INKS

Blueprint Inks.

I.—For red-writing fluids for blueprints, take a piece of common washing soda the size of an ordinary bean, and dissolve it in 4 tablespoonfuls of ordinary red-writing ink, to make a red fluid. To keep it from spreading too much, use a fine pen to apply it with, and write fast so as not to allow too much of the fluid to get on the paper, for it will continue eating until it is dry.

II.—For red and white solutions for writing on blueprints, dissolve a crystal of oxalate of potash about the size of a pea in an ink-bottle full of water. This will give white lines on blueprints; other potash solutions are yellowish. If this shows a tendency to run, owing to too great strength, add more water and thicken slightly with mucilage. Mix this with red or any other colored ink about half and half, and writing may be done on the blueprints in colors corresponding to the inks used.

III.—Add to a small bottle of water enough washing soda to make a clear white line, then add enough gum arabic to it to prevent spreading and making ragged lines. To make red lines dip the pen in red ink and then add a little of the solution by means of the quill.

IV.—For white ink, grind zinc oxide fine on marble and incorporate with it a mucilage made with gum tragacanth. Thin a little for use. Add a little oil of cloves to prevent mold, and shake from time to time.

V.—A fluid which is as good as any for writing white on blueprints is made of equal parts of sal soda and water.

VI.—Mix equal parts of borax and water.

Both these fluids, V and VI, must be used with a fine-pointed pen; a pen with a blunt point will not work well.

Drawing Inks:

Blue Ruling Ink.

Black Ruling Ink.

Carbon Ink.

Carmine.

Liquid Indelible Drawing Ink.

Glass, Celluloid, And Metal Inks:

Ink For Writing On Glazed Cardboard.

I.—Dissolve 4 drachms of brown shellac in 4 ounces of alcohol. Dissolve 7 drachms of borax in 6 ounces of distilled water. Pour the first solution slowly into the second and carefully mix them, after which add 12 grains of aniline dye of the desired color. Violet, blue, green, red, yellow, orange, or black aniline dyes can be used.

Such inks may be used for writing on bottles, and the glass may be cleaned with water without the inscription being impaired.

II.—	Ferric chloride	10 parts
	Tannin	15 parts
	Acetone	100 parts

Dissolve the ferric chloride in a portion of the acetone and the tannin in the residue, and mix the solutions.

III.—Dissolve a tar dyestuff of the desired color in anhydrous acetic acid.

Indelible Inks For Glass Or Metal.

I.—	Sodium silicate	1 to 2 parts
I.—	Liquid India ink	1 part

For white:

II.—	Sodium water glass	3 to 4 parts
II.—	Chinese white	1 part

Instead of Chinese white, a sufficient amount of the so-called permanent white (barium sulphate) may be used. The containers for these inks should be kept air-tight. The writing in either case is not attacked by any reagent used in microscopical technique but may be readily scraped away with a knife. The slips or other articles should be as near chemically clean as possible, before attempting to write on them.

According to Schuh, a mixture of a shellac solution and whiting or precipitated chalk answers very well for marking glass. Any color may be mixed with the chalk. If the glass is thoroughly cleaned with alcohol or ether, either a quill pen or a camel’s-hair pencil (or a fresh, clean steel pen) may be used.

Ink On Marble.

Perpetual Ink.

II.—Trinidad asphaltum and oil of turpentine, equal parts. Used in a melted state to fill in the letters on tombstones, marbles, etc. Without actual violence, it will endure as long as the stone itself.

Ink For Steel Tools.

Ordinary rosin, ¹/₂ pound; lard oil, 1 tablespoonful; lampblack, 2 tablespoonfuls; turpentine, 2 tablespoonfuls. Melt the rosin, and stir in the other ingredients in the order given. When the ink is cold it should look like ordinary printers’ ink. Spread a little of this ink over the pad and ink the rubber stamp as usual, and press it on the clean steel—saw blade, for instance. Have a rope of soft putty, and make a border of putty around the stamped design as close up to the lettering as possible, so that no portion of the steel inside the ring of putty is exposed but the lettering. Then pour into the putty ring the etching mixture, composed of 1 ounce of nitric acid, 1 ounce of {405} muriatic acid, and 12 ounces of water. Allow it to rest for only a minute, draw off the acid with a glass or rubber syringe, and soak up the last trace of acid with a moist sponge. Take off the putty, and wipe off the design with potash solution first, and then with turpentine, and the job is done.

Writing On Ivory, Glass, Etc.

Writing On Zinc

Gold Ink.

