fixed. Experiment would most likely
point out many other means of improving the process described above; but
in its present state I hope it may be of some use, as it not only brings out a
prodigious body of colour upon letters which were before so pale as to be
almost invisible, but has the further advantages over the infusions of galls,
that it produces its effect immediately, and can be confined to these letters
only for which such assistance is wanted."

The Society of Arts in 1830, received a communication from Dr.
Bostock, in the course of which he stated that the "tannin, mucilage and
extractive matter are without doubt the principal causes of the difficulty
which is encountered in the formation of a perfect and durable ink and for a
good ink the essential ingredients are gallic acid and a sesqui salt of iron."
Owing to his working with galls he was unable to make decisive
experiments, but he concludes, and that rightly, that in proportion as ink
consists merely of gallate of iron, it is less liable to decomposition and any
kind of metamorphosis.

In 1831 the Academy of Sciences in France took up the matter and
designated a committee composed of chemists with instructions to study the
subject of a permanent ink. After long research it reported that it was unable

to recommend any better ink than the tanno-gallate of iron one then in use,
but "it should be properly compounded."

Peddington investigated, 1841-48, the ancient MSS. collected by the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, and published the results in
"Examination of Some Decayed Oriental Works in the Library of the
Asiatic Society," which are of much interest as relating to "mineral" inks,
the "gall" inks being unknown in Asia after the twelfth century.

Up to thirty-five years ago, the manufacture of "gall" inks necessitated a
complicated series of processes and long periods of time to enable the ink to
settle properly, etc. It was Professor Penny of the Anderson University who
suggested the way to avoid one of the processes pertaining to ink-making
by utilizing the known fact, that tannin is more soluble in cold than in warm
or hot water. It was adopted all over the world and revolutionized the
manufacture of ink, by doing away with boiling processes and hot
macerations of ingredients. With hardly in exception the best tanno-gallate
of iron ("gall") inks are now "cold" made.

CHAPTER XIII.
STUDY OF INK.

INVESTIGATIONS BY STARK OF INK QUALITIES COVERING A PERIOD OF TWENTY-
THREE YEARS—ABSTRACT FROM HIS REPORT OF 1855—DR. CHILTON
EXPERIMENTS IN NEW YORK CITY 1856—ACTION OF THE PRUSSIAN
GOVERNMENT IN 1859 AND EMPLOYMENT OF AN OFFICIAL INK—WATTENBACH'S
GERMAN TREATISE ON THE ARCHIVES OF THE MIDDLE AGES—WILLIAM INGLIS
CLARK ATTEMPTS TO PLACE THE MANUFACTURE OF INK ON A SCIENTIFIC BASIS
—SUBMITS HIS VALUABLE RESEARCHES AND DEDUCTIONS TO THE ENINBURGH
UNIVERSITY IN 1879—SCHLUTTIG AND NEUMANN IN 1890 ESTABLISH A STANDARD
FORMULA FOR IRON AND GALL INK—NAMES OF SOME INK INVESTIGATORS OF
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

DR. JAMES STARK, a famous chemist, submitted the results of twenty-
three years of investigations of writing inks in a paper read by him in 1855
before the Society of Arts, in Edinburg, Scotland. The following is the
abstract as printed by the London Artisan at the time:

"The author stated that in 1842 he commenced a series of experiments on
writing inks, and up to this date (1855), had manufactured 229 different
inks, and had tested the durability of writings made with these on all kinds
of paper. As the result of his experiments be showed that the browning and
fading of inks resulted from many causes, but in ordinary inks chiefly from
the iron becoming peroxygenated and separating as a heavy precipitate.
Many inks, therefore, when fresh made, yielded durable writings; but when
the ink became old, the tanno-gallate of iron separated, and the durability of
the ink was destroyed. From a numerous set of experiments the author
showed that no salt of iron and no precipitate of iron equalled the common
sulphate of iron—that is, the commercial copperas—for the purpose of ink-
making; and that even the addition of any persalt, such as the nitrate or
chloride of iron, though it improved the present color of the ink,
deteriorated its durability. The author failed to procure a persistent black ink
from manganese, or other metal or metallic salt. The author exhibited a
series of eighteen inks which had either been made with metallic iron or
with which metallic iron had been immersed, and directed attention to the
fact that though the depth and body of color seemed to be deepened, yet in
every case the durability of writings made with such inks was so impaired
that they became brown and faded in a few months. The most permanent
ordinary inks were shown to be composed of the best blue gall nuts with
copperas and gum, and the proportions found on experiment to yield the
most persistent black were six parts of best blue galls to four parts of
copperas. Writings made with such an ink stood exposure to sun and air for
twelve months without exhibiting any change of color, while those made
with inks of every other proportion or composition had more or less of their

color discharged when similarly tested. This ink, therefore, if kept from
moulding and from depositing its tanno-gallate of iron, would afford
writings perfectly durable. It was shown that no gall and logwood ink was
equal to the pure gall ink in so far as durability in the writings was
concerned. All such inks were exhibited which, though durable before the
addition of logwood, faded rapidly after logwood was added to them. Sugar
was shown to have an especially hurtful action on the durability of inks
containing logwood—indeed, on all inks. Many other plain inks were
exhibited, and their properties described —as gallo-sumach ink,
myrabolams ink, Runge's ink, —inks in which the tanno-gallate of iron was
kept in solution by nitric, muriatic, sulphuric, and other acids, or by oxalate
of potash, chloride of lime, etc. The myrabolams was recommended as an
ink of some promise for durability, and as the cheapest ink it was possible
to manufacture. All ordinary inks, however, were shown to have certain
drawbacks, and the author endeavored to ascertain by experiment whether
other dark substances could be added to inks to impart greater durability to
writings made with them, and at the same time prevent those chemical
changes which were the cause of ordinary inks fading. After experimenting
with various substances, and among others with Prussian blue and indigo
dissolved in various ways, he found the sulphate of indigo to fulfil all the
required conditions and, when added in the proper proportion to a tanno-
gallate of iron ink, it yielded an ink which is agreeable to write with, which
flows freely from the pen and does not clog it; which never moulds, which,
when it dries on the paper, becomes of an intense pure black, and which
does not fade or change its color however long kept. The author pointed out
the proper proportions for securing those properties, and showed that the
smallest quantity of the sulphate of indigo which could be used for this
purpose was eight ounces for every gallon of ink. The author stated that the
ink he preferred for his own use was composed of twelve ounces of gall,
eight ounces of sulphate of indigo, eight ounces of copperas, a few cloves,

and four or six ounces of gum arabic, for a gallon of ink. It was shown that
immersing iron wire or filings in these inks destroyed ordinary inks. He
therefore recommended that all legal deeds or documents should be written
with quill pens, as the contact of steel invariably destroys more or less the
durability of every ink. The author concluded his paper with a few remarks
on copying inks and indelible inks, showing that a good copying ink has yet
to be sought for, and that indelible inks, which will resist the pencilings and
washings of the chemist and the forger, need never be looked for."

Professor Leonhardi, of Dresden, who had given much attention to the
subject of inks, introduced in 1855 what he termed a NEW ink, and named
it "alizarine ink," alizarin being a product obtained from the madder root,
which he employed for "added" color in a tanno-gallate of iron solution. It
possessed some merit due to its fluidity, and for a time was quite popular,
but gradually gave place to the so-called chemical writing fluids; it is now
obsolete.

Champour and Malepeyre, Paris, 1856, issued a joint manual,
"Fabrication des Encres," devoted almost exclusively to the manufacture of
inks and compiles many old "gall" and other ink formulas.

In 1856 Dr. Chilton of New York City published the results of ink
experiments which he had made. The accompanying extracts are taken from
the local press of the month of April of that year:

"Some ingenious experiments to test the durability of writing inks have
recently been made by Dr. Chilton, of New York City. He exposed a
manuscript written with four different inks of the principal makers, of this
and other countries, to the constant action of the weather upon the roof of
his laboratory. After an exposure of over five months, the paper shows the
different kind of writing in various shades of color. The English sample,

Blackwood's, well known and popular from the neat and convenient way
that it is prepared for this market, was quite indistinct.

"The American samples, David's, Harrison's and Maynard's are better.
The first appears to retain its original shade very neatly; the two last are
paler. This test shows conclusively the durability of ink; and while, for
many purposes, school and the like, an ink that will stand undefaced a year
or so, is all that is necessary, yet there is hardly a bottle of ink sold, some of
which may not be used in the signature or execution of papers that may be
important to be legible fifty or one hundred years hence.

"For state and county offices, probate records, etc., it is of vital
importance that the records should be legible centuries hence. We believe
that some of the early manuscripts of New England are brighter than some
town and church records of this century.

"In Europe at the present time, great care is taken by the different
governments in the preparation of permanent ink—some of them even
compounding their own, according to the most approved and expensive
formulas.

"Manuscripts of the eleventh and twelfth centuries now in the state paper
office of Great Britain, are apparently as bright as when first written; while
those of the last two hundred years are more or less illegible, and some of
them entirely obliterated."

While the information sought to be conveyed in the last statement may be
in some respects correct, it must be remembered that most of the MSS.
extant dating before the thirteenth century were written in "Indian" ink,
while the great majority of those of the last two hundred years were not;
and this fact alone would account to some extent for the differences
mentioned.

The German (Prussian) government in 1859, as the result of an
investigation, employed what they termed "Official Ink of the First Class,"
i. e., a straight tanno- gallate of iron ink without added color; and if
permanence were required as against removal by chemicals, it was
accomplished by writing on paper saturated with chromates and
ultramarine.

In 1871 Professor Wattenbach of Germany published a treatise entitled
"Archives during the Middle Ages," which has some valuable references to
the color phenomena of inks.

William Inglis Clark in 1879 submitted to the Edinburgh University a
thesis entitled "An Attempt to Place the Manufacture of Ink on a Scientific
Basis," and which very justly received the commendation of the University
authorities. His researches and rational deductions are of the greatest
possible value judged from a scientific standpoint. The introduction of blue-
black ink is a phase of the development towards modern methods which he
discusses at much length.

The object of adding a dye in moderation, he asserts, is to give temporary
color to the ink and where indigo-paste is used, it has been assumed that it
kept the iron gallo-tannate in solution, whereas any virtue of this kind
which indigo-paste possesses is more likely due to the sulphuric acid which
it contains than to the indigo itself. The essential part of the paste required
is the sulpho-indigodate of sodium, now commonly called indigo-carmine.
He further remarks that the stability of an ink precipitate depends upon the
amount of iron which it contains and which on no account should be less
than eight per cent; he adds rightly, if gallic acid be preferably used in
substitution for tannin, "no precipitate is obtained under precisely similar
conditions." This point followed up explains in a measure why a gall
infusion prepared with hot water is not suitable for a blue-black, while a

cold water infusion is. In the latter case a comparatively small percentage of
tannin is extracted from the galls, while much is extracted with hot water
and the consequence is, on adding the indigo blue the color is not brought
out as it should be. Substantially the same thing occurs with ink made with
the respective acids, although the blue color remains for a time unimpaired
in the tannin ink, apparently due to the fact that ferrous-tannate reduces
indigo blue to indigo white, a change which the low reducing power of
ferrous- gallate does little to effect. The vegetable matter in common inks
facilitates the destruction, or rather alteration and precipitation of the
indigo, for the dye appears in the iron precipitate and may be extracted from
it with boiling water.

Dr. Clark's investigations seek to demonstrate the superiority of tannin
and gallic acid over infusions of the natural galls, and he undertakes to
determine the correct ratio of tannin and sulphate of iron to be used as ink.
His experiments in this line show that:

1. The amount of precipitate increases as the proportion of iron to tannin
is increased.

2. The composition of the precipitate is so valuable as to preclude the
possibility of its being a definite body. Increase of iron in the solution has
not at first any effect on the composition of the precipitate, but afterwards
iron is found in it in greater but not proportional amount.

3. At one point the proportions of iron in the precipitate and in solution
are the same, and this is at between 6 and 10 parts of iron to 100 parts of
tannin.

4. The proportion of iron in the precipitate varies greatly with the length
of time the ink has been exposed. At first the precipitate contains 10 per
cent of iron, but by and by a new one having only 7.5 per cent is formed,

and in from forty to seventy days we find one of 5.7 per cent.
Simultaneously iron increases in the ink (proportionate to the tannin).

5. The results show, and practice confirms, that 16 parts of iron (80
ferrous sulphate) and 100 parts of tannin are best for ink manufacture.

The research now travelled in a direction which accumulating experience
showed to be obligatory. Blue-black tannin ink lost color, and the reducing
nature of the tannin tended to the formation of a highly objectionable
precipitate in the ink, which made writing anything but a pleasure. These
two faults were doubtless linked together in some way and seemed not to
exist when gallic acid was used, for ink so made was found to precipitate
only after a long exposure, it required no free acid to keep the precipitate in
solution, and retained the indigo blue color for a long time; alkalis did not
decompose the ink, and provided blacker and more permanent writing.
Determination of the correct proportions of gallic acid and ferrous-sulphate
was the subject of prolonged experiments conducted on similar lines to
those already detailed. The conclusions as to precipitation were also similar.
Thirty parts of iron (150 of ferrous- sulphate) and 100 parts of gallic acid
were found to be the most suitable proportions for ink-making. It is
advisable, however, not to discard tannin altogether, owing to the slow
blackening of the gallic acid ink, and a little tannin gives initial blackening
and body, while it is absolutely necessary for copying ink. Initial blackness
can also be ensured by oxidizing 21 per cent of the ferrous-sulphate without
adding the extra acid necessary to the formation of a ferric salt.

The concluding portion of his research is devoted to the influence of
sugar upon the permanence of ink, and the results of the experiments are
summed up in the following sentences: "It would be injurious to add 3 per
cent of sugar to a tan in ink, while from 4 to 10 per cent would be quite
allowable. Most copying inks contain about 3.5 per cent of sugar— not far

from the critical amount. With gallic acid more than 3 per cent of sugar
hardly varies the precipitate, but the importance of this point is somewhat
diminished by the fact that the presence of sugar is by no means necessary
in a writing ink. Dextrin is a much superior substance to use. Curiously this
body rapidly precipitates a tannin ink; hence it is useless for copying ink,
but for the gallic ink it is an excellent thickener."

Chen-Ki-Souen, "Lencre de China," by Maurice Jametel, appeared in
Paris in 1882, but as the title indicates, it is the old "Indian" or Chinese ink
that is discussed.

Schluttig and Neumann in 1890 issued their Edition Dresden on the
subject of "Iron and Gall inks." In this valuable work is to be found the
formula which has been generally adopted as the standard where one is
used for tanno-gallate of iron ink.

The investigations of other scientific men like Lepowitz, Booth,
Desormeaux, Chevreuse, Irvine, Traille, Bottger, Riffault, Precht, Nicholes,
Runge, Gobert, Penny, Arnold, Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Davids, Kindt,
Ure, Wislar and many more who have dealt with the chemistry of inks,
present to us some testimony during a considerable portion of the
nineteenth century of the efforts made to secure a good ink.

CHAPTER XIV.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF INK.

INK USED BY US HAS NOTHING IN COMMON WITH THAT OF THE ANCIENTS—
MANUFACTURERS OF THE PRESENT TIME HAVE LARGELY UTILIZED FORMULAS
EMPLOYED IN PAST CENTURIES—THE COMMON ACCEPTATION OF THE TERM
INK—SEVEN DIFFERENT CLASSES OF INKS AND THEIR COMPOSITION BRIEFLY
TOLD—FAILURE OF EFFORTS TO SECURE A REAL SAFETY INK.

THE inks used by us have nothing in common with those of the ancients
except the color and gum, and mighty little of that.

Those of the "gall" class employed in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth,
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some formulas of which are utilized
by the manufacturers of ink in our own time, consisted generally in
combination; infusions of nut-galls, sulphate of copper or iron, or both, and
fish-glue or gum, slightly acidulated. The frequent introduction of the so-
called "added" color into these inks, time has shown to have been a grave
mistake.

The common acceptation of the term "ink" may be said to characterize an
immense number of fluid compounds, the function of which in connection
with a marking instrument is to delineate conventional signs, characters and
letters as put together and commonly called writing, on paper or like
substances.

To classify them would be impossible; but black writing ink, chemical
writing fluid, colored writing ink, copying ink, India ink, secret or
sympathetic ink, and indelible ink make seven classes; the others may be
denominated under the head of miscellaneous inks, and of them all, there is
no single ink answering every requirement and few answer at all times the
same requirements. Ink may be either a clear solution of any coloring
matter or of coloring matter held in suspension. It is a remarkable fact that
although most inks are chemical compositions and many times made after
the same formula, identical results cannot always be calculated or obtained.
This is more particularly to be noted in the case of black writing inks
otherwise known as the tanno-gallate of iron inks [gallic and gallotanic acid
obtained from nut-galls, sulphate of iron, (green copperas) and some
gummy vehicle].

The variations would appear to be largely due to the difference in quality
of the gall-nuts, treatment, and temperature of the atmosphere; perhaps,
however, not so much to-day as it was ten or twenty years ago, when to
make ink of this character boiling processes were employed. Most of them
as already stated are now "cold" made.

Inks of this class consist of a finely divided insoluble precipitate
suspended in water by the use of gum and possessing a slight acidity.

The requisites of a good black writing ink or black writing fluid require it
to flow readily from the pen, to indicate in a short time a black color and to
penetrate the paper to an appreciable degree, and more important than all
the rest, to be of great durability. When kept in a closed vessel no sediment
of any account should be precipitated, although such will be the case in
open ink-wells, and this the quicker the more the air is permitted to get to it.
If it is to be used for record or documentary purposes it must not be
altogether obliterated if brought into contact with water or alcohol, and

should depend for permanency on its chemical and not on its pigmentary
qualities.

The second class, called for distinction "chemical writing fluids,"
possesses the same essential ingredients to be found in class one, but much
less in quantity and with some "added" colored substance which I shall term
"loading," for its real purpose is to cheapen the cost of production and not
altogether as some manufacturers state "simply to give them an agreeable
color."

Previous to the discovery of the soluble anilines, logwood, indigo,
madder, orchil and other dyeing materials were used for a period of some
eighty years and vanadium for some twenty years (very costly at that time),
for this purpose, but since 1874, and with frequent changes as the newer
aniline compounds were invented, these by-products of coal-tar, as well as
logwood, etc., have been and are to-day employed for "loading," or as the
manufacturer expresses, it "added color." The chemical writing fluids as
now prepared, yield when first written a blue or green color with a tendency
to change to black afterwards. They are not as permanent as those of the
first class.

Another black ink not durable, however, is "logwood;" its extract is
combined with a little chromate of potassium and boiled together in water.
It possesses its own "gum" and contains some tannin. In combination with
alum and water, it forms a dark purple ink.

