Forty Centuries of Ink | Page 3

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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,