I.—The best gold ink is made by rubbing up gold leaf as thoroughly as possible with a little honey. The honey is then washed away with water, and the finely powdered gold leaf left is mixed to the consistency of a writing ink with weak gum water. Everything depends upon the fineness of the gold powder, i. e., upon the diligence with which it has been worked with the honey. Precipitated gold is finer than can be got by any rubbing, but its color is wrong, being dark brown. The above gold ink should be used with a quill pen.

II.—An imitation gold or bronze ink is composed by grinding 1,000 parts of powdered bronze of handsome color with a varnish prepared by boiling together 500 parts of nut oil, 200 parts of garlic, 500 parts of cocoanut oil, 100 parts of Naples yellow, and as much of sienna.

Horticultural Ink.

I.—Chlorate of platinum, ¹/₄ ounce; soft water, 1 pint. Dissolve and preserve it in glass. Used with a clean quill to write on zinc labels. It almost immediately turns black, and cannot be removed by washing. The addition of gum and lampblack, as recommended in certain books, is unnecessary, and even prejudicial to the quality of the ink.

II.—Verdigris and sal ammoniac, of each ¹/₂ ounce; levigated lampblack, ¹/₂ ounce; common vinegar, ¹/₄ pint; mix thoroughly. Used as the last, for either zinc, iron, or steel.

III.—Blue vitriol, 1 ounce; sal ammoniac, ¹/₂ ounce (both in powder); vinegar, ¹/₄ pint; dissolve. A little lampblack or vermilion may be added, but it is not necessary. Use No. I, for iron, tin, or steel plate.

Indelible Inks.

These are also frequently called waterproof, incorrodible, or indestructible inks. They are employed for writing labels on bottles containing strong acids and alkaline solutions. They may be employed with stamps, types or stencil plates, by which greater neatness will be secured than can be obtained with either a brush or pen.

The following is a superior preparation for laundry use:

Aniline oil	85 parts
Potassium chlorate	5 parts
Distilled water	44 parts
Hydrochloric acid, pure (specific gravity, 1.124)	68 parts
Copper chloride, pure	6 parts

Mix the aniline oil, potassium chlorate, and 26 parts of the water and heat in a capacious vessel, on the water bath, at a temperature of from 175° to 195° F., until the chlorate is entirely dissolved, then add one-half of the hydrochloric and continue the heat until the mixture begins to take on a darker color. Dissolve the copper chloride in the residue of the water, add the remaining hydrochloric acid to the solution, and add the whole to the liquid on the water bath, and heat the mixture until it acquires a fine red-violet color. Pour into a flask with a well-fitting ground-glass stopper, close tightly and set aside for several days, or until it ceases to throw down a precipitate. When this is the case, pour off the clear liquid into smaller (one drachm or a drachm and a half) containers.

This ink must be used with a quill pen, and is especially good for linen or cotton fabrics, but does not answer so well for silk or woolen goods. When first used, it appears as a pale red, but on washing with soap or alkalies, or on exposure to {406} the air, becomes a deep, dead black. The following is a modification of the foregoing:

Blue Indelible Ink.

Red Indelible Inks.

1.—	Sodium carbonate	3 drachms
	Gum arabic	3 drachms
	Water	12 drachms
2.—	Platinic chloride	1 drachm
2.—	Distilled water	2 ounces
3.—	Stannous chloride	1 drachm
3.—	Distilled water	4 drachms

Moisten the place to be written upon with No. 1 and rub a warm iron over it until dry; then write with No. 2, and, when dry, moisten with No. 3. An intense and beautiful purple-red color is produced in this way. A very rich purple color—the purple of Cassius—may be produced by substituting a solution of gold chloride for the platinic chloride in the above formula.

Crimson Indelible Ink.—

The following formula makes an indelible crimson ink:

Silver nitrate	50 parts
Sodium carbonate, crystal	75 parts
Tartaric acid	16 parts
Carmine	1 part
Ammonia water, strongest	288 parts
Sugar, white, crystallized	36 parts
Gum arabic, powdered	60 parts
Distilled water, quantity sufficient to make	400 parts

Dissolve the silver nitrate and the sodium carbonate separately, each in a portion of the distilled water, mix the solutions, collect the precipitate on a filter, wash, and put the washed precipitate, still moist, into a mortar. To this add the tartaric acid, and rub together until effervescence ceases. Now, dissolve the carmine in the ammonia water (which latter should be of specific gravity .882, or contain 34 per cent of ammonia), filter, and add the filtrate to the silver tartrate magma in the mortar. Add the sugar and gum arabic, rub up together, and add gradually, with constant agitation, sufficient distilled water to make 400 parts.