The colored writing inks, of which "red" is the more important, are in
great number and with hardly an exception at the present time,
manufactured by adding water and water-glass to a soluble aniline red color.
Cochineal which was used for red ink formerly is now almost obsolete.
Nigrosine, one of the best known of them, is much used as a cheap "black"
ink, but as it is blue black and never becomes black, it really belongs to the

family of "colored" writing inks. They possess an undeserved popularity for
they flow freely from the pen which they do not corrode, nor do they
thicken or spoil in the inkwell; they are however very "fugitive" in character
and should not be employed for record, legal, monetary or other
documentary purposes. The indigo and prussian blue inks are well known,
the former under certain conditions a very permanent ink, the latter soon
disintegrating.

Copying inks are of two kinds, one dependent on the addition of
glycerine, sugar, glucose or like compounds to the black writing inks or
chemical writing fluids heretofore mentioned, which are thereby kept in a
moist offsetting condition; the other due to the solubility of the pigmentary
color with water, such as the aniline inks which are given more body than
those for ordinary purposes—and the logwoods in which the pigment is
developed and given copying qualities by chemicals, and hence becomes
responsive to the application of a sheet of paper dampened with water.
Copying ink should never be used for "record" purposes as it is affected by
changes of the temperature.

India ink, sometimes called China ink, or as formerly known by the
ancients and in classical and later times "Indian ink," is now used more for
drawing and engrossing than it is for commercial purposes. It belongs to the
"carbon" class and in some form was the first one used in the very earliest
times. In China it is applied with a brush or pith of some reed to the "rice"
paper also there manufactured. It is easily washed away unless bichromate
of ammonium or potassium in minute quantities be added to it, and then if
the paper on which it appears be exposed for a short time to the action of
the actinic rays of sunlight, this gummy compound will be rendered
insoluble and cannot be removed with any fluid, chemical or otherwise. It
possesses also great advantages in drawing, since it acts as a paint, and will

give any degree of blackness according to the quantity of water mixed with
it.

Secret or sympathetic inks are invisible until the writing is subjected to a
subsequent operation, such as warming or exposing to sunlight. To further
aid the object in view, the paper may be first steeped in a liquid and the
writing only made visible by using another liquid which has some chemical
affinity with the previous one. The number of this kind were but few but
have multiplied as chemistry progressed. The ancients were acquainted with
several modes. Ovid indiscreetly advises the Roman wives and maidens if
they intend to make their correspondence unreadable to the wrong persons
to write with new milk, which when dried may be rendered visible by
rubbing ashes upon it or a hot iron. Pliny suggests milky juices of certain
plants of which there are a considerable variety.

Indelible ink is not used for writing purposes on paper, but is found best
adapted for marking linen and cancellation or endorsing purposes. It is
chiefly composed of nitrate of silver preparations, to which heat must be
applied after it has been dried; or a pigment is commingled with the same
vehicles used in making common printing ink and in its use treated as such.

Diamonds, gold, silver, platinum and a host of other materials are
manufactured into ink and are to be placed under the head of miscellaneous
inks. They are in great number and of no interest in respect to ink writing
except for engrossing or illuminating.

Still another ink once held in much esteem and now almost obsolete is
the so-called "safety" ink.

Manufacturers, chemists and laymen in great number for many years
wasted money, time and energy in diligent worship at a secret shrine which
could not give the information they sought. A summary of the meager and

barren results they secured is of little value and unimportant. Hence, there is
no REAL "safety" ink.

It is true that lampblack (carbon) as made into ink, resists any chemical
or chemicals, but simple water applied on a soft sponge will soon remove
such ink marks. The reason for this is obvious, the ink does not penetrate
the paper.

"Safety" ink which will not respond to acids may be affected by alkalis,
or if resisting them separately, will yield to them in combination.

CHAPTER XV.
OFFICIAL AND LEGAL INK.

FIRST COMPLETE OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION OF INK IN THIS COUNTRY—THE
HONOR DUE TO ROBERT T. SWAN OF BOSTON—RESUME OF HIS REPORTS TO THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS—THE SWAN LAW ADOPTED IN
1894 BY THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS—UNITED STATES TREASURY
DEPARTMENT ADOPTS AN OFFICIAL INK IN 1901—UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO
SECURE INK LEGISLATION IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK—COMMENTS OF THE
PUBLIC PRESS OF THAT PERIOD—DIFFERENT WORKS WHICH MORE OR LESS
DWELL ON THE SUBJECT OF INK FROM 1890 TO 1900—CITATIONS FROM ALLEN'S
COMMERCIAL ORGANIC ANALYSIS—REFERENCE TO PAPER ABOUT INK READ
BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION.

IT was not, however, until 1891 that the subject of the constitution of an
enduring record ink received the consideration its importance deserved and
in this the youngest of countries. To Robert T. Swan of Boston is all honor
due for the very unique and comprehensive methods adopted in his
investigations. Appointed "commissioner of public records" of the state of
Massachusetts, he has set an example which may well be followed by other
states, as has been done in a lesser degree by Connecticut and ten years later

by the United States Treasury Department, which in this respect is so ably
represented in part by Dr. Charles A. Crampton of Washington, D. C.

Mr. Swan in his reports to the legislature of his state for the last twelve
years, deals with the subject of the constitution of "permanent inks" so
thoroughly, and with it affords information of so practical and useful a
character, that the fullest references to them prove both instructive and
interesting. In his report of 1891 he remarks:

"Upon commencing an examination of the records in various places, I
was impressed with the great importance of the use of inks which should be
permanent, and the necessity of an investigation which might prevent the
further use of inks that for one reason or another were unfit for use upon
records. I found that, as a rule, the inks upon the most ancient records had
preserved their color, many undoubtedly being blacker than when used, but
that the later records lost the jet-black appearance of the older. This, it is
true, is not wholly due to the change of inks, for the use of quills, the soft
surface of the old paper, the absence of blotting paper and the greater time
spent in writing, were all conducive to a heavier deposit of ink; but
evidence is ample that in comparatively recent years inks of poor quality
came in use. Proof of this is given by an examination of the records in the
state house. Up to about 1850 it was the custom in the office of the
Secretary of the Commonwealth to use for engrossing the acts, inks made of
a powder which was mixed in the office; and until that time the acts which
are engrossed upon parchment show, with but few exceptions, no signs of
fading. From 1850 for several years the writing in many cases is becoming
indistinct, that upon an act in 1851, and upon two in 1855, having nearly
disappeared. Since 1860, acts showing different intensity of color are found,
but whether this is their original color or not cannot be determined.

That the fading can be attributed to the parchment, as some claim, is
disproved by the fact that of the signatures upon the same act a few have
faded while others have not. Upon an act approved January 4, 1845, the
signature of the President of the Senate has nearly disappeared, that of the
Speaker of the House is more legible, while that of the Governor, and the
figure 4, which he evidently inserted, are jet black.

"The indexes in the volumes of archives in the office of the secretary,
which were written about 1840, were evidently made with a different ink
from that used for engrossing, and faded so badly that the important words
had to be rewritten.

"In the office of the State Treasurer the records to about 1867 are very
black and distinct, but the ink used during a few years following has faded.

"The records of births, marriages and deaths, in the registration volumes
in the secretary's office, furnish an excellent illustration of the different
qualities of the inks now used. These records are original returns made by
the city and town clerks, and from 1842 to 1889 show instances of the use
of inks which are now almost illegible. Here again the fault cannot be
attributed to the paper, for endorsements made in the secretary's office upon
the most faded returns at the time of their receipt are as black as when
made.

"The volumes of copies of the old records of Lexington, made in 1853,
have faded until they are quite indistinct.

"Some of the old inks, though retaining their black color have, from the
presence of acid in the ink or paper, eaten through the paper as thoroughly
as if the writing had been done with a sharp instrument. In part of one old
volume of court records, the ink, while not injuring the paper or becoming
illegible upon the face of the leaves, has gradually become legible upon the

reverse, while the heavy paper has been impervious to the other inks used. *
*****

To ascertain what kind of inks were in use by the town clerks, I examined
the registration volumes before referred to, and, as before stated, found
many poor inks in use. In a few cases blue inks were used, and in two
violet, which is, as a rule, if not always, a fugitive color. A number of the
returns in these volumes of as recent date as 1875 were almost illegible, and
three made in 1888 were nearly as indistinct.

"The more I looked into the subject, the more I became convinced that
the whole subject of ink was one upon which the persons using it were
comparatively ignorant. Consultation with experts satisfied me that good
inks were being injured by improper treatment; that the custom of mixing
inks and of adding water to them was unsafe; and that among the inks
reported as in use upon the records there were many manufactured for
commercial uses which should not be used upon records, and which the
manufacturers would say were not intended for record inks. I therefore sent
to the manufacturers of the inks reported as in use by the recording officers,
and to some others, the following letter and inquiries:

" 'The fading of much of the ink used in records of comparatively recent
date, while as a rule the records of two hundred years ago are as legible as
when written, establishes the fact that for permanent qualities much of the
modern ink is inferior to the ancient, and that inks are used that are unfit for
making a record which should stand for all time.

" 'I am led to believe that most ink in manufacturers make inks which are
good for commercial and other uses where there is no desire for a
permanent record, but which they would not recommend for use where the
important object was the permanency of the record. One of the dangers to
which our records are exposed can be obviated by the use of proper inks;

and I desire to obtain the opinion of the leading manufacturers on the
subject, that I may advise the recording officers of the State what are, and
what are not, safe inks to use for records.

" 'I shall esteem it a favor, therefore, if you will answer the enclosed
questions, and return them at your convenience. Your reply will be treated
as confidential as far as names are concerned, except in the answer to
question No. 5, and that will not be printed if you so request. Any general
opinion which will aid the recording officers in their selection of ink or
paper will be welcomed.

" '1. Do you consider it safe to use for a permanent record aniline inks?

" '2. Do you consider it safe to use for a record logwood inks?

" '3. Do your consider nut-gall and iron inks absolutely safe for a
permanent record?

" '4. Do you consider carbon ink the only permanent ink?

" '5. What inks of your manufacture would you advise against using for a
permanent record?

" '6. Do you advise generally against the inks known as writing fluids,
when permanency is the first requisition?

" '7. Do you manufacture a writing fluid?

" '8. Do you consider it safe to add water to ink intended for permanent
record, which has grown thick by exposure to the air?

" '9. Do you believe that the obliteration of ink is ever due to the
chemicals left in the paper? (This question has been asked of the paper

manufacturers also.)

" '10. Do you consider it safe to mix inks without knowing to what
chemical group the inks so mixed belong?'

"Replies were received from twenty-two manufacturers. Several of the
inks in the market, though bearing the name of certain persons, were found
to be manufactured for them by manufacturers who had already answered
the questions. Their replies were, therefore, not considered.

"To the first question, 'Do you consider it safe to use for a permanent
record aniline inks!' the unanimous answer was decidedly no. Aniline black
is absolutely permanent, but as it is not yet known how to render it soluble
in water, it has not been much used in ink.

"To the inquiry in regard to logwood inks, nearly all answered no, and
most of those who did not qualified their answers to such an extent as to
imply distrust.

"Upon the question of the permanency of nut-gall and iron inks, the
answers were more varied; one answering no, and four answering directly
yes, the remaining answers being in brief that such inks were permanent if
properly made.

"To the question, 'Do you consider carbon ink the only permanent ink?'
the answers were varied and contradictory. Most of the manufacturers said a
carbon ink could not be permanent, because carbon was insoluble; and
some said that no chemical union could exist between carbon and the other
ingredients in ink. Others claimed that carbon was the one permanent color,
and cited the old Indian and Chinese inks which have stood for centuries as
illustrations of its permanency. These statements were so widely different
that I pursued the inquiry further, and found it was conceded that, if a

process could be discovered by which carbon could be dissolved and made
to retain its color, no known substance would make so permanent an ink;
but that there was no such process, and in the inks now made the carbon
was simply held in suspension in the ink without any chemical union; but I
found also that improvement has been made, and that it is possible to
combine the carbon with chemicals which will cause the carbon to embody
itself. More than ordinary care should, however, be exercised in the
purchase of carbon inks, for the lack of chemical union would cause a
tendency to precipitate the carbon if the ink were improperly made.

"The replies to the inquiry, 'Do you advise generally against the inks
known as writing fluids, when permanency is the first requisition?' were in
a way the most unsatisfactory, and savored somewhat of advertising. One
manufacturer made no fluid, and had no opinion to express. Most of the
others made fluids. Nine advised generally against their use; four
recommended them in preference to ink; and the others either advised
generally against them, but recommended their own, or qualified the answer
in such a way as to throw doubt on them.

"The argument in their favor seems to be that their fluidity makes them
permeate the paper, and, in the change of color which usually takes place
after using, a dyeing of the paper results. The objections are, that to obtain
the fluidity body must be sacrificed, and there is not enough substance
deposited upon the paper. The objections made by two manufacturers of
fluids I give in their own words.

" 'We advise generally against the inks known simply as writing fluids—
those not intended to yield a letter-press copy—because they are universally
made, first, with as little solid matter as possible,—i. e. weak; second, with
an excess of iron beyond that required to combine with the tannin, so as to
develop all the color possible and flow with the greatest freedom. The

combined writing and copying fluids, and the copying fluids on the other
hand if properly made, may be justly recommended where permanency is
the first requisition, particularly the older ones, which should be the most
durable of all nut-gall and iron inks, because in them particularly
concentration is aimed at, and the iron need not necessarily, and should not,
be in excess of that required to combine with the tannin present. A steel pen
during use injures, and often greatly, the durability of a writing ink by
giving up iron to it.

" 'For your purpose, where extreme permanency is the first requisition, I
should not advise the use of an ordinary writing fluid. Many manufacturers
cannot obtain sufficient fluidity in their writing fluids without making their
inks very dilute, and observing a particular method of manufacture which,
although providing more attained color for a time, sacrifices the permanent
quality of their color in a great measure. I should advise the use of an ink
decidedly stronger.'

"The addition of water was almost universally condemned, for reasons
stated later. As proof that this was not for the mercenary purpose of
indirectly advising the use of more ink, some of the manufacturers said the
ink should be kept in small- mouthed ink-stands, and when not in use
should be as tightly sealed as possible, to prevent evaporation.

"In reply to the inquiry as to whether chemicals left in the paper ever
obliterated the ink, several of the manufacturers said they knew of such
cases, and all were agreed that, if the chlorides used for bleaching the paper
were not washed out, they would dangerously affect any ink. The practice
of mixing inks was universally condemned.

"Permanency against the action of time is the quality sought for in this
investigation, and it is claimed that better evidence as to that quality is
furnished by the test of time than by any other; and manufacturers have

shown or referred to specimens of writing made with their ink many years
ago, as proof of its merit in this particular. If there was any surety that the
standard of quality was always kept up in all of the oldest inks on the
market, it would be safe to accept that test, but this may not be a fact; and,
as has been stated, some of the recording officers believe that it is not.

Moreover, if only the old inks were to be accepted, it would be against
the spirit of the age, which is to adopt the improvements which science
makes possible; and manufacturers who at great cost of time and money
have made improvements, would be deprived of the compensation which
they deserve. The old inks were as a rule heavy, and had a tendency to
settle; and the endeavor on the part of some manufacturers has been to
preserve the permanency, and at the same time produce thinner inks which
would be more agreeable to use.

"Improvements have been made in the direction of free-flowing inks, and
these are fast becoming popular; and, while for correspondence and
commercial uses they are undoubtedly sufficiently permanent, for records
many of them are not, and it was with a view of preventing the use of these
upon records that this investigation was made. No attention has been given
to the permanency of the inks, as against their removal by acids.

"The use of proper ink is considered so important by the British
government that the inks used in the public departments are obtained by
public tender, in accordance with the conditions drawn up by the controller
of H. M. stationery office, with the assistance of the chief chemist of the
inland revenue department, to whom the inks supplied by the contractor are
from time to time submitted for analysis. Suitable inks for the various uses
are thus obtained, and their standard maintained. The last form of 'invitation
to tender,' or 'proposal,' as we term it, is appended, as being instructive.

I cannot learn that the United States government uses any such care as
the British government in the matter of ink, although the question has been
a troublesome one in the departments.

"The State department issues no special rules for determining suitable
inks, or requiring that particular inks shall be used. Proposals are asked for
the lowest bids for the articles of stationery required, the last form of
proposal asking for bids upon seven black inks, one crimson, and one
writing fluid, which are named.

"With the market full of inks worthless for records, the only safety for
our records seems to be in the establishment of a system similar to the
English, which shall fix upon proper inks for various uses, which all
recording officers shall be required to use.

"I believe that the recording officers will be glad to have the question of
permanent inks decided for them, and to know whether inks which were in
use many years ago, and have stood the test thus far, are maintained at their
old standard. In the face of sharp competition among manufacturers, they
fear they are not."

Mr. Swan, proceeding still further, secured the services of two of the
most distinguished professors of chemistry in this country, Messrs. Markoe
and Baird, and submitted to them in camera sixty-seven samples of different
inks, known only by numbers, for chemical analysis; in a long and
exhaustive report on the work they had set out to accomplish, and also with
a dissertation on the chemistry of inks in general, they complete their report
as follows:

"As a conclusion, since the great mass of inks on the market are not
suitable for records, because of their lack of body and because of the
quantity of unstable color which they contain, and because the few whose

coloring matters are not objectionable are deficient in galls and iron, or
both, we would strongly recommend that the State set its own standard for
the composition of inks to be used in its offices and for its records, have the
inks manufactured according to specifications sent out, and receive the
manufactured products subject to chemical assay. In this way only can there
be a uniformity in the inks used for the records throughout the State, and in
no other way can a proper standard be maintained."

Mr. Swan comments on the report of his chemists, and calls attention to
other tests made by himself:

"The conclusions at which I arrived were drawn, as stated, from
manufacturers or recording officers, wholly independently of the chemists,
but they will be found to coincide in many particulars with theirs. I did
consult them in regard to the practicability of maintaining a State standard
for record ink, which they have approved.

"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 analysis. 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 class 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 quantity 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 quantity 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 Massachusetts 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 quantities 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 quantity 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 advertisement, 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 Massachusetts
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 Massachusetts
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 documents
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 municipal, 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 documents 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 passage 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 document 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 circumstances 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 pass for the
stated reason that it came under the head of "class" 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 Documents." 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 Lassaigne, 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
Analysis," 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 substituted 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
Association at Albany, entitled "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
constitution and future methods of employment. A vote of thanks was
adopted and the association 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 documents all point unerringly in the direction of an ink containing
iron and galls.

Accumulated 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 assailed. Such information when assembled
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.

Assuming 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.

The investigations of the writer in this direction, while in some respects
traveling the same road followed by others, diverged from them and has
been more in the nature of a comparative analytical and microscopic
examination of ancient with ancient and modern with modern documents in
connection with numerous chemical experiments, the manufacture of
hundreds of inks and the study of their time and other phenomena.

To accomplish this, ancient documents not written with "Indian" ink, but
with those obviously containing combinations of iron and galls or other
tannins, were selected and grouped into color families. They began with the
fourteenth century, continuing well into the nineteenth, to the number of
nearly four hundred, each of them of a different date and different year.
Some of them were so pale and indistinct as to be illegible, others less so
and by gradual steps they approached to a definite black; many of them as
rich and deep in color as if they had been written not centuries ago but
within a few years. Signatures on the same document represented different
degrees of color, so that the question of the material on which the writing

appeared affecting the appearance of the ink, was not a factor; but the
difference in the inks used to make the signatures was the determining
factor.

