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David N. Carvalho Forty Centuries of Ink Presented by semantikon.com 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.

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