Gold Indelible Ink.

1.—	Chloride of gold and sodium	1 part
	Water	10 parts
	Gum	2 parts
2.—	Oxalic acid	1 part
	Water	5 parts
	Gum	2 parts

The cloth or stuff to be written on should be moistened with liquid No. 2. Let dry, and then write upon the prepared place with liquid No. 1, using preferably a quill pen. Pass a hot iron over the mark, pressing heavily.

India, China, Or Japan Ink.

Ink by these names is based on lampblack, and prepared in various ways. Many makes flow less easily from the pen than other inks, and are less durable than ink that writes paler and afterwards turns black. The ink is usually unfitted for steel pens, but applies well with a brush.

I.—Lampblack (finest) is ground to a paste with very weak liquor of potassa, and this paste is then diffused through water slightly alkalized with potassa, after which it is collected, washed with clean water, and dried; the dry powder is next levigated to a smooth, stiff paste, with a strong filtered decoction of carrageen or Irish moss, or of quince seed, a few drops of essence of musk, and about half as much essence of ambergris being added, by way of perfume, toward the end of the process; the mass is, lastly, molded into cakes, which are ornamented with Chinese characters and devices, as soon as they are dry and hard.

II.—A weak solution of fine gelatin is boiled at a high temperature in a digester for 2 hours, and then in an open vessel for 1 hour more. The liquid is next filtered and evaporated to a proper consistency, either in a steam- or {407} salt-water bath. It is, lastly, made into a paste, as before, with lampblack which has been previously heated to dull redness in a well-closed crucible. Neither of the above gelatinizes in cold weather, like the ordinary imitations.

To Keep India Ink Liquid.

Ink Powders And Lozenges.

Any of these powders may, by the addition of mucilage of gum arabic, be made into lozenges or buttons—the “ink buttons” or “ink stones” in use abroad and much affected by travelers.

The following makes a good serviceable black ink, on macerating the powder in 100 times its weight of rain or distilled water for a few days:

I.—	Powdered gallnuts	16 parts
	Gum arabic	8 parts
	Cloves	1 part
	Iron sulphate	10 parts

Put into an earthenware or glass vessel, cover with 100 parts of rain or distilled water, and set aside for 10 days or 2 weeks, giving an occasional shake the first 3 or 4 days. Decant and bottle for use.

The following is ready for use instantly on being dissolved in water:

II.—	Aleppo gallnuts	84 parts
II.—	Dutch Madder	6 parts

Powder, mix, moisten, and pack into the percolator. Extract with hot water, filter, and press out. To the filtrate add 4 parts of iron acetate (or pyroacetate) and 2 ¹/₂ parts of tincture of indigo. Put into the water bath and evaporate to dryness and powder the dry residue.

Lithographic Inks.

These are for writing on lithographic stones or plates:

I.—Mastic (in tears), 8 ounces; shellac, 12 ounces; Venice turpentine, 1 ounce. Melt together, add wax, 1 pound; tallow, 6 ounces. When dissolved, add hard tallow soap (in shavings), 6 ounces; and when the whole is perfectly combined, add lampblack, 4 ounces. Mix well, cool a little, and then pour it into molds, or upon a slab, and when cold cut it into square pieces.

II. (Lasteyrie).—Dry tallow soap, mastic (in tears), and common soda (in fine powder), of each, 30 parts; shellac, 150 parts; lampblack, 12 parts. Mix as indicated in Formula I.

Marking Or Labeling Inks:

Black Marking Inks.—

I.—	Borax	60 parts
	Shellac	180 parts
	Boiling water	1,000 parts
	Lampblack, a sufficient quantity.

Dissolve the borax in the water, add the shellac to the solution and stir until dissolved. Rub up a little lampblack with sufficient of the liquid to form a paste, and add the rest of the solution a little at a time and with constant rubbing. Test, and if not black enough, repeat the operation. To get the best effect—a pure jet-black—the lampblack should be purified and freed from the calcium phosphate always present in the commercial article to the extent, frequently, of 85 to 87 per cent, by treating with hydrochloric acid and washing with water.

II.—An ink that nothing will bleach is made by mixing pyrogallic acid and sulphate of iron in equal parts. Particularly useful for marking labels on bottles containing acids. Varnish the label after the ink is dry so that moisture will not affect it.