At this point it may be noted that the investigations conducted by Mr.
Swan before referred to and those by the writer and the resultant
observations of each were substantially alike. Many of the writer's,
however, preceded those of Mr. Swan's, for during the years 1885 and 1886,
having had the custody of part of the Archives of the City of New York
there were many opportunities to study this subject which were taken
advantage of, before and after which time frequent examinations were made
of writings much more ancient than those pertaining to New York.

Assuming a second premise was to assert that the inks employed in the
writing of these documents were "straight" or possessed some "added"
pigment or color. Again, the vehicles to hold the particles or possibly
preserving substances, might be factors.

All literature possible referring to ink formulas was examined to
ascertain the names of materials recommended or formerly "added" to gall
inks, because if the pristineness of the blacker inks was due to the added
pigment it was a safe proposition that it was still existent in the ink, and that
if it could be discovered part at least of the problem would be, simplified.

The "added" color compounds, excluding those of the aniline family
which pertain to the more modern ink compositions, are of two classes:
those possessing tannin and color-yielding materials and those containing
only a color-yielding material. Many of the first class have been used in the
manufacture of ink both with infusions of nut-galls or alone, while but very
few of the second class have been used for either purpose. The
decomposing action of light, oxygen and moisture on many of each class
placed them beyond the purview of consideration, while the dates of the

discovery and the fact of the small percentage of tannin contained in others
permitted them also to be discarded. For instance: vanadium, which is fairly
permanent, was discovered only in 1830; chanchi, the ink plant of New
Granada discovered in the sixteenth century, possessing excellent lasting
qualities, does not assimilate perfectly with other constituents used in the
manufacture of ink, but is best when used alone; Berlin blue (prussian blue)
is well spoken of, but was only discovered by accident in 1710 by
Diesbach, a preparer of colors at Berlin; logwood, more used for this
purpose than any other material, was first imported into Europe in the
sixteenth century and causes a deterioration of the durable qualities of the
tanno-gallate of iron; Brazil-wood and archil, and their allies, are
exceedingly fugitive; bablah, the fruit of the acacia arabica, myrabolams, of
Chinese growth, catechu, and sumac which though used in the time of
Pliny, each contains a percentage of gallic acid too small to meet the
requirements. Divi-divi, a South American product, came into use only at
the end of the sixteenth century and has not stood the test of time.

This sifting process completely eliminated all but lampblack, madder and
indigo in some form as a permanent "added" color pigment. Lampblack,
which is we know forms the basis of "Indian" ink, is not soluble and
requires a very heavy gummy vehicle to prevent its immediate precipitation,
and while it could have been used in combination with tanno-gallate of iron
as an ink, the fact that it was possible to chemically remove the ancient inks
which remained black, was a sufficient demonstration that this carbon
substance, which is not affected by chemicals, either as contained in the
fluid ink or as dusted on after writing, could have formed no part of the
ancient tanno-gallate of iron inks.

Madder is mentioned as of very ancient times and was cultivated in
Europe as early as the tenth century; its addition to an iron and gall ink is
said to be an invention of the year 1855; it is certain, however, that it was

used for a like purpose as early as 1826, and a fair presumption that it was
frequently employed in some form during the preceding four centuries. It
has under certain conditions very lasting properties as the madder-dyed
cloths found wrapped around Egyptian mummies demonstrates, but does
not assist the tanno-gallate of iron to retain its black color; on the contrary it
seems to lessen this quality.

That indigo for added color was employed by ink manufacturers in the
eighteenth century is shown by the formulas appearing in the literature of
that time. It was used alone as an ink long before, as well as
contemporaneously with, those of the tanno-gallate of iron family. Its
lasting properties are most remarkable if it be true that, used as a dye, there
is still in existence specimens of it on cloth five thousand or more years old.
The history of its use ALONE as an ink is difficult to ascertain back of a
certain period; the writer has several specimens of it, one written in 1692
whose color is a green blue; another written about a century ago is believed
to be as bright blue as the day it was placed on the paper; from 1810 to
1850 it was in common use particularly in hot climates where it was "home-
made." Consequently if the old "gall" inks contained a lasting added color,
indigo must have been the one, Dr. Stark whose investigations along this
line for twenty-three years have already been cited has said that he
preferred for his own use an ink composed of galls, sulphate of indigo and
copperas (sulphate of iron); this means a tanno-gallate of iron ink with
indigo for "added" color. Like formulas calling for different proportions of
constituents both before and after his time in England and the continents of
Europe and America are to be found in considerable number, proving that
its use was more or less constant in this respect. To determine, then,
whether or not the blacker specimens of the ancient writings contained
indigo in any of its forms was most important, and the plan adopted most
simple. Specimens of writing in ink of which the manufacturer's name was
known as well as his formula and only thirty years old showed evidence of

considerable "browning;" some of them when tested in juxtaposition with
those of from fifty to one hundred years old which had turned completely
brown, gave approximately the same results, and differentiated largely from
the results obtained from jet black specimens of eighty to five hundred or
more years of age. In a number of the browner ones indigo was found to be
present while in many of the black ones it was not, demonstrating that the
reason for the continuing blackness of the older inks is not due to an added
color or pigment of any kind and furthermore that the "Stark" and
corresponding ink formulas after the test of TIME did not retain their
original blackness but deteriorated to a brown color; moreover, that their
purpose as in the present day was to give an agreeable and immediate color
result, a free-flowing ink, and to cheapen the cost of manufacture when
compared with that of an unadulterated tanno-gallate of iron ink.

No disagreement being now possible as to the lasting color virtues of a
properly proportioned tanno- gallate of iron ink WITHOUT an "added"
color or pigment, there remained the sole question as to the vehicle utilized
to hold this combination in suspension and whether or not it had to do with
the continuing blackness of the older inks.

The answer must lie between the vegetable product known as gum and
the animal product known as gelatine. The first disintegrates, quickly
absorbs moisture and gradually disappears, while gelatine (isinglass)
"contains under conditions 50% carbon, although its molecular formula has
not yet been determined. It cannot be converted into vapor and does not
form well-defined compounds with other bodies; it is insoluble in alcohol
which precipitates it in flakes from its aqueous solution. It is also
precipitated by tannin, which combines with it to form an insoluble non-
putrescible compound. Gallic acid, however, does not precipitate it."
(Bloxam.)

Possessing an undisturbed and complete history it was the very substance
employed long before the discovery of gall ink, and is found present in the
earliest specimens of the "Indian" inks which remain to us.

It must now be evident that there can be no material difference of
opinions as to what has been so clearly and conclusively established, viz.
that ink which contains a base of tanno-gallate of iron (without "added"
color) is a permanent ink, and the length of its durability and continuing
pristineness can be disturbed only by inferior quality of constituents, wrong
methods of admixture and its future environment. Hence any black ink with
this combination missing is of no practical value whatever either for record
or commercial uses.

"Indian" ink, except for specific purposes, belongs to the great past and
will so continue with its virtues unchallenged and proven, until some
solvent is discovered for the carbon which forms nearly the whole of its
composition, at which time THE perfect ink can be said to have been
discovered.

CHAPTER XVII.
INK PHENOMENA.

CONDITION OF INK WHEN FIRST PLACED ON PAPER—ITS METAMORPHOSIS AND
AFFINITIES—IGNORANCE OF THE FORGER AS TO ITS ORIGINAL ENVIRONMENT
—TREATMENT OF OLD INK MARKS—HOW PAPER MAY DISCOLOR INK—THE USES
OF ACID IN INK—VEHICLES TO HOLD INK PARTICLES AND PRESERVE THEM—
INKS FIVE CENTURIES OLD DO PRESERVE THEIR GLOSS—SOME CAUSES OF INK
DISINTEGRATION—WHEN INK BECOMES IRRESPONSIVE TO THE ELEMENTS—
DEMONSTRATED TRUTHS ABOUT INK CONSTITUENTS AND COLOR PHENOMENA
—NATURAL EVOLUTION OF AN INK MARK—LENGTH OF TIME REQUIRED TO
BECOME BLACK—FIRST INDICATIONS OF AGE—DISAPPEARANCE OF INK
QUALITIES—ARTIFICIAL AGING OF INK—TESTS FOR IT AND HOW TO CONFIRM
THEM—BLEACHING AND REMOVAL OF INK FROM PAPER CRIMINALLY

CONSIDERED— CHEMISTRY OF SUCH MARKS—THEIR RESTORATION—
VARIATIONS IN METHODS WHICH CAN BE EMPLOYED.

ALL inks when first placed on paper are of course in a fluid state.
Gradual evaporation of moisture causes a change not only in color but in
the case of the iron and gall inks, in their chemical constitution, being
immediately affected by their environment, whether due to the character of
the paper on which they rest, the kind or condition of the pen used, or most
important of all, the elements. Those who use the black inks and chemical
writing fluids will have noticed these characteristics. The pale brown, blue
or green as first written, and the gradual change after a short period to an
approaching blackness, are reactions due largely to atmospheric conditions,
the oxygen uniting with that for which it has affinity and instantly
beginning with TIME to make its march, producing natural phenomena,
which can be only superficially imitated but never exactly reproduced.
When we further take into consideration that the forger cannot always know
of the circumstances which surround the placing of original ink on paper
and that be cannot manufacture the TIME which has already elapsed, it is
not strange that attempted fraud can often be made evident and complete
demonstrations given of the methods employed.

With the passage of time, the particles in some inks which are held
together on the paper by gummy vehicles, commence to disintegrate and
change from intense black to the brown color of iron rust, the "added" color
which of itself is fugitive in character, soon departs; the vegetable astringent
separating from the iron salt decays gradually and disappears and finally
terminates in a mere stain or dust mark which can be blown off the paper.
Sometimes, the written surface of such paper can be treated by carefully
moistening it with a decoction of nut-galls or its equivalent in the presence
of a weak acid, then if any iron be present, a measurable degree of
restoration of color will ensue and remain for a short period.

Again, the discoloration of an iron ink may be due to the character of the
paper; if of the cheaper grades and the bleaching compounds employed in
their manufacture are not thoroughly washed out, then the ink not only
begins to absorb oxygen from the atmosphere but the chlorine in the paper
attacks it and the process of destruction is thereby hastened.

The introduction of acid into ink has two purposes, one to secure more
limpidity, and the other to cause it to penetrate the paper and in this way
bind together the constituent particles of both ink and paper. Most of the
chemical writing fluids of this decade carry a superabundance of acid in
their composition, which in time will burn through the paper and ultimately
destroy it.

All tanno-gallate of iron inks require some vehicle to hold their particles
in a state of suspension, otherwise there would be precipitation and such an
ink could not be used. To meet this requirement a variety of gums are
employed by manufacturers, gum acacia being the principal one. Its
purpose is threefold—as before stated, to hold the ink particles in
suspension—to prevent the ink from flowing too rapidly, and after drying
WITHOUT blotting, to act as an envelope to encase the now fixed ink and
prevent or interfere with its absorption of an excess of oxygen. The longer
these latter conditions obtain the longer will the ink retain its pristineness,
its durability and permanence. The "time proved" ink-written specimens of
five hundred years or more ago which continue to retain their original
intense black color and "glossy" appearance, do not, however, yield any
evidence of the use of vegetable gums in their composition. Where such
instances have been noticed the gloss is invariably missing. But, where
ANY gloss is present, it was and is because of the employment of isinglass
(fish-glue) as the vehicle to hold the ancient ink particles.

Hence the variations of color seen in ancient paper writings, as already
stated, were due not only to possible imperfect admixtures of the
component parts of the inks, but to the use of vegetable gums in their
preparation. In the course of time these have been absorbed by moisture
which hastened disintegration, causing a gradual disappearance of their
original blackness and gloss and finally a return to the rusty color of
oxidized iron.

It therefore follows, my observations and deductions being correct, the
older a writing made with tanno-gallate of iron ink, where isinglass is the
binder, and which has not been "blotted," the harder and more impervious
and irresponsive it becomes to the action of the natural elements or of
chemical reagents.

The truths demonstrated in this proposition cannot be denied. They
fortify as certain that a properly proportioned mixture in water of an
infusion of nut- galls or gallo-tannic acid and sulphate of iron, with
isinglass as the vehicle to bold the particles in a state of suspension, if
written with on good paper and allowed to dry without blotting, in a short
time becomes encased or enveloped in such vehicle, which is thereby
rendered substantially insoluble and absolutely prevents any extensive
oxidation. Also, as a further consequent result, there is chemically created
an unchangeable and continuing black color more permanent and durable
than the substance on which it appears.

With a sample of standard commercial chemical writing fluid, write on
"linen" paper without blotting it; in thirty hours, if exposed to the air and
from three to five days if kept from it, the writing should have assumed a
color bordering on black; it becomes black at the end of a month under any
conditions, and so continues for a period of about five or six years, when if
examined under a lens of the magnification of ten diameters, there will be a

noticeable discoloration of the sides or pen tracks which slowly spreads
during a continuing period of from ten to fifteen years, until the entire pen
marks are of a rusty brown tint. A species of disintegration and decay is
now progressing and when approximately forty years of age, has destroyed
all ink qualities.

If, however, "chemical writing fluid" is first treated by exposure to the
fumes of an ammoniacal gas, a "browning" of the ink occurs, not only of
the pen tracks but of the entire ink mark. If examined now with a lens, the
ink is found to be thin enough to permit the fibre of the paper to be seen
through it, thus indicating artificial age. Furthermore, if a 20 per cent
strength of hydrochloric acid be applied, the "added" color (usually a blue
one) is restored to ITS original hue; alike experiment on "time" aged ink
gives only the yellow brown tint of pure gall and iron combinations, the
"added" color having departed caused by its fugitive characteristics. Again,
if a solution of chlorinate of lime or soda be applied, the ink mark is
instantly bleached, where in the case of honest old ink marks, it takes
considerable time to even approximate a like result.

To confirm the chemical tests which may be employed in the
determination of the artificial aging of ink marks, photographs made by
permitting light to transmit through the paper and to interfere with its rays
by filtering them through a "color" screen containing orange and some
green, will indicate the presence of a fugitive substance in the ink, usually
the "added" color employed in its manufacture.

The process of bleaching or "removal" of ink marks from paper is
frequently employed in the attempted eradication of words or figures and
the substitution of others on monetary instruments, commonly called
"raising." Its purpose is usually a criminal one and some observations as to
the modus operandi and its chemistry are not out of place here.

Ink marks made with a compound consisting of the combination of iron
and an infusion of galls or its equivalent (a tanno-gallate of iron ink), as
treated with certain chemicals, change from a compound with color to a
chemical compound, with no color. Nothing has in fact been absolutely
removed or eradicated, but it is a mere change of form, a sort of re-
arrangement of the particles, the ingredients which formed the original
color being still present, but in such a condition that they are invisible to the
eye. A restoration of the invisible ink marks so that they can be observed,
becomes possible by the use of chemical reagents and is the reverse of the
one of erasure or bleaching, and changes the constituents again into a
compound which has color from the one which had none. It does, not,
however, reproduce the exact composition originally existing. Such a
reagent simply goes to the basis of the material as first used, takes up what
was left and reforms the particles sufficiently to make them abundantly
recognizable. An apt illustration of these chemical changes of color is found
in what is known as the phenolphtalein test solution, which is colored deep
purplish-red by alkali hydrates or carbonates, and then by the addition of an
acid rendered colorless, to be again reddened by an over- plus of the alkali
and so on ad infinitum.

A popular material for the purpose of making chemical erasures is
chlorinated lime or soda, which becomes more active by first touching the
ink mark to be removed with a one half strength solution of acetic acid; this
hastens the liberation of chlorine gas, THE active agent which causes the
"bleaching" to take place. Hydrogen peroxide, also a bleaching compound,
is less rapid in its action than chlorinate of soda; the same may be said of
combinations of oxalic and sulphurous acids.

The most effective re-agent for the restoration of a chemically "bleached"
iron ink mark is the sulphide or sulphuret of ammonia (it has several
names). This penetrating chemical blackens metals or their salts, whether

visible or not, if brought together. It must not be used by direct contact, the
best and safest plan being to place a quantity in a small saucer, to be set on
the floor of a closed box; to fasten to the box lid the specimen to be
operated on; in this way the restoration is due to the fumes of the chemical
and a possible danger of destruction of the specimen much lessened,
especially if the marks are very light or delicate ones. The restoration of
color under particular conditions may also be obtained by treatment with
tannic acid, potassium ferro-cyanide (acidulated) or a weak solution of an
infusion of galls.

CHAPTER XVIII.
INK CHEMISTRY.

SOME OBSERVATIONS AS TO CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF INK MARKS BY ALLEN
—ERASING OF INKS BY CHEMICAL MEANS—APPROVED CHEMICAL TESTS IN THE
ASCERTAINMENT OF INK CONSTITUENTS.

A COMPILATION of the methods of Robertson, W. Thompson (Lord
Kelvin), Irvine, Wislar, Hoffman and others, relative to the chemical
examination of ink marks, is to be found in "Allen's Commercial Organic
Analysis." Their experiments, however, date back many years ago, a few of
them before the time of the use of the "anilines" for added color. The so-
called "alizarin" ink referred to has now become obsolete. The following is
the citation in part:

"In chemico-legal cases it is sometimes of importance to ascertain the
nature of the ink used, to compare it with specimens of writing of known
history, and to ascertain the relative ages of the writings. A minute
inspection should first be made with a magnifying power of about 10
diameters, and any peculiarities of color, lustre, shade, etc., duly noted, and

where lines cross each other which lie uppermost. The examination is often
facilitated by moistening the paper with benzine or petroleum spirit,
whereby it is rendered semi- transparent. The use of alcohol or water is
inadmissible.

"Valuable information is often obtainable by treating writing or other ink-
marks with reagents. Some inks are affected much more rapidly than others,
though the rate of change depends greatly on the age of the writing. Normal
oxalic acid (63 grammes per litre), or hydrochloric acid of corresponding
strength, should be applied to a part of the ink marked with a feather or
camel-hair brush (or the writing may be traced over with a quill pen), and
the action observed by means of a lens, the reagent being allowed to dry on
the paper. Recent writing (one or two days old) in gallic inks is changed by
one application of oxalic acid to a light gray, or by hydrochloric acid to
yellow. Older stains resist longer, in proportion to their age, and a deeper
color remains. Log-wood ink marks are mostly reddened by oxalic acid, and
alizarin marks become bluish, but aniline inks are unaffected. With
hydrochloric acid, logwood ink marks turn reddish or reddish-gray, alizarin
marks greenish, and aniline ink marks reddish or brownish-gray. The
treatment with acid should be followed by exposure to ammonia vapors, or
blotting paper wet with ammonia may be applied. Thus treated, marks in
logwood ink turn dark violet or violet-black. The age of ink marks very
greatly affects the rate of their fading when treated with dilute ammonia, the
old marks being more refractory. The behavior of ink marks when treated
with solution of bleaching powder is often characteristic, the older writings
resisting longer; but unless the reagent be extremely dilute, writings of all
ages are removed almost simultaneously. Hydrogen peroxide acts more
slowly than bleaching solution, but gives more definite results. After
bleaching the mark by either reagent, the iron of the ink remains mordanted
on the paper, and the mark may be restored by treatment with a dilute
solution of galls, tannic acid, or acidulated ferro- cyanide. The same

reagents may be used for restoring writing which has been faded from age
alone.

"When ink marks have been erased or discharged by chemical means,
traces of the treatment are often recognizable. After effecting the erasure the
spot is often rubbed over with a powdered alum or gum sandarac, or coated
with gelatin or size. The bleaching agents most likely to have been used are
oxalic, citric, or hydrochloric acid, bleaching powder solution, or acid
sulphite of sodium. Moistened litmus paper will indicate the presence of a
free acid, and in some cases treatment with ammonia fumes will restore the
color. The presence of calcium, chlorides, or sulphates in the water in which
the paper is soaked will afford some indication of bleaching powder or a
sulphite having been used. Potassium ferro-cyanide will detect any iron
remaining in the paper. Exposure to iodine vapor often affords evidence of
chemical treatment, and other methods of examination readily suggest
themselves."

M. Piesse, in the Scientific American, is authority for a method of
removing ink, found on "patent" check paper:

"Alternately wash the paper with a camel's- hair brush dipped in a
solution of cyanide of potassium and oxalic acid; then when the ink has
disappeared wash the paper with pure water."

Inks of the tanno-gallate of iron family, whether containing "added" color
or not, can be more or less "erased" by chlorinate of lime or soda, in the
presence of a weak acid. These chemicals do not, however, materially affect
the prussian blue inks, which require solutions of hydrate of potash or soda.
Real indigo can be removed by chloroform, morphine or an aniline salt
(indigo and aniline both owe their names to the same Portuguese source),
which possess the rare property of dissolving pure indigo. Such
combination, if refractory in the presence of permanganate of potash with

sulphuric acid, must be followed by an application of sulphurous acid. In
like manner, inks composed of by-products of coal tar, can be effectively
treated, when irradicable with plain water or soap and water.

The erasure and removal of most inks from paper can be accomplished
by the application of the chemicals heretofore enumerated. The
requirements in this direction of some inks, however, though of rare
occurrence, are to be met by the employment of other and particular
reagents.

Many of the tests specified in the Allen citation to determine the
character of ink constituents, if made alone are practically valueless,
because the same behavior occurs with different materials employed in the
admixture of ink. To avoid error in judgment the operator should verify if
possible by confirmatory tests. Thus, in the one for logwood, sulphurous
acid will cause a logwood ink mark to turn yellow; mercuric chloride,
orange; tartar-emetic, red; and if the marks are faded ones, solutions of
sulphate of iron or bichromate of potash will restore them respectively to a
violet or blue-black color.

Prussian blue, aniline blue and indigo blue are to be tested as follows:
Solution of chloride of lime, no change of color for prussian blue;
decoloration or faint yellow for aniline blue or indigo. To discriminate
between the two latter, test with solution of caustic soda, when decoloration
or change of color will indicate aniline blue and permanence will indicate
presence of indigo blue.

In the manufacture of the blue-black inks, a variety of violets have been
and are still employed. Among them are aniline violet, iodine violet,
madder, alkanet, orchil and logwood.

(a) Apply chloride of lime solution: 1. No change of color indicates
alkanet. 2. Any change, one of the other five.

(b) Apply lemon juice: 1. The violet becomes brighter if it is one of the
aniline violets, to be distinguished from each other by applying one part of
hydrochloric acid to three parts of water, when it will become violet-blue,
changing to red if it is common aniline-violet, but blue changing to a green
hue and upon adding plain water to a lilac or pearl gray if it is iodine-violet
(Hoffman's). It will also turn from red to yellow in lemon juice. To test for
the other three violets: (a) Apply chloride of lime, to be followed by a
solution of yellow prussiate of potash: absence of a blue coloration leaves
orchil and logwood to be considered. To distinguish between them apply
solution of hydrate of lime, whereby a change to gray, followed by
complete decoloration indicates logwood, and a change to violet-blue,
orchil.

The substances utilized with but few exceptions for red ink are the
"eosins," possessing different names like erythrosine, as well as different
hues. Antecedent to about thirty-five years ago, cochineal (known as
"carmine"), madder, Brazil wood and saffron formed the basis of most of
the red inks.

Make a soap solution adding a small quantity of ammonia, lemon juice,
muriate of tin, all in water: 1. No change upon application indicates madder.
2. Any change, the presence of one of the three other reds: (a) thus a
complete decoloration with a return of the color indicates saffron; (b)
reappearance of the red color though weaker, aniline-red: (c) production of
a yellowish red or light yellow color, cochineal or Brazil wood, to be
distinguished from each other by the application of concentrated sulphuric
acid, when Brazil wood will at once give a bright cherry-red, and cochineal
a yellowish orange.

No yellow inks are in commercial use. Documents do, however, often
contain yellow marks about which information is required as to their origin.
As a rule they are iron rust, picric acid, turmeric, fustic, weld, Persian
berries or quercitron. In order to recognize the different colors, the presence
or absence of iron rust and picric acid must first be determined.

Apply a warm sample of a slightly acid solution of yellow prussiate of
potash; iron rust will be indicated by a blue coloration.

Apply a weak solution of cyanide of potassium; picric acid will yield a
blood-red coloration.

If picric acid and iron rust are both absent, apply a bit of ordinary wetted
soap: 1. It turns reddish-brown and becomes yellow again with hydrochloric
acid— turmeric; 2. It turns quite dark—fustic; 3. It is unaffected—weld,
Persian berries or quercitron. To distinguish between these three, apply
sulphuric acid, the color of weld will disappear, and of the others remaining
apply tin-salt solution, when a change to orange indicates Persian berries,
and no change or a very slight one, quercitron.

Inks containing also logwood, fustic, Brazil wood, or madder, were all of
them more or less employed some years ago. Their color phenomena,
following long periods of time, is much the same. Tests as prescribed in the
accompanying table for such inks will serve to classify them preliminary to
subsequent and more certain ones.

LOGWOOD. FUSTIC.

Concentrated Hydrochloric Acid Red-yellow Red
Dilute " " Reddish Yellow-Brown

Concentrated and dilute Nitric Acid Red Red-Yellow
" Sulphuric Acid . . Black Dark Purple
Dilute " " Red Brown Purple
Potassium Chromate . . . . Black
Stannous Chloride Violet Yellow
Tartaric Acid . . . . . Gray-Brown Yellow
Sulphate of Copper . . . . Dark Gray
Tannin . . . . . . Yellow-Red Yellow
Potash Dark Red Yellow
Potassium Permanganate Light-Brown Yellow
" Iodide . . . . . Red-Yellow
Pyrogallic Acid . . . . Yellow-Brown Yellow
Chrome-yellow . . . . . Dark Violet
Sodium (Salt) Violet Red
Sulphate of Iron Gray to Black
Alum . . . . . . . Violet Red,Brown. Faint Red

BRAZIL WOOD. MADDER.

Concentrated Hydrochloric Acid Light Red Pale Yellow
Dilute " " Light Red Pale Yellow

Concentrated and dilute Nitric Acid Dark Purple Pale Yellow
" Sulphuric Acid . . Red Pale Yellow
Dilute " " Purple Pale Yellow
Potassium Chromate . . . . - -
Stannous Chloride Light Red Light Red
Tartaric Acid . . . . . Red Yellow Pale Yellow
Sulphate of Copper . . . . - -
Tannin . . . . . . No Change Pale Yellow
Potash Crimson Light Red

Potassium Permanganate - -
Iodide . . . . . - -
Pyrogallic Acid . . . . - -
Chrome-yellow . . . . . - -
Sodium (Salt) - Red
Sulphate of Iron Dark Violet -
Alum . . . . . . . - Faint Red

CHAPTER XIX.

FRAUDULENT INK BACK GROUNDS.

DETECTION OF ALTERATIONS IN DOCUMENTS BY CHEMICAL TESTS WHICH
APPLY SOLELY TO THE PAPER—ACCURACY OF RESULTS OBTAINED BY USE OF
IODINE EXCELS THAT OF ALL OTHER CHEMICALS—IT APPLIES BEST TO LINEN
PAPER—MODERN HARD PAPER DOES NOT GIVE COMPLETE INFORMATION—
EFFECT OF IODINE ON MARKS MADE BY A STYLUS OR GLASS PEN.

FIFTY years ago and long before the employment of the fugitive
"anilines" for ink uses, and "wood pulp" as a material for paper, two French
chemists, Chevallier and Lassiagne, published in the Journal de Chimie
Medical, an article "On the Means to be Employed for Detecting and
Rendering Perceptible Fraudulent Alterations in Public and Private
Documents," which as translated is valuable enough to quote in full:

"The numerous experiments which have been already tried at various
times, have made known the processes which may frequently be put in
practice for causing the reappearance of traces of writing effaced by
chemical reactions, and for throwing light on the work of the guilty. But
there are cases in which all the means proposed for this purpose fail, and
then the criminal may escape justice from the want of conclusive material
proofs. If, as has already been proved, it is not always possible to cause the
reappearance of the effaced writing, for which written words have with a

fraudulent intent been substituted, at least, as our experiments demonstrates,
we may recognize, by some effects which are manifest on the surface of the
altered paper, the places where the criminal act has been performed,
circumscribe them by a simple chemical reaction visible to the least
practiced eye, and even measure their extent. In a word, the visible
alterations produced on a deed are susceptible, owing to the partial
modifications which the surface of the paper has undergone, of being
differently affected by certain chemical actions, and of being rendered
visible. The following experiments, made in a judicial investigation, furnish
us with the following facts:

"1st. The surface of paper sized in the ordinary way, or letter paper, no
longer presents with certain reactions, the same uniformity where it has
been either accidently moistened in several places by various liquids, or left
in contact for a certain time with agents capable of removing or destroying
the characters which have been traced on it with ink.

"2d. The application of a thin layer of gum, of starch, or farina, of
gelatine, or fish-glue, with a view of sizing certain parts of the paper, or of
causing certain bodies to adhere to it momentarily, is detected by an action
similar to that which shows paper to have lately been wetted by the contact
of liquids.

"3d. The heterogeneousness of the pulp of the papers, and the kind of size
with which they are impregnated, lead to differences in the results which
are observed with the same chemical reagents. We shall now examine each
of these propositions, and describe the means which we have employed in
endeavoring to solve questions of so high a degree of interest.

"1st. The homogeneousness of sized paper not partially altered by the
contact of liquids (water, alcohol, salt-water, vinegar, saliva, tears, urine,
acid salts, and alkaline salts) is demonstrated by the uniform coloration

which this surface takes on being exposed, if not wholly, at least in various
parts, to the action of the vapor of iodine disengaged at the ordinary
temperature from a flask containing a portion of the metalloid. When the
surface of paper not stained by any of the above mentioned liquids is
exposed to the action of this vapor for three or four minutes in a room the
temperature of which is about 60 degrees F., a uniform yellowish, or light-
brownish yellow, coloration is noticed on the whole extent exposed to the
vapor of iodine; in the contrary case, the surface which has been moistened,
and afterwards dried in the open air, is perfectly distinguished by a different
and well circumscribed tint. On the papers into which paste starch and resin
have been introduced, the stains present such delicate reactions that we may
sometimes distinguish by their color the portion of paper which has been
moistened with alcohol from that which has been moistened with water. The
stain produced by alcohol takes a bistre-yellow tint; that formed by water is
colored of a more or less deep violet blue, the desiccation having been
effected at the ordinary temperature. For the stains occasioned on these
same papers by other aqueous liquids, the tint, apart from its intensity,
resembles that of the stains of pure water. The feeble or dilute acids act like
water on the surface of the same paper containing starch in its paste; but the
concentrated mineral acids, by altering more or less the substances which
enter into the composition of the latter, give test to the stains which present
differences. We are always able to recognize by the action of the vapor of
iodine the parts of the paper which have been put in contact with chemical
agents, the energy of which has been arrested by washing in cold water. We
are able, on several ancient deeds, written on stamped paper, and a few
words of which had been removed by us with chemical agents, to recognize
the places where their action was exerted, to see and to measure the extent
which they occupied on the surface of the paper.

"The testing of a paper with the vapor of iodine will present this double
advantage over the methods hitherto practiced for detecting falsifications in

writings, that it points out at once the place in the paper in which any
alteration may be suspected, and that, on the other hand, it enables us to act
afterwards with the reagents proper for causing the reappearance of the
traces of ink, when that is possible. If the means which we now propose
cannot always make the former writing appear, they demonstrate the places
where the alterations must have been made, when, however, the want of
uniformity presented by the surface of the paper is not explained by any
circumstance. This proof becomes, therefore, a weapon which the guilty
person cannot avoid. But might not the presence of a stain, or several stains,
developed by the vapor of iodine, in different parts of a public or private
deed, give rise to a suspicion, where these stains have, perhaps, been
occasioned by the spilling of some liquid on the surface of the paper? and
would it not be rash and unjust to raise an accusation from such a fact?
There would indeed be great temerity in drawing such a conclusion from a
fortuitous circumstance; but the inference which may be drawn from the
place occupied by these stains on the surface of the paper, from the more or
less significant words found in those places, would not permit an accusation
to be so lightly brought, where simple reasoning would be sufficient to
destroy its basis. Besides, the subsequent reactions which would be made
would certainly never revive words formerly written and effaced; whilst the
latter effects may be often produced, more or less visibly, on those parts of
the paper on which falsification has been practiced, figures or words being
substituted for other figures or words.

"2d. The applications made to the surface of a sheet of paper, with a view
of covering it again at certain parts with a fine layer of gum, gelatine, starch
or flour paste, or in other places to cause other sheets of paper to adhere,
may be recognized not only by the reflection of light falling upon the paper
inclined at a certain degree of obliquity, and by the transmission of light
through the paper, but also by the varying action which the vapor of iodine
exerts on the surface which is not homogeneous. Papers containing starch

and resin are more powerfully acted upon by this vapor than papers of a less
complex composition. Both in the parts covered with starch, or paste flour,
are colored in a few minutes of a violet blue; but with starched papers alone
a more intense coloration is manifest on the places covered again with a
thin layer of gum arabic, size or gelatine. By looking, then, on the surface
of the paper, held somewhat obliquely to incidental light, we distinguish
clearly, by their different aspects, the parts on which these various
substances have been applied. The vapor of iodine, in condensing at the
ordinary temperature on the surface of the papers to which any kind of size
has been applied in various places, produces differences which are most
commonly well recognized by the greater or less transparence of the paste
of the paper.

3d. The heterogeneousness of the pulp of the various papers of
commerce, and the nature of the size with which they are penetrated, cause
differences, either in the coloration which the surface of these papers takes
when exposed to the vapor of iodine, or in the tint which is manifested in
the portions of the size deposited in certain portions of that surface; thus,
papers with starched pulp generally turn brown, or blue, according to the
amount of water that remains in their interstices; other papers turn yellow
only under the influence of the vapor of iodine, and the parts which have
received superficially a layer of another agglutinative body resist this action
for a certain time, and are distinguished from the parts of the paper which
are not covered with it."

My own investigations confirm to a great extent the value of these
experiments and the accuracy of the deductions, in so far as they relate to
"linen" paper; but they do not always obtain when made in connection with
paper of inferior grades.

It is also true that dry paper is affected differently under the influence of
the vapor of iodine, as would be paper which had been moistened and then
dried; but the part which had been moist assumes the color of blue-violet,
while unaltered paper assumes a yellow- brown color. Even when the paper
thus treated is moistened all over with water, there will be a difference, for
those parts which had been before moistened, will appear a dark violet-blue,
while the other parts will show a plain blue coloration.

In cases where pencil writing has been removed with a soft rubber or
fresh bread, the parts thus erased will assume, when subjected to iodine
fumes, a brown color trending towards violet and much darker than the
undisturbed portions of the paper. Lines impressed upon paper with a
"stylus," a glass or ordinary dry pen, can be made visible by the fumes of
iodine, the lines showing with a stronger coloration than the surrounding
paper.

CHAPTER XX.
FUGITIVE INK.

SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT "ADDED" COLOR TO INK— INVENTION OF COAL
TAR COLORS—CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE "ANILINES" EMPLOYED AS
INK—OTHER SUBSTANCES USED FOR THE SAME PURPOSE.

THE term "added color," as applied to ink, is the popular phraseology for
a multitude of materials which have been more or less utilized for a period
of centuries, in adulterating and coloring ink. In olden times they were
introduced into ink with an honest belief that it would also improve and
ensure its lasting qualities, but latterly more often to cheapen the cost of its
manufacture. Reference has been made to a large variety of these
substances used for this purpose and the story told of the effect of the test of

time upon them as indicative of their supposed value. Attention has also
been directed to the discovery during the nineteenth century of the colors
which owe their origin to by-products of coal tar.

Generically these colors are classified as "anilines." They have worked a
revolution in all the arts in which colors are used. Employed without a
mordant, with few exceptions, they are measurably affected by both light,
heat, moisture, or other changes and as made into inks are never permanent.
Hence they should not be used for records, because if obliterated from any
cause whatever, there are no known means to render them again legible.

The origin and history of the "anilines" are known. Viewed from an ink
standpoint they are of vast interest. So extended in number are the
"anilines" (they run into the thousands) that they include every shade of
black and all possible tints or hues of the colors of the rainbow.

The chronological history of such of these artificial colors which
appertain to ink or its manufacture is important as locating the dates of their
invention and commercial use.

The first discovery of "aniline" is credited to Helot in 1750. In 1825
Faraday in rectifying naphtha discovered benzole, which by the action of
strong nitric acid be converted into nitro-benzole; and this latter, when
agitated with water, acetic acid and iron filings produced aniline.
Unverdorben in 1826 discovered an analogous material in products
obtained by the destructive distillation of indigo. Runge in 1834 claims to
have detected it in coal tar and called it kyanol, which after oxidation
became an insoluble black pigment and known as aniline black. It could
not, however, be used as an ink. Zinan in 1840, experimenting along the
same lines, produced another compound terming it benzidam. Fritsche in
the same year by the distillation of indigo with caustic potash developed a
product which he also called aniline, the name being derived from the

Portuguese word anil, meaning indigo. Shortly afterwards A. W. Hoffman
established the identity of these substances.

Aniline when pure is a colorless liquid, possessing a rather ammoniacal
odor. It soon becomes yellow and yellow-brown under the influence of light
and air. It does not affect litmus paper.

In 1856 Perkins accidentally discovered the violet dye called mauve,
which acquired considerable commercial importance besides its utility for
ink purposes.

Nicholson in 1862 succeeded in producing the first of the soluble blue
anilines.

The discovery of induline, one of the modifications of aniline black, was
made known in 1864.

Nigrosine, produced by the action of concentrated sulphuric acid on the
insoluble indulines, was discovered in 1868.

The soluble indulines and nigrosines differentiate in appearance, the first
a bronzy powder and the latter a black lustrous powder. When made into ink
they possess about equal color values.

In 1870 the German chemists, Graebe and Liebermann, announced that
they had succeeded in producing artificial alizarin,—the coloring matter of
the madder root. Commercial value was not given to this discovery until it
was put on the market in 1873, although it did not meet all the
requirements.

Springmuhl in 1873 obtained an accessory product in the artificial
manufacture of alizarin out of anthracene, from which a beautiful blue was
made, superior in many respect to the aniline blues. It differed from aniline

in having the same color in solution. Alkalis destroyed the color but acids
restored it. The process was kept a secret for a long time. This product was
originally sold as high as $1,500 for a single pound.

Caro, a German chemist, invented in 1874 the red color known as eosine,
which was brought to this country in the following year and sold for $125
per pound. Its color is destroyed by acids.

Orchil or archil (the red color) was discovered in 1879. The commercial
use of the so-called "orchil substitutes" (purples) began, however, in the
years 1885 and 1887.

Artificial indigo, as the result of many years of experimenting, came into
commercial use under the name of "indigo pure" only in 1897. It had
previously been produced synthetically in a variety of ways, but the cost of
the production was far above that of the natural product. Baeyer and
Emmerling in 1870, Suida in 1878, Baeyer in 1878, Baeyer and Drewsen in
1882, and Heumann in 1890, can be said to have been the pioneers in the
production of artificial indigo.

The intensity of some of the aniline colors may be indicated by the fact
that a single grain of eosine in ten millions of water exhibits a definite rose-
pink color.

It is asserted that in the last three years many improvements have been
made in the permanent qualities of some of the soluble anilines, but no
material which is soluble in plain water should ever be employed as an ink
for record purposes.

Preceding the discovery of the "anilines," as already related, other
substances had been employed for "added" color in the admixture of ink,
principally madder, Brazil wood, indigo, and logwood.

Only a casual reference has heretofore been made to Brazil wood and
logwood.

Brazil wood, also called peach wood, is imported from Brazil. Its
employment as a dyestuff is known to be of great antiquity, antedating
considerably the discovery of South America. Bancroft states, "The name
'Brazil' was given to the country on account of the extensive forests of the
already well-known 'Brazil wood,' which was found by its Portuguese
discoverers. The dyestuff thus gave its name to the country from which it
was afterwards principally obtained. The word 'Brazil' appears to have been
originally used to designate a bright red or flame color. Thus in a contract
between the cities of Bologna and Ferrara, in 1194, the dyestuff kermez is
referred to as grana de Brazile and Brazil wood, both dyestuffs at that time
being obtained from India." For "added" color to ink and alone it was much
used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Logwood, employed more extensively for "added" color than any other
color compound, was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, A. D. 1502.
In England it does not appear to have been much used until about 1575. In
1581 the Parliament prohibited its use "because the colours produced from
it were of a fugacious character." Its use was legalized in 1673 by an act, the
preamble of which reads, "The ingenious industry of modern times hath
taught the dyers of England the art of fixing, the colours made of logwood,
alias blackwood, so as that, by experience, they are found as lasting as the
colours made with any sort of dyeing wood whatever." It is obtained
principally from the Campeachy tree, which grows in the West Indies and
South America.

The practical utility of logwood as the base for an ink was a discovery of
Runge in 1848, who found that a dilute solution of its coloring matter, to
which had been added a small quantity of neutral chromate of potassium,

produced a deep black liquid which apparently remained clear and did not
deposit any sediment. This composition became very popular on account of
its cheapness and dark purple color. It is of a fugitive character, though, and
has passed almost entirely out of commercial use.

CHAPTER XXI.
ANCIENT AND MODERN INK RECEIPTS.

"INDIAN" INK—SPANISH LICORICE—BITUMEN—CARBON
FROM PETROLEUM—PROCESS TO OBTAIN GALLIC
ACID—EFFECT OF SUGAR IN INK—DARK COLORED
GALLS BEST FOR INK MAKING—SUBSTITUTES FOR
GALLS—RELATIVE PROPORTIONS OF IRON AND
GALLS—ANECDOTE OF PROFESSOR TRIALL—
ESTIMATION OF SULPHATE OF COPPER—QUAINT INK
RECIPE—RIBAUCOURT'S INK—HORSELEY'S INK—
ELSNER'S INDELIBLE MARKING INK—BLACK INK FOR
COMMON AND COPYING USES—COMMON BLACK
INK—SHINING BLACK INK—PROCESS FOR "BEST"
INK—INDELIBLE BLACK INK WITHOUT GALLS OR
IRON—INK POWDER—STEEL PEN INK—SOME EARLY
LITERATURE OF THE COAL TAR PRODUCTS—INK PLANT
OF NEW GRANADA—"IMPERISHABLE" INK—FIRE-
PROOF INK—"INERADICABLE" INK—EXCHEQUER
INK—"PERMANENT" RED INK—SUBSTITUTE FOR "INDIAN"
INK—TO PREVENT INK FREEZING—BACTERIA
IN INK—GOLD AND OTHER INKS USED FOR ILLUMlNATING.

INNUMERABLE receipts and directions for making inks of every kind,
color and quality are to be found distributed in books more or less devoted
to such subjects, in the encyclopaedias, chemistries, and other scientific
publications. If assembled together they would occupy hundreds of pages.
Those cited are exemplars indicating the trend of ideas belonging to
different nations, epochs, and the diversity of materials. They can also be
considered as object lessons which conclusively demonstrate the
dissatisfaction always existing in respect to the constitution and modes of
ink admixture. Many of them are curious and are reproduced without any
amendments.

"Indian ink is a black pigment brought hither from China, which on being
rubbed with water, dissolves; and forms a substance resembling ink; but of
a consistence extremely well adapted to the working with a pencil-brush, on
which account it is not only much used as a black colour in miniature
painting; but is the black now generally made use of for all smaller
drawings in chiaro obscuro (or where the effect is to be produced from light
and shade only).

"The preparation of Indian ink, as well as of the other compositions used
by the Chinese as paints, is not hitherto revealed on any good authority; but
it appears clearly from experiments to be the coal of fish bones, or some
other vegetable substance, mixed with isinglass size, or other size; and most
probably, honey or sugar candy to prevent its cracking. A substance,
therefore, much of the same nature, and applicable to the same purposes,
may be formed in the following manner.

"Take of isinglass six ounces, reduce it to a size, by dissolving it over the
fire in double its weight of water. Take then of Spanish liquorice one ounce;
and dissolve it also in double its weight of water; and grind up with it an
ounce of ivory black. Add this mixture to the size while hot; and stir the

whole together till all the ingredients be thoroughly incorporated. Then
evaporate away the water in baleno mariae, and cast the remaining
composition into leaden molds greased; or make it up in any other form."

"The colour of this composition will be equally good with that of the
Indian ink: the isinglass size, mixt with the colours, works with the pencil
equally well with the Indian ink; and the Spanish liquorice will both render
it easily dissolvable on the rubbing with water, to which the isinglass alone
is somewhat reluctant; and also prevent its cracking and peeling off from
the ground on which it is laid." * * * * * * *

There is found in small currents near the Baltick Sea, in the Dutchy of
Prussia a certain coagulated bitumen, which, because it seems to be a juice
of the earth is called succinum; and carabe, because it will attract straws; it
is likewise called electrum, glessum, anthra citrina, vulgarly yellow amber.

"This bitumen being soft and viscous, several little animals, such as flies,
and ants, do stick to it, and are buried in it.

"Amber is of different colours, such as white, yellow and black.

"The white is held in greatest esteem in physick, tho' it be opacous; when
it is rubbed against anything, it is odoriferous, and it yields more volatile
salt than the rest. The yellow, is transparent and pleasant to the eye,
wherefore beads, necklaces, and other little conceits are made of it. It is also
esteemed medicinal, and it yieldeth much oil.

"The black is of least use of all. (Sometimes used by the ancients in
making ink.)

"Some do think that petroleum, or Oil of Peter, is a liquor drawn from
amber, by the means of subterrenean fires, which make a distillation of it,

and that jet, and coals are the remainders of this distillation.

"This opinion would have probability enough in it, if the places, from
whence this sort of drogues does come, were not so far asunder the one
from the other; f or petroleum is not commonly found but in Italy, in Sicily,
and Provence. This oil distils through the clefts of rocks, and it is very
likely to be the oil of some bitumen, which the subterranean fires have
raised." * * * * * * *

There are various processes for obtaining gallic acid, one of which is to
moisten the bruised galls and expose them for four or five weeks to a
temperature of 80 degrees Fahr.; by which a mouldy paste is formed, which
is pressed dry and then digested in boiling water, which after evaporation
yields the acid, and mixed with the solution of green copperas, makes the,
ink. A quicker process, however, is to put the bruised galls into a cylindrical
copper of a depth equal to its diameter, and boil them in nine gallons of
water—taking care to replace the water lost by evaporation. The decoction
to be emptied into a tub, allowed to settle, and the clear liquid being drawn
off, the lees are emptied into another tub to be drained. The green copperas
must be separately dissolved in water, and then mixed with the decoction of
the galls. A precipitate is then formed in the state of a fine black powder, the
subsidence of which is prevented by the addition of the gum, which,
separately dissolved in a small quantity of hot water, combines with the
clear black liquid. Besides its effect in keeping the fine insoluble particles
in suspension, the gum mucilage improves the body of the ink, prevents its
spreading or sinking too much into the paper in writing, and also acts
beneficially by forming a sort of compact varnish in it, which tends to
preserve its colour, and shield it from the action of the air. If, however, too
much mucilage is used, the ink flows badly from quill pens, and still more
so from steel pens, which require a very limpid ink. The addition of sugar
increases the fluidity of ink, and permits the quantity of gum to be increased

over what it would bear without it; but, on the other hand, it causes it to dry
more slowly, and besides it frequently passes into vinegar, when it acts
injuriously on the pens. The dark- coloured galls, known as the blue Aleppo
ones, are said by Ribaucourt, and others who have given much attention to
the ingredients for ink-making to be the best for that purpose, and they are
generally used by the best makers.

"From their high price, however, and that of galls generally, sumach,
logwood, and even oak bark are too frequently substituted in the
manufacture of inks, but it need scarcely be said always injuriously. Ink
made according to the receipt given above is much more rich and powerful
than many of those commonly made. To reduce it to their standard one half
more water may be safely added; or even twenty gallons of tolerable ink
may be made from the same weight of materials. Sumach and logwood
admit of only about one-half or less of the green copperas that galls will
take, to bring out the maximum amount of black colour. The colour of black
ink gradually darkens in consequence of the peroxidation of the iron in it on
exposure to the air, but it affords a more durable writing when used pale; its
particles being then finer, penetrate the paper more intimately, and on its
oxidation is mordanted into it. It is advisable so soon as the ink has acquired
a moderately deep tint, to draw it off clear into bottles and cork them well.

"According to the most accurate experiments on the preparation of black
writing inks, it appears that the proportion of the green copperas ought to
be, and not to exceed, a third of the decoction of galls used; but the
proportions used vary according to the practical experience of ink-makers,
who have all receipts of their own, which they deem best, and, of course,
keep secret. In the precipitate an excess of colouring matter, which is
necessary for its durability, is preserved in it. The blue galls alone ought to
be employed in making the best quality of black ink. Logwood is a useful.
ingredient, because its colouring matter unites with the sulphate of iron and

renders it not only of a very dark colour, but also less capable of change
from the action of acids or of the atmosphere. Many attempts have been
made by amateurs to make a good permanent black ink. A good story is told
of Professor Traill. He had succeeded, after a long series of experiments, in
producing an ink which he deemed to be in all respects A 1, and which
resisted the action of all acids and alkalies alike. The pleased savant sent
samples of it for trial to several banks and schools, where it gave general
satisfaction; but, alas, an experimenting scribbler, thoughtlessly or
otherwise, applied a simple test undreamt of by the Professor, and with a
wet sponge completely washed off his 'indelible,' and thereby finished his
career as an amateur ink-maker!" * * * * * * *

"Nicholson, in his Dictionary of Chemistry, an old but valuable work,
says that Ribaucourt found vitriol of copper, in a certain proportion, to give
depth and firmness to the colour of black ink; but, from whatever cause, this
has not taken a place among the commonly-used ink-making ingredients—
probably because it acts injuriously on steel pens." * * * * * * *

"A quart of rain Wate. 3 Ounces of Blue Knolly Gawalls. Bruise ym it
must stand & be stirred 3 or 4 times in ym Day & then Strain out out all ye
gawells all ten Days and 2 Ounces of Clear Gummary Beck & 1/2 an Ounce
of Coperous 1/2 an Ounce of Rock Alum half an Ounce of Loafe sugar ye
Bigness of a Hoarsel nut of Roman Vitterall Bray ym all small Before they
be put in it must be stirred very well for ye space of two weeks.

"A receit forink.—1727

"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 coarse 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 glass 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 coarse 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 quantity 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 acetite of copper (verdigris) be well incorporated together with the
above decoction into a mass, throwing in also 3 oz. of coarse 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 coarse 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 coarse 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 mass 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)." * * * * * * * *

"Shellac, 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 glass rod until
the mixture has become homogeneous; 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 documentary purposes is invaluable,
being under all ordinary circumstances, 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; coarse 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 passed over its surface, or the page
of manuscript be held near a fire, the writing will quickly assume 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
circumstance 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
passing 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." * * * * * * * *

Boil parchment slips or cuttings of glove leather, in water till it forms a
size, which, when cool, becomes of the consistence of jelly, then, having
blackened an earthern plate, by holding it over the flame of a candle, mix
up with a camel hair pencil, the fine lamp-black thus obtained, with some of
the above size, while the plate is still warm. This black requires no grinding,
and produces an ink of the same colour, which works as fregy with the
pencil, and is as perfectly transparent as the best Indian ink." * * * * * * * *

"Instead of water use brandy, with the same ingredients which enter into
the composition of any ink, and it will never freeze." * * * * * * * *

"Bacteria in Ink—According to experiments which have recently been
completed at Berlin and Leipzig by the leading bacteriologists of Germany
the ordinary inks literally teem with bacilla of a dangerous character, the
bacteria taken therefrom sufficing to kill mice and rabbits inoculated
therewith in the space of from one to three days." * * * * * * * *

"The most easy and neat method of forming letters of gold on paper, and
for ornaments of writing is, by the gold ammoniac, as it was formerly
called: the method of managing which is as follows:

"Take gum ammoniacum, and powder it; and then dissolve it in water
previously impregnated with a little gum arabic, and some juice of garlic.
The gum ammoniacum will not dissolve in water, so as to form a
transparent fluid, but produces a milky appearance; from whence the
mixture is called in medicine the lac ammoniacum. With the lac
ammoniacum thus prepared, draw with a pencil, or write with a pen on
paper, or vellum, the intended figure or letters of the gilding. Suffer the
paper to dry; and then, or any time afterwards, breath on it till it be

moistened; and immediately lay leaves of gold, or parts of leaves cut in the
most advantageous manner to save the gold, over the parts drawn or written
upon with the lac ammoniacum; and press them gently to the paper with a
ball of cotton or soft leather. When the paper becomes dry, which a short
time or gentle heat will soon effect, brush off, with a soft pencil, or rub off
by a fine linen rag, the redundant gold which covered the parts between the
lines of the drawing or writing; and the finest hair strokes of the pencil or
pen, as well as the broader, will appear perfectly gilt."

It is usual to see in old manuscripts, that are highly ornamented, letters of
gold which rise considerably from the surface of the paper or parchment
containing them in the manner of embossed work; and of these some are
less shining, and others have a very high polish. The method of producing
these letters is of two kinds; the one by friction on a proper body with a
solid piece of gold: the other by leaf gold. The method of making these
letters by means of solid gold is as follows:

"Take chrystal; and reduce it to powder. Temper it then with strong gum
water, till it be of the consistence of paste; and with this form the letters;
and, when they are dry, rub them with a piece of gold of good colour, as in
the manner of polishing; and the letters will appear as if gilt with burnisht
gold."

(Kunckel, in his fifty curious experiments, has given this receipt, but
omitted to take the least notice of the manner these letters are to be formed,
though the most difficult circumstance in the production of them.)

CHAPTER XXII.

INK INDUSTRY.

IMPORTANCE OF HONEST INK MANUFACTURE—ABSENCE OF INFORMATION AS
TO NAMES OF MOST ANCIENT INK MAKERS,—WHERE TO LOOK FOR ANCIENT
INK—THEIR PHENOMENAL IDENTITY—INK AND PAPER AS ASIATIC INVENTIONS
ENTER EUROPE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY— BOTH IN GENERAL USE IN THE
FOURTEENTH CENTURY—MONKS AND SCRIBES AS THEIR OWN INK
MANUFACTURERS—MODERN INDUSTRY OF INK BEGINS IN 1625—ITS GROWTH
AND PRESENT SITUATION—THE GENERAL IGNORANCE OF THE SUBJECT—INK
INDUSTRY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY—THE FIRST PIONEERS ABROAD AND
THOSE AT HOME—OBSERVATIONS RESPECTING INK PHENOMENA OF THE PAST
EIGHTY YEARS—WHAT SOME INK MAKERS SAY ABOUT IT—LITTLE DEMAND FOR
PURE INKS—SOME SKETCHES OF THE LEADING INK MANUFACTURERS OF THE
WORLD—ESTIMATION OF QUANTITY OF INK MADE IN THE UNITED STATES—THE
"LIFE" OF A MARK MADE WITH ORDINARY WRITING FLUID—ESTIMATION OF
MOST INKS BY PROFESSORS BAIRD AND MARKOE—FORMULA OF THE OFFICIAL
INK OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS—VIEWS OF SOME PROMINENT INK
MANUFACTURERS ABOUT SUCH INK—SOME COMMERCIAL NAMES BESTOWED
ON DIFFERENT INKS—THE 200 OR MORE NAMES OF INK MANUFACTURERS OF
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

THE consideration of the effect of the use of ink upon civilization from
primitive times to the present, as we have seen, offers a most suggestive
field and certifies to the importance of the manufacture of honest inks as
necessary to the future enlightenment of society. That it has not been fully
understood or even appreciated goes without saying; a proper generalization
becomes possible only in the light of corroborative data and the experiences
of the many.

History has not given us the names of ancient ink makers; but we can
believe there must have been during a period of thousands of years a great
many, and that the kinds and varieties of inks were without number. Those
inks which remain to us are to be found only as written with on ancient
MSS.; they are of but few kinds, and in composition and appearance
preserve a phenomenal identity, though belonging to countries and epochs
widely separated. This identity leads to the further conclusion that ink
making must have been an industry at certain periods, overlooked by
careful compounders who distributed their wares over a vast territory.

"Gall" ink and "linen" paper as already stated are Asiatic inventions. Both
of them seem to have entered Europe by way of Arabia, "hand in hand" at
the very end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth centuries and for
the next two hundred years, notwithstanding the fact that chemistry was
almost an unknown science and the secrets of the alchemists known only to
the few, this combination gradually came into general vogue.

In the fourteenth century we find one or both of them more or less
substituted for "Indian" ink, parchment, vellum and "cotton" paper. It was,
however, the monks and scribes who manufactured for their own and
assistants' use "gall" ink, just as they had been in the habit of preparing
"Indian" ink when required, which so far as known was not always a
commodity.

As an industry it can be said to have definitely begun when the French
government recognized the necessity for one, A. D. 1625, by giving a
contract for "a great quantity of 'gall ink' to Guyot," who for this reason
seems to occupy the unique position of the father of the modern ink
industry.

Ink manufacture as a growing industry heretofore and to a large extent at
present, occupies a peculiarly anomalous situation. Other industries follow

the law of evolution which may perhaps bear criticism; but the ink industry
follows none, nor does it even pretend to possess any.

Thousands are engaged in its pursuit, few of whom understand either ink
chemistry or ink phenomena. The consumer knows still less, and with blind
confidence placidly accepts nondescript compounds labeled "Ink," whether
purchased at depots or from "combined" itinerant manufacturing peddlers
and with them write or sign documents which some day may disturb
millions of property. And yet in a comparative sense it has outpaced all
other industries.

With the commencement of the eighteenth century we find the industry
settling in Dresden, Chemnitz, Amsterdam, Berlin, Elberfield and Cologne.
Still later in London, Vienna, Paris, Edinburgh and Dublin, and in the first
half of the nineteenth century in the United States, it had begun to make
considerable progress.

Among the first pioneers of the later modern ink
industry abroad, may be mentioned the names of
Stephens, Arnold, Blackwood, Ribaucourt, Stark,
Lewis, Runge, Leonhardi, Gafford, Bottger, Lipowitz,
Geissler, Jahn, Van Moos, Ure, Schmidt, Haenle, Elsner,
Bossin, Kindt, Trialle, Morrell, Cochrane, Antoine,
Faber, Waterlous, Tarling, Hyde, Thacker, Mordan,
Featherstone, Maurin, Triest and Draper.

In the period covered by the nineteenth century at home, the legitimate
industry included over 300 ink makers. Those best known are Davids,
Maynard and Noyes, Carter, Underwood, Stafford, Moore, Davis, Thomas,
Sanford, Barnes, Morrell, Walkden, Lyons, Freeman, Murray, Todd,
Bonney, Pomeroy, Worthington, Joy, Blair, Cross, Dunlap, Higgins, Paul,

Anderson, Woodmansee, Delang, Allen, Stearns, Gobel, Wallach, Bartram,
Ford and Harrison.

The ink phenomena included in the past eighty years has demonstrated a
continuing retrogression in ink manufacture and a consequent deterioration
of necessary ink qualities. When the attention of some ink makers are
addressed to these sad facts, they attribute them, either to the demand of the
public for an agreeable color and a free flowing ink, or to an inability to
compete with inferior substitutes, which have flooded the market since the
discovery of the coal tar colors; they have been compelled to depart from
old and tried formulas, in the extravagant use (misuse) of the so-called
"added" color.

An exceptional few of the older firms continue to catalogue
unadulterated "gall" inks; but the demand for them except in localities
where the law COMPELS their employment, is only little.

Interesting deductions can be made from the accompanying brief
sketches of the leading ink manufacturers of the world.

The "Arnold" brand of inks possesses a worldwide reputation, although
not always known by that name, beginning A. D. 1724 under the style of R.
Ford, and continuing until 1772, when the firm name was changed to
William Green & Co. In 1809 it became J. & J. Arnold, who were
succeeded in 1814 by Pichard and John Arnold, the firm name by which it
is known at the present day. This last named concern located at 59
Barbican, on the site of the old City Hall in London, and later moved to
their present address, No. 155 Aldersgate street. The inks made by the
"fathers" of the firm were "gall" inks WITHOUT "added" color. At the
commencement of the nineteenth century we find them making tanno-
gallate of iron inks to which were added extractive matter from logwood
and other materials to form thick fluids for shipment to Brazil, India and the

countries where brushes or reeds were used as writing instruments. For the
more civilized portions of the world similar inks but of an increased fluidity
were supplied, that the quill pens might be employed. The demands for still
more fluid inks which would permit the use of steel pens, resulted in the
modern blue-black chemical writing fluid, the "added" blue portion being
indigo in some form. It was first put on the market in 1830. They
manufacture over thirty varieties of ink, but only one real "gall" ink without
"added" color.

In the early part of May, 1824, Thaddeus Davids started his ink factory at
No. 222 William street, New York City. His first and best effort was a
strictly pure tanno-gallate of iron ink, which he placed on the market in
1827 under the name of "Steel Pen Ink," guaranteed to write black and to
possess "record" qualities. In 1833 he made innovations following the lines
laid down by Arnold and also commenced the manufacture of a chemical
writing fluid, with indigo for "added" color. Many more "added" colors
were employed at different periods, like logwood and fustic, with the
incorporation of sugar, glucose, etc. In the early fifties the cheap grades of
logwood ink after the formula of Runge (1848) and which cost about four
cents per gallon was marketed, principally for school purposes; it was never
satisfactory, becoming thick and "color fading." Mr. Davids made many
experiments with "alizarin" inks in the early sixties but did not consider
them valuable enough to put on the market. In 1875 the firm introduced
violet ink made from the aniline color of that name. Experimentations in
1878 with the insoluble aniline blacks and vanadium were unsuccessful; but
the soluble aniline black (blue- black) known as nigrosine they used and
still use in various combinations. During this long period their
establishments have been in different locations. From No. 222 William
street it was changed to Eighth street, with the office at No. 26 Cliff street.
In 1854 the works were removed to New Rochelle, Westchester county, N.
Y. In 1856 the firm name was Thaddeus Davids and Co., Mr. George

Davids having been admitted as a partner and their warehouse and offices at
this time were located at Nos. 127 and 129 William street, where a business
of enormous proportions, which includes the manufacture of thirty-three
inks and other products, is still carried on at the present day under the name
and style of "Thaddeus Davids, Co." The old "Davids' Steel Pen Ink"
continues to be manufactured from the original formula and is the only
tanno-gallate of iron ink they make, WITHOUT "added" color.

The Paris house of "Antoine" as manufacturers of writing inks dates from
1840. They are best known as the makers of the French copying ink, of a
violet- black color, made from logwood, which was first put on the market
in 1853 under the name of Encres Japonaise. In 1860 an agency was
established in New York City. They make a large variety of writing inks but
do not offer for sale a tanno-gallate of iron ink without "added" color.

"Carter's" inks came into notoriety in 1861, by the introduction of a
"combined writing and copying ink," of the gall and iron type and included
"added " color. It was the first innovation of this character. At the end of the
Civil War, John W. Carter of Boston, who had been an officer of the regular
army, purchased an interest in the business, associating with himself Mr. J.
P. Dinsmore of New York, the firm being known as Carter, Dinsmore &
Co., Boston, Mass. In 1895 Mr. Carter died and Mr. Dinsmore retired from
the business. The firm was then incorporated under the style of "The
Carter's Ink Co." They do an immense business and make all kinds of ink.
Of the logwoods, "Raven Black" is best known. When the state of
Massachusetts in 1894 decided that recording officers must use a "gall" ink
made after an official formula, they competed with other manufacturers for
the privilege of supplying such an ink and won it. They do not offer for
sale, however, "gall" ink WITHOUT added color. Their laboratories are
magnificently equipped; the writer has had the pleasure of collaborating
with several of their expert chemists.

The "Fabers," who date back to the year 1761, are known all over the
world as lead pencil makers. They also manufacture many inks and have
done so since 1881, when they built now factories at Noisy-le-Sac, near
Paris. Blue-black and violet-black writing and copying inks of the class
made by the "Antoines" are the principal kinds. They do not offer for sale,
tanno-gallate of iron ink without "added" color. A branch house in New
York City has remained since 1843.

"Stafford's" violet combined writing and copying ink was first placed on
the New York market in 1869, though it was in 1858 that Mr. S. S. Stafford,
the founder of the house, began the manufacture of inks, which he has
continued to do to the present day. His chemical writing fluids are very
popular, but he does not make a tanno-gallate of iron ink without "added"
color, for the trade.

Charles M. Higgins of Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1880 commenced the
manufacture of "carbon" inks for engrossing, architectural and engineering
purposes, and has succeeded in producing an excellent liquid "Indian" ink,
which will not lose its consistency if kept from the air. It can also be used as
a writing ink, if thinned down with water. He does not make a tanno-gallate
of iron ink without "added" color.

Maynard and Noyes, whose inks were much esteemed in this section for
over fifty years, is no longer in business, as is the case with many others
well known during the first half of the nineteenth century.

The enormous quantities of ink of every color, quality and description
made in the United States almost surpasses belief. It is said that the output
for home consumption alone exceeds twelve millions of gallons per annum,
and for export three thousand gallons per annum.

It is very safe to affirm that less than 1/50 of 1 per cent of this quantity
represents a tanno-gallate of iron ink WITHOUT "added" color. Most
colored inks and "gall" ones which possess "added" color if placed on paper
under ordinary conditions will not be visible a hundred years hence.

This statement of mine might be considered altogether paradoxical were
it not for associated evidential facts, which by proving themselves have
established its correctness and truth. To repeat one of them is to refer to the
report of Professors Baird and Markoe, who examined for the state of
Massachusetts all the commercial inks on the market at that time.

"As a conclusion, since the great mass of inks on the market are not
suitable for records, because of their lack of body and because of the
quantity of unstable color which they contain, and because the few whose
coloring matters are not objectionable are deficient in gall and iron or both,
we would strongly recommend that the State set its own standard for the
composition of inks to be used in its offices and for its records."

An official ink modelled somewhat after the formula employed by the
government of Great Britain was contracted for by the state of
Massachusetts. It read as follows:

"Take of pure, dry tannic acid, 23.4 parts by weight.
of crystal gallic acid, 7.7 parts.
of ferrous sulphate, 30.0 parts.
of gum arabic, 10.0 parts.
of diluted hydrochloric acid, 25.0 parts.
of carbolic acid, 1.0 part.
of water, sufficient to make up the mixture
at the temperature of 60 degrees F.
to the volume of 1,000 parts by
weight of water."

Such an ink prepared after this receipt would be a strictly pure tanno-
gallate of iron ink WITHOUT any "added" color whatever.

The estimation in which such an ink is held by the majority of the ink
manufacturers is best illustrated by quoting from two of the most prominent
ones, and thus enable the reader to draw his own conclusions.

"We do not make a tanno-gallate of iron ink without added color, and so
far as we know, there is no such ink on the market, as it would be
practically colorless and illegible." * * * * * * *

"There is no such ink (a tanno-gallate of iron ink without added color)
manufactured by any ink- maker as far as I know. It is obsolete."

The commercial names bestowed on the multitude of different inks
placed on the market by manufacturers during the last century are in the
thousands. A few of them are cited as indicative of their variety, some of
which are still sold under these names.

Kosmian Safety Fluid, Bablah Ink, Universal Jet
Black, Treasury Ledger Fluid, Everlasting Black Ink,
Raven-Black Ink, Nut-gall Ink, Pernambuco Ink, Blue
Post Office Ink, Unchangeable Black, Document Safety
Ink, Birmingham Copying Ink, Commercial Writing
Fluid, Germania Ink, Horticultural Ink, Exchequer
Ink, Chesnut Ink, Carbon Safety Ink, Vanadium Ink,
Asiatic Ink, Terra-cotta Ink, Juglandin Ink, Persian
Copying, Sambucin, Chrome Ink, Sloe Ink, Steel Pen
Ink, Japanese Ink, English Office Ink, Catechu Ink,
Chinese Blue Ink, Alizarin Ink, School Ink, Berlin
Ink, Resin Ink, Water-glass Ink, Parisian Ink, Immutable
Ink, Graphite Ink, Nigrilin Ink, Munich Ink,

Electro-Chemical, Egyptian Black, "Koal" Black
Ink, Ebony Black Ink, Zulu Black, Cobalt Black,
Maroon Black, Aeilyton Copying, Dichroic, Congress
Record, Registration, "Old English," etc.

The list of over 200 names, which follow, includes those of
manufacturers of the best known foreign and domestic "black" inks and
"chemical writing fluids" in use during the past century, as well as those of
the present time.

Adriana
Allfield
Anderson
Antoine
Arnaudon
Arnold
Artus
Ballade
Ballande
Barnes
Bart
Bartram
Beaur
Behrens
Belmondi
Berzelius
Bizanger
Blackwood
Blair
Bolley
Bonney

Bossin
Boswell
Bottger
Boutenguy
Braconnot
Brande
Bufeu
Bufton
Bure
Carter
Caw
Cellier
Champion
Chaptal
Chevallier
Clarke
Close
Cochrane
Collin
Cooke
Coupier and Collins
Coxe
Crock
Cross
Darcet
Davids
Davis
Delunel
Delarve
Delang

Derheims
Dize
Draper
Druck
Duhalde
Dumas
Dumovlen
Dunand
Dunlap
Ellis
Eisner
Faber
Faucher
Faux
Featherstone
Fesneau
Fontenelle
Ford
Fourmentin
Freeman
Fuchs
Gaffard
Gastaldi
Geissler
Geoffroy
Gebel
Goold
Goupeir
Grasse
Green

Guesneville
Gullier
Guyon
Guyot
Haenles
Hager
Haldat
Hanle
Hare
Harrison
Hausman
Heeren
Henry
Herepath
Hevrant
Higgins
Hogy
Hunt
Hyde
Jahn
James
Joy
Karmarsch
Kasleteyer
Kindt
Klaproth
Kloen
Knaffl
Knecht
Lanaux

Lanet
Larenaudiere
Lemancy
Lenormand
Leonhardi
Lewis
Ley Kauf
Link
Lipowitz
Lorme
Luhring
Lyons
MacCullogh
Mackensic
Mathieu
Maurin
Maynard and Noyes
Melville
Mendes
Meremee
Merget
Minet
Moller
Moore
Mordan
Moser
Morrell
Mozard
Murray
Nash

Nissen
Ohme
Ott
Paul
Payen
Perry
Peltz
Petibeau
Platzer
Plissey
Pomeroy
Poncelet
Prollius
Proust
Pusher
Rapp
Reade
Redwood
Reid
Remigi
Reinmann
Rheinfeld
Ribaucourt
Ricker
Roder
Ruhr
Runge
Sanford
Schaffgotoch
Schleckum

Schmidt
Schoffern
Scott
Seldrake
Selmi
Simon
Souberin
Souirssean
Stafford
Stark
Stein
Stephens
Stevens
Syuckerbuyk
Swan
Tabuy
Tarling
Thacker
Thomas
Thumann
Todd
Tomkins
Trialle
Triest
Trommsdorff
Underwood
Vallet
Van Moos
Vogel
Wagner

Walkden
Wallach
Waterlous
Windsor and Newton
Winternitz
Woodmansee
Worthington

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHEMICO-LEGAL INK.

ESTIMATED VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE AS HELD BY THE COURT OF
APPEALS—NOW BEYOND THE PURVIEW OF CRITICISM—VERDICTS IN THE
TRIALS OF CAUSES AFFECTED BY SUCH EVIDENCE—LENGTH OF TIME
NECESSARY TO OVERCOME PREJUDICE AND IGNORANCE— WHERE OBJECTIONS
TO SUCH EVIDENCE EMANATE— SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT SUCH EVIDENCE
GENERALLY— WHEN PRECEDENT WAS MADE TO CHEMICALLY EXAMINE A
COURT EXHIBIT BEFORE TRIAL—THE CONTROVERSY IN WHICH JUDGE RANSOM
MADE THIS NEW DEPARTURE—CITATION OF THE CASE AND ITS OUTCOME—
DECISION IN THE GORDON WILL CASE OBTAINED BY THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE
—COMPLETE STORY ABOUT IT—HISTORY OF THE DIMON WILL CASE AND HOW
CHEMISTRY MADE IT POSSIBLE TO CONSIDER IT—OPINION OF JUDGE
INGRAHAM—PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK V. CODY—THE ATTEMPT TO
PROVE AN ALLEGED "GOULD" BIRTH CERTIFICATE GENUINE, FRUSTRATED BY
CHEMICAL EVIDENCE—THE DEFENDANT CONVICTED—THE PEOPLE V. KELLAM
—CHEMICAL EVIDENCE MAKES THE TRUTH KNOWN—THE HOLT WILL CASE AND
THE EVIDENCE WHICH AFFECTED ITS RESULT—THE TIGHE WILL CASE—
OPINION OF JUDGE FITZGERALD.

"The administration of justice profits by the progress of science, and its
history shows it to have been almost the earliest in antagonism to popular
delusion and superstition. The revelations of the microscope are constantly
resorted to in protection of individual and public interests. . . . If they are
relied upon as agencies for accurate mathematical results in mensuration
and astronomy, there is no reason why they should be deemed unreliable in
matters of evidence. Wherever what they disclose can aid or elucidate the
just determination of legal controversies there can be no well- founded

objection to resorting to them." Frank v. Chemical Nat. Bank, 37 Superior
Court (J. & S.) 34, affirmed in Court of Appeals, 84 N. Y. 209.

THIS decision by a final court of adjudicature, expresses in no uncertain
terms the now generally estimated value of evidence which science may
reveal. The importance which that branch of it denominated "Chemico-legal
ink" has attained and its utilization in many trials of causes both civil as
well as criminal, places it beyond the purview of criticism or objection.
With the introduction of a new class of inks in the last two decades, its
scope has been much broadened.

Innumerable verdicts by juries wherever the system prevails, all over the
world, the opinions of learned judges, whether presiding during a jury trial
or sitting alone, more or less affected by this character of evidence, presents
fairly the trend of the views of the public mind respecting it.

Constant experiment and successful demonstrations, covering a period of
over fifty years, was necessary to overcome prevailing prejudices and
ignorance.

The conditions to-day, which happily obtain, are that the objection to the
introduction of such evidence finds its source usually in the side seeking to
obscure and hide the truth or facts, while the honest litigant or innocent
individual hastens to advocate its employment.

Another feature worthy of consideration is that persons who possess
intimate knowledge of ink chem. istry and who might otherwise
successfully perpetrate fraud if opportunity presented itself, refrain from
making the attempt because of that very knowledge, which is sufficient also
to teach them of the possible exposure of their efforts. Again, they and
others are aware of the reliance placed on chemico-legal evidence as an aid
to the cause of justice by courts and juries and this is an added reason why

they hesitate to take chances. These propositions being true, they establish
another one, viz: that most of the attempted frauds at the present time in this
connection, are by the ignorant and those whose conceit does not permit
them to believe that any one knows more than themselves.

Chemico-legal ink evidence as before stated has been employed in the
trials of causes for many years; but it was not until the year 1889 that a
precedent was established for the chemical examination of a suspected
document preceding any trial. The honor of this departure from the ordinary
modes of procedure belongs to the Hon. Rastus S. Ransom, who was
surrogate of the county of New York at the time.

The matter in controversy was an alleged will executed in triplicate by
one Thomas J. Monroe. Charges were made that the three wills were
spurious, as they were facsimiles of each other. It was for the main purpose
of determining the methods of their make-up that Judge Ransom rendered
the opinion and made the order for its chemical examination which is cited
in full:

Estate of Thomas J. Monroe.—"This is an application by the special
guardian and contestant in this proceeding, which is now pending before the
assistant, for leave to photograph the various papers which have been filed
as the will of the deceased, and to compel the filing of two parts of one of
said wills, which was executed in triplicate; likewise that the last paper be
subjected to chemical tests for the purpose of disclosing the nature of the
composition of the ink and the process or processes to which it has been
subjected.

"Upon the oral argument the surrogate decided the applications first
stated in favor of the petitioner, reserving only the question of his power to
direct or permit the chemical tests. The special guardian on the oral
argument stated that he was unable, to find any authority for the application.

"Consultation of the various sources of authority upon the subject of
expert testimony and the various tests for the purpose of establishing or
disproving handwriting has not resulted in the discovery of any authority
for granting the application. It is apparent, however, from some of the cases
that such an examination must have been permitted; for instance, in Fulton
v. Hood (34th Penn. State Reports, 365), expert testimony was received in
corroboration of positive evidence to prove that the whole of an instrument
was written by the same hand, with the same ink, and at the same time. It is
inconceivable how testimony of any value could be given as to the
character of ink with which an instrument was written, unless it had been
subjected to a chemical test. The writer of a valuable article in the
eighteenth volume of the American Law Register, page 281 (R. U. Piper, an
eminent expert of Chicago, Ill.), in commenting upon the rule as stated in
the case of Fulton v. Hood (supra), very properly says:

" 'Microscopical and chemical tests may be competent to settle the
question, but these should not be received as evidence, I think, unless the
expert is able to show to the court and the jury the actual results of his
examination, and also to explain his methods, so that they can be fully
understood.'

"The writer of this article is also authority for the statement that in the
French Courts every manipulation or experiment necessary to elucidate the
truth in the case, even to the destruction of the document in question, is
allowed, the Court, as a matter of precaution, being first supplied with a
certified copy of the same.

"The most obvious argument to be urged against allowing a chemical test
to be made on a will, and one that was suggested by the court on the
argument of this motion, is that, inasmuch as the paper may be the subject
of future controversy in this or some other tribunal, future litigants should

not be prejudiced by any alteration or manipulation of the instrument. I do
not think, however, that this objection is sound. Take an extreme case, of
permitting a sufficient amount of the ink (which the affidavit of the expert
shows to be but infinitesimal) for the purpose of chemical examination; the
form of the letter would remain upon the paper; if not, the form and
appearance of the entire signature might, as a preliminary precaution, be
preserved by photography. The portion of the signature remaining would
afford ample material for future experiments and investigations in
subsequent proceedings wherein it might be deemed advisable to take that
course.

"Because the subject matter of the controversy may be litigated hereafter
should not deprive parties in the proceeding of any rights which they would
otherwise have. They certainly are entitled to all rights in this proceeding
that the parties to any future proceedings would have. Besides, all the
parties whose presence would be necessary to an adjudication in, for
example, an ejectment proceeding, are (or their privies are) parties here. It
certainly cannot be that the law, seeking the truth, will not avail itself of this
scientific method of ascertaining the genuineness of the instrument because
of some problematical effect upon the rights or opportunities of parties to
future litigations respecting the same instrument. The possibilities of
litigation over a will are almost infinite, and if such a rule should obtain this
important channel of investigation would be closed. Suppose the same
objection were raised to the first action of ejectment which might be
brought, it might then with the same force be urged that parties to some
future ejectment suit would be prejudiced by a chemical test of the ink used
in the will, and so on ad infinitum.

"By not availing itself of this method of ascertaining the truth as to the
character of the ink, the Court deprives itself of a species of evidence which
amounts to practical demonstration.

"I can see no reason why the application should not be granted."

The order in part reads:

"It is ordered and directed that Charles H. Beckett, the special guardian
aforesaid, be and he hereby is allowed permission to photograph the
aforesaid paper writings described in said order to show cause, viz., one of
the two parts of a triplicate Will of Thomas J. Monroe, deceased, dated
February 10th, 1873, which were filed in the office of the Surrogate of the
City and County of New York on or about the 9th day of May, 1889, and
also the contested Will herein dated March 27th and June 1st, 1888, and to
have the said paper writing, bearing date March 22d and June 1st, 1888,
subjected to such chemical test or tests as shall disclose the nature of the
composition of the ink and, if possible, the process or processes to which it
has been subjected, if any.

"And it is further ordered and directed that such chemical test be applied
to the ink or writing fluid on said alleged Will to the following specified
portion, or any part of such portions, viz."

Specifications in minute detail follow, calling attention to the words and
spaces which are permitted to be chemically tested, and then continues:

"And it is further ordered and directed that the said paper writings shall
be photographed before any chemical tests are applied thereto.

"And it is further ordered and directed that such photographing and
chemical tests be performed by David N. Carvalho, Esq., a proper and
suitable person, at the places above indicated respectively, between the 10th
and the 20th days of June, 1889, inclusive, in the presence of the parties in
interest or their attorneys, upon at least two days' notice to all parties herein
or their attorneys.

"And it is further ordered and directed that in the event of destruction or
breaking of the negatives after such paper writings have been photographed,
the said special guardian, upon similar notice, shall have leave to re-
photograph the said paper writings, at the same place and by the said David
N. Carvalho, between the 10th and 20th days of June, 1889, inclusive. "
(Signed) RASTUS S. RANSOM, "Surrogate."

On the 19th of June, 1889, pursuant to the order of the court, the alleged
will referred to was first photographed, and later in that day such places as
had been designated in the order were chemically treated, as part of a series
of experiments. The results obtained briefly summarized were as, follows:
The instrument which purported to be a holographic will of Thomas J.
Monroe the experiments showed conclusively to be not the case, as neither
pen nor ink in the body writing portion or in the decedent's signature had
ever touched the paper; the date and names of the witnesses thereon were
written, however, with pen and ink. Furthermore, the experiments
demonstrated beyond question that exclusive of its date and names of
witnesses, that it was what is commonly known as a transfer taken from a
gelatine pad (hektograph), a method of duplicating popularly in vogue at
that time. The deduced facts in the matter being that Thomas J. Monroe had
written his will in an aniline purple ink, to which he had appended his
name, leaving blank spaces to be filled in for the date, names of witnesses,
etc., and had transferred the same to a hektograph, from which he had taken
a number of duplicate facsimile copies, and at some other time had filled in
the blank spaces by ordinary methods and to which, at his request, the
names of the witnesses had been written with a pen and ink. In the trial
which followed the surrogate declined to sustain the allegation of the
proponents that the alleged signature was the original writing of Thomas J.
Monroe, or indeed of any person. The will was not admitted to probate.

Experiments, both in open court or during its sessions in the testing of
ink and paper, microscopically and chemically, are of frequent occurrence,
and many contests involving enormous interests have been more or less
decided as the result of them.

The contest of the alleged will of George P. Gordon, tried before the late
Chancellor McGill of New Jersey in 1891, illustrates in a remarkable
degree just how certain are the results of investigations of this character.
The chancellor's decision, after listening to testimony for many weeks, was
in effect to declare the will a forgery, largely because of the fact that the
premise on which it rested was a so-called draft, from which it was sworn it
had been copied. The ink on this draft it was proved could not have had an
existence. until many years after the date of the forged will.

The decedent, who died in 1878, was the inventor of a famous printing
press, and left a large fortune.

A will offered for probate soon after the death of Gordon was not
probated, owing to the discovery that the witnesses had not signed it in each
other's presence. The principal beneficiaries, however, under that will, the
widow and daughter of Gordon, agreed to a division of the estate which was
satisfactory to the other heirs at law, and the matter apparently was settled.

But a retired lawyer named Henry C. Adams began in 1879, a year after
Gordon's death, to endeavor to obtain the assistance of some heirs at law in
an enterprise which was finally ended only when Chancellor McGill's
decision was rendered.

In 1868 Adams lived with his father and brothers on a farm, near
Rahway, N. J., adjoining the Gordon place. The two men became well
acquainted through their common interest in music. Adams called upon A.
Sidney Doane, a nephew of Gordon, and told him that Gordon had made a

will in 1868 which might be found or if lost, established by means of a draft
of it which he (Adams) had retained. Mr. Doane refused to act upon this
proposition. Then Adams presented the matter to Guthbert O. Gordon, a
brother to George P. Gordon. He declined to consider the proposed search
for a new will. Adams then wrote to Guthbert Gordon, Jr., cautioning him to
say nothing to any one, but to come and see him. Guthbert Gordon, Jr.,
declined to accept Adams's invitation for a secret conference. Adams did
not write or communicate with the widow or daughter of George P. Gordon,
or with any of the officials or other persons who dealt with the estate.
Finding that the heirs at law were satisfied with the arrangement of the
estate under Gordon's daughter's management, he gave up his efforts at that
time.

In 1890 Mary Agnes Gordon, the daughter, died in Paris, and remittances
from her ceasing and her will not being satisfactory to those who had been
receiving them from her, another contest was begun. This caused a renewal
of Adams's activity. In 1890 he wrote to Messrs. Black & King, a firm of
lawyers who represented the contestants of Mary Agnes Gordon's will.
Adams's letter to the law firm contained this expression:

"If one of you will come over here on Sunday morning, bringing no brass
band, fife or drums, I will tell you something worth knowing."

Mr. King visited Adams, who was then living at Orange, N. J., and was
told by him that Mr. Gordon had executed a will in 1868 which he (Adams)
had drawn at Gordon's instance, and that he had retained a corrected draft
from which the will itself had been copied. He also told King that the
original will after its execution had been left with his father, and that it must
be at his father's homestead near Rahway, where he would try to find it. A
few days later he wrote to Black & King that the will had been found, and
the next day went with the lawyers to Rahway and identified the package

found by his brother Edward Adams, who occupied the Rahway farm, as
that which contained the will. The package, unopened, was taken to a safe
deposit company and the original draft was deposited with the secretary of
state. The alleged will, which Chancellor McGill pronounced a forgery
when finally opened in the preliminary probate proceedings, was found to
be a very long and complicated document, written on blue paper in black
ink. The draft, which was on white paper, was also written in the main in
black ink, but a copious quantity of red ink had been used in interlineations.
The significant paragraph of the new will was a direction to his heirs to
purchase, if the testator had not succeeded in doing so before his death, the
Henry Adams farm for $32,000. Minute directions were given to insure the
purchase, but no lower price than $32,000 was mentioned. Commenting
upon this Chancellor McGill's remarks:

"It is also to be here noted that the Adams farm is now scarcely worth
one-third the price for which it is directed to be purchased."

Continuing the court says:

"The only living person who professes to have had knowledge of this
disputed paper prior to November, 1890, is Henry C. Adams. He most
clearly and positively testified that he drew the disputed paper at the
instance of Mr. Gordon. He produced a draft from which he said it was
copied. . . . I have already stated that Mr. Adams testified most positively
when the draft of the disputed paper was offered in evidence that it was the
identical document from which the will of 1868 had been copied, and it is
to be remembered that the interlineations in that draft are almost all made
with red ink, and that Mr. Adams testified that those interlineations existed
when the will was copied from the draft. With a view to testing the truth of
this testimony the contestants submitted the draft to scientific experts, who
pronounced the red ink to be a product of eosine, a substance invented by a

German chemist named Caro in the year 1874, and after that time imported
to this country. At first it was sold for $125 a pound, and was so expensive
it could not be used commercially in the manufacture of ink. Afterwards the
price was so greatly reduced that it became generally used in making red
ink. It is distinguished by a peculiar bronze cast that is readily detected. It
was recognized in the red ink interlineations in the draft of the disputed
paper produced by Mr. Adams by a number of scientific gentlemen, among
whom were some of the best known ink manufacturers in the country, and
Mr. Carl Pickhardt, who first imported eosine. Upon further examination
the witness, Adams, said he thought the draft produced to be the original
until he saw the will on blue paper, and that then he was perplexed, but
dismissed his doubt upon the suggestion of counsel, but afterward he
thought upon the subject 'in the vigils of the night,' but by an unfortunate
coincidence did not reach substantial doubt enough to correct his previous
testimony until after the testimony concerning the character of the red ink
he had used in interlining had been produced. . . . It is impossible to study
this remarkable case at this point without grave doubts as to the truthfulness
of Mr. Adams, and indeed as to the frankness with which the case was
produced in court in behalf of the proponents."

As to Adams as a witness, the court finally says:

"And as I read the confused answers of Mr. Adams and note his apparent
misapprehension of questions that would tend to involve him, and note the
apparent failure of his theretofore wonderfully clear and exact memory of
the most trivial and unimportant details, I am inclined to reject the whole
story as a fabrication that has been punctured and fallen to pieces. . . . I find
it to be impossible to rely upon the testimony of Henry C. Adams.
Excluding it the will is not proved. . . .

"I will deny probate, revoking that which I have heretofore granted in
common form." * * * * * * *

In the attempt made to prove the alleged last will and testament of
Stephen C. Dimon, deceased, chemistry was the all-determining factor in
the most important branch of the case. The peculiar features of this
remarkable and unique case are best described by presenting them with a
brief history of the entire matter.

In 1884 Stephen C. Dimon of the city of New York made and executed a
will, choosing as legatee and executrix a Mrs. Martha Keery. The will he
intrusted to the custody of his counsel. It appeared. that some time during
the following year his attorney transferred this will from its resting place in
a desk drawer to a new safe and recalled having seen its envelope a year
later, but said he never saw the will thereafter.

In 1893 Mr. Dimon died. No will being produced, his brother took, out
letters of administration. Whereupon Mrs. Martha Keery commenced a suit
against the brother and the next of kin he represented, in an effort to obtain
the dead man's estate. She based her claim solely on the LOST will, the
contents of which were recalled in the trial by Mr. Dimon's former counsel,
who was also one of the witnesses to the lost will. During the course of the
trial in the Supreme Court, presided over by Justice George L. Ingraham,
Mrs. Keery's attorney produced a mutilated document which from its
reading indicated that it had once been a will, though not the "lost" one. But
the names of the legatee, executrix, testator, names of witnesses and their
addresses were completely obliterated. The written portions still
undisturbed showed it to be in the handwriting of Stephen C. Dimon. Mrs.
Keery's story was that after the death of Mr. Dimon in going over an old
coat formerly worn by him, she had found it in a side pocket and had given
it to her counsel just as it came into her hands.

Its condition showed it to be considerably pocket- worn. The
obliterations referred to represented huge blots of black ink covering a lot
of scratches and making it impossible to decipher the under writing.
Defendant's Counsel immediately requested that the document be turned
over to an expert, to see what could be done with it. The judge granted the
motion and adjourned the case for several days to await results.

Counsel on both sides joined in the selection of myself. Three days were
occupied in its decipherment. The will occupied two sides of a full sheet of
legal cap. The original ink which was employed in the writing of the will
was of pale gray color. The first obliterations were a series of pen and ink
scratches and marks which destroyed the writing. Not satisfied with them
the operator had with a saturated piece of blotting paper, brushed over the
scratches and as that ink was of good quality every mark of writing had
disappeared in the jumble and blots. It so happened that three inks had been
employed. The original ink, the ink used for scratching and the one
employed to do the blotting. The three inks were happily mixtures
containing different constituents, and so by utilizing the reagent of one
which did not affect the other, gradually the encrusted upper inks were
removed and later the original writing appeared sufficiently plain not only
to be read but to identify it. Photographs made before and after the chemical
experiments, permitted court and counsel to make their own comparisons
during the giving of the testimony about it.

It permitted also the finding of the two witnesses who lived outside of the
city and to learn many details from them as to Mr. Dimon's conduct in the
matter.

The restored will showed that Mrs. Keery at its date (1891) was still in
his mind, and its destruction by himself—that he had changed his mind.

Justice Ingraham completes his opinion in deciding the case as follows:

"In this case, however, the long time that elapsed between the time of the
delivery of the will to Mr. Morgan and the death of the testator, the absence
of my satisfactory proof of the existence of the will from the time it was
delivered to Mr. Morgan to the time of the testator's death, and the fact that
the testator made another will, making substantially the same disposition of
the property, which he subsequently destroyed, all tend to cast a doubt upon
the fact that the will was in existence at the time of the testator's death, and
there is positively no evidence that it was ever fraudulently destroyed.

"I do not think the court is justified in diverting a large sum of money
from those legally entitled to it, by allowing, a lost will to be proved, except
upon the clearest and most satisfactory evidence of the existence of the will
at the time of the testator's death. And the testimony in this case falls short
of what I consider necessary to establish such a will.

"There should be, therefore, judgment for the defendants with costs." * *
*****

A case of considerable interest was tried before Hon. Clifford D. Gregory
in the month of March, 1899, in the city of Albany, New York. It was
entitled the "People of the State of New York against Margaret E. Cody," as
charged with the crime of blackmail, in the sending of a letter to Mr. George
J. Gould, in which she threatened to divulge certain information which she
claimed to possess about his dead father, Jay Gould. The character of this
information was such that if true it meant that Jay Gould and his wife had
lived in bigamous relations during a great number of years preceding their
death and hence also affected the legitimacy of the entire Gould family.
Mrs. Cody asserted that Jay Gould was married to a Mrs. Angel some time
in 1853, and that as a result of that "lawful" marriage she gave birth to a
daughter, a Mrs. Pierce, who was still alive and living somewhere in the
west. As Mrs. Cody offered to sell or secrete the information which she said

she possessed for a consideration, Mr. George J. Gould and his sister, Miss
Helen Gould, instantly determined that it could be nothing else than a clear
case of an attempt at blackmail, which falsely impugned the reputations of
their dead parents. They instituted criminal proceedings against Mrs. Cody,
charging that Mrs. Cody when she wrote the letter well knew that her claim
that his father had been married to Mrs. Angel and that Mrs. Pierce was
their daughter, was absolutely false. Two trials followed, the first in 1898 in
which the jury disagreed, and a second one in 1899 which lasted over a
week. It was in the second trial that chemical tests on a certain entry in a
church record in the presence of the jury were made, which showed
conclusively that ancient writing of another character than that which had
been substituted was still existent beneath the writing which was apparent
to the naked eye.

The following are excerpts of the judge's charge to the jury:

"I wish to invite your attention, for a few moments, to the baptismal
certificate. You have had produced here before you the original baptismal
record of the church at Cooperville. It has been substantially admitted, in
the arguments of this case, that there has been a change made in this
certificate. I do not think that the District Attorney claims that there is any
evidence that Mrs. Cody herself changed this record; there is no claim, as I
understand it, made by the prosecuting officer that she went there and
obtained this book, and with her own hand changed this record; but he asks
you to infer and find from the evidence that has been given, that she was a
party to this change, that she was privy to this change, and that knowing
that fact she had guilty knowledge when she wrote the letter upon which the
indictment is based.

"You will remember that Mr. Carvalho, the expert in handwriting, was
placed upon the stand; and he has testified in your presence as to his

qualifications in determining disputed handwritings, and what his
experience has been during a long series of years. He tells you that he has
examined this record, and that there is no question but some of the words
have been erased and others substituted in their places. He tells you that the
words 'Jay Goulds' were not the original words in the certificate, or if they
were, the present 'Jay Goulds,' as they appear in the certificate, have been
forged; that the words 'Mary S. Brown,' the 'sex mois,' the French words for
six months, and other changes which he has described to you are forgeries.

"I shall submit to you, as a question of fact, whether or not Mrs. Cody
had any knowledge or took any part, or authorized or connived at any of the
changes made in this certificate. I do not say that she did; I leave it to you to
say, from the evidence in this case, whether your minds are convinced that
she had any part or parcel, or undertook in any way to accomplish the
changes which have been made in this baptismal record. And if you find as
matter of fact that she had such knowledge at the time this letter was
written; if you find as matter of fact she had this information given to her by
Mrs. Angel, then I leave it to you to say whether she had such knowledge,
such guilty knowledge, as should prevent her, if acting honestly, from
writing a letter such as has been described here and contained in the
indictment."

The jury brought in a verdict of guilty.

In the trial of the People v. David L. Kellam (1895), who was charged
with altering the dates of three notes for $6,000 each, the contention of the
prosecution was that the dates of the notes had been changed by chemicals,
and with the consent of the defense a reagent was applied to the suspected
places and the original dates restored. The verdict of the jury was guilty.

In the Holt Will case, tried in Washington, D. C., in the month of June,
1896, great stress was laid on the fact of the difference in the admixture of

inks found on letters contemporaneous with the date of the will, and it was
asserted also that the ink with which the will was written was not in
existence at the time it was alleged to have been made, June 14, 1873, and
probably not earlier than ten years later. Furthermore, that it was a habit of
Judge Holt up to the time of his death, which habit was illustrated in his
writings and correspondence to "sand" his writing. The jury decided the will
was a forgery.

Another famous case in which the scientific testimony about ink and
pencil writing must have assisted the court in arriving at a conclusion was
in the trial of the famous Tighe will contest, tried before Hon. Frank T.
Fitzgerald, one of the present surrogates of the county of New York. The
story of this case is incorporated in the opinion which is cited in part:

"Hon. Frank T. Fitzgerald, Surrogate of the county of New York:

"That Richard Tighe died on the 6th day of May, 1896, at No. 32 Union
Square, in the city and county of New York, where he had lived for fifty
years prior to his death, and was at the time of his death over ninety years.

"That the testator, on or about the 27th day of March, 1884, in the
presence of the attesting witnesses, duly signed the instrument in writing,
and duly published and declared the same to be his last will and testament,
and requested said witnesses to witness the same, and pursuant to such
request said attesting witnesses did subscribe said will as attesting
witnesses. That at the time said Richard Tighe so signed, published and
declared the said instrument to be his last will and testament, the said
Richard Tighe was in all respects competent to execute the same, and was
not under any restraint or undue influence. That the said instrument, so
signed, published and declared by testator was and consisted of the identical
sheets of paper and the identical writing now appearing upon the same as to
all except pencil writing; the testator did not publish or declare the marks,

words or figures written in or upon said instrument in pencil to be a part of
his last will and testament, and it is not found that such marks, words or
figures were upon said instrument at the time when said instrument was so
published and declared to be the last will and testament of the testator. That
the said last will and testament is written consecutively upon two sheets of
legal cap paper.

"That the said last will and testament was originally prepared with blank
spaces left for the insertion of the numbers of shares intended to be
bequeathed and devised to the various beneficiaries named therein, and as
so prepared was in the hand-writing of Caroline S. Tighe, the wife of
testator, and that at some subsequent time and before the execution of the
said instrument by the said Richard Tighe, the blank spaces hereinafter
referred to as filled in in ink, were filled in by or under the direction of the
testator. Upon said instrument as offered for probate there appears in the
blanks originally left thereon, in some instances, pencil writings
superimposed over other pencil writings, which have been either wholly or
partially erased, and in other instances ink writing different from the body
of the instrument in the material employed, appearing over pencil writings
wholly or partially obliterated. . .

"That the said words written in ink filling such blanks as aforesaid
expressed the final determination of the testator with regard to the
beneficiaries to whom the same applied; and that the words and figures
written in pencil filling such blanks as aforesaid were written only
deliberately and tentatively and that as to those words and figures the
testator had not at the time when he executed, published or declared said
instrument to be his last will and testament determined as to whom or in
what proportions he would give the several shares of his estate and property
covered by said words and figures, but the testator attempted and intended
to reserve to himself the power of making disposition of said shares

thereafter, and intended the final disposition thereof to be in ink writing. . .
."

CHAPTER XXIV.
CHEMICO-LEGAL INK (CONTINUED).

FAMOUS CASE OF CRITTEN V. CHEMICAL NATIONAL BANK—STORY OF THE CASE
INCLUDED IN THE OPINION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS AS WRITTEN BY JUSTICE
EDGAR M. CULLEN—THE PINKERTON CASE OF "BECKER"—STORY OF HOW HE
SECURED $20,000 THROUGH THE ALTERATION OF A $12 CHECK—BECKER'S
COMMENTS ABOUT HIMSELF—A CRITICISM OF BECKER AND HIS WORK—NAMES
OF SOME CASES IN WHICH CHEMICAL EVIDENCE WAS PRESENTED TO COURTS
AND JURIES.

THE books contain no clearer or more forcible exposition of "Chemico-
legal" ink, in its relationship to facts adduced from illustrated scientific
testimony, than is to be found in the final opinion written by that eminent
jurist Hon. Edgar M. Cullen on behalf of the majority of the Court of
Appeals of the State of New York, in the case of De Frees Critten v. The
Chemical National Bank. It was the author's privilege to be the expert
employed in the lower court about whose testimony Judge Cullen remarks
(N. Y. Rep., 171, p. 223) "The alteration of the checks by Davis was
established beyond contradiction," and again, p. 227, "The skill of the
criminal has kept pace with the advance in honest arts and a forgery may be
made so skillfully as to deceive not only the bank but the drawer of the
check as to the genuineness of his own signature." The main facts are
included in the portion of the opinion cited:

"The plaintiffs kept a large and active account with the defendant, and
this action is to recover an alleged balance of a deposit due to them from the
bank. The plaintiffs had in their employ a clerk named Davis. It was the
duty of Davis to fill up the checks which it might be necessary for the
plaintiffs to give in the course of business, to make corresponding entries in
the stubs of the check book and present the checks so prepared to Mr.

Critten, one of the plaintiffs, for signature, together with the bills in
payment of which they were drawn. After signing a check Critten would
place it and the bill in an envelope addressed to the proper party, seal the
envelope and put it in the mailing drawer. During the period from
September, 1897, to October, 1899, in twenty-four separate instances Davis
abstracted one of the envelopes from the mailing drawer, opened it,
obliterated by acids the name of the payee and the amount specified in the
check, then made the check payable to cash and raised its amount, in the
majority of cases, by the sum of $100. He would draw the money on the
check so altered from the defendant bank, pay the bill for which the check
was drawn in cash and appropriate the excess. On one occasion Davis did
not collect the altered check from the defendant, but deposited it to his own
credit in another bank. When a check was presented to Critten for signature
the number of dollars for which it was drawn would be cut in the check by a
punching instrument. When Davis altered a check he would punch a new
figure in front of those already appearing in the check. The checks so
altered by Davis were charged to the account of the plaintiff s, which was
balanced every two months and the vouchers returned to them from the
bank. To Davis himself the plaintiffs, as a rule, intrusted the verification of
the bank balance. This work having in the absence of Davis been committed
to another person, the forgeries were discovered and Davis was arrested and
punished. It is the amount of these forged checks, over and above the sums
for which they were originally drawn, that this action is brought to recover.
The defendant pleaded payment and charged negligence on plaintiff's part,
both in the manner in which the checks were drawn and in the failure to
discover the forgeries when the pass book was balanced and the vouchers
surrendered. On the trial the alteration of the checks by Davis was
established beyond contradiction and the substantial issue litigated was that
of the plaintiff's negligence. The referee rendered a short decision in favor
of the plaintiffs in which he states as the ground of his decision that the

plaintiffs were not negligent either in signing the checks as drawn by Davis
or in failing to discover the forgeries at an earlier date than that at which
they were made known to them.

"The relation existing between a bank and a depositor being that of
debtor and creditor, the bank can justify a payment on the depositor's
account only upon the actual direction of the depositor. 'The question
arising on such paper (checks) between drawee and drawer, however,
always relate to what the one has authorized the other to do. They are not
questions of negligence or of liability to parties upon commercial paper, but
are those of authority solely. The question of negligence cannot arise unless
the depositor has in drawing his cheek left blanks unfilled, or by some
affirmative act of negligence has facilitated the commission of a fraud by
those into whose hands the check may come.' (Crawford v. West Side Bank,
100 N. Y. 50.) Therefore, when the fraudulent alteration of the checks was
proved, the liability of the bank for their amount was made out and it was
incumbent upon the defendant to establish affirmatively negligence on the
plaintiff's part to relieve it from the consequences of its fault or misfortune
in paying forged orders. Now, while the drawer of a check may be liable
where he draws the instrument ill such ill incomplete state as to facilitate or
invite fraudulent alterations, it is not the law that he is bound so to prepare
the cheek that nobody else call successfully tamper with it. (Societe
Generale v. Metropolitan Bank, 27 L. T. [N. S.] 849; Belknap v. National
Bank of North America, 100 Mass. 380) In the present case the fraudulent
alteration of the checks was not merely in the perforation of the additional
figure, but in the obliteration of the written name of the payee and the
substitution therefor of the word 'Cash.' Against this latter change of the
instrument the plaintiffs could not have been expected to guard, and without
that alteration it would have no way profited the criminal to raise the
amount. . . ."

A Pinkerton case of international repute, best known as the "Becker"
case, included the successful "raising" of a check by chemical means from
$12 to $22,000. The criminal author of this stupendous fraud was Charles
Becker, "king of forgers," who as an all round imitator of any writing and
manipulator of monetary instruments then stood at the head of his
"profession." Arrested and taken to San Francisco he was brought to trial.
Two of his "pals" turned state's evidence, and Becker was sentenced to a life
term. Through an error on the part of the trial judge he secured a new trial
on an appeal to the Supreme Court. The jury disagreed on a second trial, but
on the third trial he was convicted. Becker pleaded for mercy, and as he was
an old man and showed signs of physical break-down, the court was lenient
with him. Seven years was his sentence.

After his incarceration in San Quetin prison, he described in one sentence
how he had risen to the head of the craft of forgers. "A world of patience, a
heap of time, and good inks,—that is the secret of my success in the
profession."

On completing his sentence, his reply to the question, "What was the
underlying motive which induced you to forge?" was one word, "Vanity!"

The detailed facts which follow are from the "American
Banker:"

"On December 2, 1895, a smooth-speaking man, under the name of A. H.
Dean, hired an office in the Chronicle building at San Francisco, under the
guise of a merchant broker, paid a month's rent in advance, and on
December 4 he went to the Bank of Nevada and opened an account with
$2,500 cash, saying that his account would run from $2,000 to $30,000, and
that he would want no accommodation. He manipulated the account so as to
invite confidence, and on December 17 he deposited a check or draft of the
Bank of Woodland, Cal., upon its correspondent, the Crocker- Woolworth

Bank of San Francisco. The amount was paid to the credit of Dean, the
check was sent through the clearing-house, and was paid by the Crocker-
Woolworth Bank. The next day, the check having been cleared, Dean called
and drew out $20,000, taking the cash in four bags of gold, the teller not
having paper money convenient. He had a vehicle at the door, with his
office boy inside as driver, and away he went. At the end of the month,
when the Crocker-Woolworth Bank made returns to the Woodland Bank, it
included the draft for $22,000. Here the fraud was discovered, and here the
lesson to bankers of advising drafts received a new illustration. The Bank of
Woodland had drawn no such draft, and the only one it had drawn which
was not accounted for was one for twelve dollars, issued in favor of A. H.
Holmes to an innocent- looking man, who, on December 9, called to ask
how he could send twelve dollars to a distant friend, and whether it was
better to send a money order or an express order. When he was told he
could send it by bank draft, he seemed to have learned something new;
supposed that he could not get a bank draft, and he took it, paying the fee.
Here came back that innocent twelve-dollar draft, raised to $22,000, and on
its way had cost somebody $20,000 in gold.

"The almost absolute perfection with which the draft had been forged had
nearly defied the detection of even the microscope. In the body of the
original $12 draft had been the words, 'Twelve …….. Dollars.' The forger,
by the use of some chemical preparation, had erased the final letters 'lve'
from the word 'twelve,' and had substituted the letters 'nty-two,' so that in
place of the 'twelve,' is it appeared in the genuine draft, there was the word
'twenty-two' in the forged paper.

"In the space between the word 'twenty-two' and the word 'dollars' the
forger inserted the word 'thousand,' so that in place of the draft reading
'twelve dollars,' as at first, it read 'twenty-two thousand dollars,' as changed.

"In the original $12 draft, the figures '1' and '2' and the character '$' had
been punched so that the combination read '$12.' The forger had filled in
these perforations with paper in such away that the part filled in looked
exactly like the field of the paper. After having filled in the perforations, he
had perforated the paper with the combination, '$22,000.'

"The dates, too, had been erased by the chemical process, and in their
stead were dates which would make it appear that the paper bad been
presented for payment within a reasonable length of time after it had been
issued. The dates in the original draft, if left on the forged draft, would have
been liable to arouse suspicion at the bank, for they would have shown that
the holder had departed from custom in carrying, such a valuable paper
more than a few days.

"That was the extent of the forgeries which had been made in the paper,
the manner in which they had been made betrayed the hand of an expert
forger. The interjected hand-writing was so nearly like that in the original
paper that it took a great while to decide whether or not it was a forgery.

"In the places where letters had been erased by the use of chemicals the
coloring of the paper had been restored, so that it was well-nigh impossible
to detect a variance of the hue. It was the work of an artist, with pen, ink,
chemicals, camel's hair brush, water colors, paper pulp and a perforating
machine. Moreover the crime was eighteen days old, and the forger might
be in Japan or on his way to Europe. The Protective Committee of the
American Bankers' Association held a hurried consultation as soon as the
news of the forgery reached New York, and orders were given to get this
forger, regardless of expense—he was too dangerous a man to be at large. It
was easier said than done; but the skill of the Pinkertons was aroused and
the wires were made hot getting an accurate description of Dean from all
who had seen him. Suspected bank criminals were shadowed night and day

to see if they connected with any one answering the description, but patient,
hard labor for nearly two months did not seem to promise much."

Not satisfied with their success in San Francisco these same bank
workers began a series of operations in Minneapolis and St. Paul,
Minnesota. This information by chance reached the Pinkertons who laid a
trap and captured two of the gang. Shortly afterward Becker on information
furnished by them was also arrested, taken to California and after three
separate trials as before stated, sent to San Quetin.

This triumph of the forger's art, I examined in the city of San Francisco
and although it was not, the first time I had been brought into contact with
the work of Becker, was compelled to admit that this particular specimen
was almost perfect and more nearly so with a single exception than any
other which had come under my observation. Becker was a sort of genius in
the juggling of bank checks. He knew the values of ink and the correct
chemical to affect them. His paper mill was his mouth, in which to
manufacture specially prepared pulp to fill in punch holes, which when
ironed over, made it most difficult to detect even with a magnifying glass.
He was able also to imitate water marks and could reproduce the most
intricate designs. He says he has reformed.

During the last twenty years quite a number of cases have been tried in
New York City and vicinity in which the question of inks was an all
important one. The titles of a few not already referred to are given.
herewith: Lawless-Flemming, Albinger Will, Phelan- Press Publishing Co.,
Ryold, Kerr-Southwick, N. Y. Dredging Co., Thorless-Nernst, Gekouski,
Perkins, Bedell forgeries, Storey, Lyddy, Clarke, Woods, Baker, Trefethen,
Dupont-Dubos, Schooley, Humphrey, Dietz-Allen, Carter, and Rineard-
Bowers.

CHAPTER XXV.
INK UTENSILS OF ANTIQUITY.

THE GRAVING TOOL PRECEDES THE PEN—CLASSIFICATION UNDER TWO HEADS,
ONE WHICH SCRATCHED AND THE OTHER WHICH USED AN INK—THE STYLUS
AND THE MATERIALS OF WHICH IT WAS COMPOSED—POETICALLY DESCRIBED—
COMMENTS BY NOEL HUMPHREYS—RECAPITULATION OF VARIOUS DEVICES BY
KNIGHT—BIBLICAL REFERENCES—ENGRAVED STONES AND OTHER MATERIALS
THE EARLIEST KINDS OF RECORDS—WHEN THIN BRICKS WERE UTILIZED FOR
INSCRIPTION PURPOSES—METHODS EMPLOYED BY THE CHINESE—
HILPRECHT'S DISCOVERIES—THE DIAMOND AS A SCRATCHING INSTRUMENT—
HISTORICAL INCIDENT WRITTEN WITH ONE—BIBLICAL MENTION ABOUT THE
DIAMOND— WHEN IT BECAME POSSIBLE TO INTERPRET CHARACTER VALUES OF
ANCIENT HIEROGLYPHICS—DISCOVERY OF THE ROSETTA STONE AND A
DESCRIPTION OF IT—SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT CHAMPOLLION AND DR.
YOUNG WHO DECIPHERED IT—ITS CAPTURE BY THE ENGLISH AND
PRESERVATION IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM—EMPLOYMENT OF THE REED PEN AND
PENCIL- BRUSH—THE BRUSH PRECEDED THE REED PEN—THE PLACES WHERE
THE REEDS GREW—COMMENTS BY VARIOUS WRITERS—METHOD OF FORMING
THE REED INTO A PEN—CONTINUED EMPLOYMENT OF THEM IN THE FAR EAST—
THE BRUSH STILL IN USE IN CHINA AND JAPAN—EARLIEST EXAMPLES OF REED
PEN WRITING— WHEN THE QUILL WAS SUBSTITUTED FOR THE REED—REED
PENS FOUND IN THE RUINS OF HERCULANEUM—ANECDOTE BY THE ABBE, HUC.

THE instruments of antiquity employed in the art of writing belong to
two of the most distant epochs.

In the first period, inscriptions were engraved, carved or impressed with
sharp instruments, and of patterns characteristic of a graving tool, chisel or
other form which could be adapted to particular substances like stone,
leaves, metal or ivory plates, wax or clay tablets, cylinders and prisms.

The ancient Assyrians even used knives or stamps for impressing their
cuneiform writing upon cylinders or prisms of soft clay which were often
glazed by subsequent bakings in kilns.

The other period was that in which written characters were made with
liquids or paints of any kind or color. The liquids (inks) were used in
connection with a pen manufactured from a reed (calamus), while the paints