Colored Marking Inks:

Eosine Red.—

Eosine B.	1 drachm
Solution of mercuric chloride	2 drachms
Mucilage of acacia	2 drachms
Rectified spirit	4 ounces
Oil of lavender	1 drop
Distilled water	8 ounces

Dissolve the eosine in the solution and 2 ounces of water, add the mucilage, and mix, then the oil dissolved in the spirit, and finally make up.

Orange.—

Aniline orange	1 drachm
Sugar	2 drachms
Distilled water to	4 ounces

Blue.—

I.—	Resorcin blue	1 drachm
I.—	Distilled water	6 drachms

Mix and agitate occasionally for 2 hours, then add: {408}

Hot distilled water	24 ounces
Oxalic acid	10 grains
Sugar	¹/₂ ounce

Shake well. This and other aniline inks can be perfumed by rubbing up a drop of attar of rose with the sugar before dissolving it in the hot water.

II.—A solid blue ink, or marking paste, to be used with a brush for stenciling, is made as follows: Shellac, 2 ounces; borax, 2 ounces; water, 25 ounces; gum arabic, 2 ounces; and ultramarine, sufficient. Boil the borax and shellac in some of the water till they are dissolved, and withdraw from the fire. When the solution has become cold, add the rest of the 25 ounces of water, and the ultramarine. When it is to be used with the stencil, it must be made thicker than when it is to be applied with a marking brush.

III.—In a suitable kettle mix well, stirring constantly, 50 parts of liquid logwood extract (80 per cent) with 3 parts of spirit previously mingled with 1 part of hydrochloric acid, maintaining a temperature of 68° F. Dissolve 5 parts of potassium chromate in 15 parts of boiling water; to this add 10 parts of hydrochloric acid, and pour this mixture, after raising the temperature to about 86° F., very slowly and with constant stirring into the kettle. Then heat the whole to 185° F. This mass, which has now assumed the nature of an extract, is stirred a little longer, and next 15 parts of dextrin mixed with 10 parts of fine white earth (white bole) are added. The whole is well stirred throughout. Transfer the mass from the kettle into a crusher, where it is thoroughly worked through.

Printing Inks.

Black printing inks owe their color to finely divided carbon made from lampblack, pine-wood, rosin oil, etc., according to the quality of the ink desired. The finest inks are made from flame-lampblack. There are, however, certain requirements made of all printing inks alike, and these are as follows: The ink must be a thick and homogeneous liquid, it must contain no solid matter but finely divided carbon, and every drop when examined microscopically must appear as a clear liquid containing black grains uniformly distributed.

The consistency of a printing ink must be such that it passes on to the printing rollers at the proper rate. It will be obvious that various consistencies are demanded according to the nature of the machine used by the printer. For a rotary machine which prints many thousands of copies an hour a much thinner ink will be necessary than that required for art printing or for slow presses. As regards color, ordinary printing ink should be a pure black. For economy’s sake, however, newspaper printers often use an ink so diluted that it does not look deep black, but a grayish black, especially in large type.

The question of the time that the ink takes to dry on the paper is a very important one, especially with ink used for printing newspapers which are folded and piled at one operation. If then the ink does not dry very quickly, the whole impression smudges and “sets off” so much that it becomes illegible in places. Although it is essential to have a quick drying ink for this purpose, it is dangerous to go too far, for a too quickly drying ink would make the paper stick to the forms and tear it. A last condition which must be fulfilled by a good printing ink is that it must be easy of removal from the type, which has to be used again.

No one composition will answer every purpose and a number of different inks are required. Makers of printing inks are obliged, therefore, to work from definite recipes so as to be able to turn out exactly the same ink again and again. They make newspaper ink for rotary presses, book-printing inks, half-tone inks, art inks, etc. As the recipes have been attained only by long, laborious, and costly experiments, it is obvious that the makers are not disposed to communicate them, and the recipes that are offered and published must be looked upon with caution, as many of them are of little or no value. In the recipes given below for printing inks, the only intention is to give hints of the general composition, and the practical man will easily discover what, if any, alterations have to be made in the recipe for his special purpose.

Many different materials for this manufacture are given in recipes, so many, in fact, that it is impossible to discover what use they are in the ink. The following is a list of the articles commonly in use for the manufacture of printing ink:

Boiled linseed oil, boiled without driers.
Rosin oil from the dry distillation of rosin.
Rosin itself, especially American pine rosin. {409}
Soap, usually rosin-soap, but occasionally ordinary soap.
Lampblack and various other pigments.

By the most time-honored method, linseed oil was very slowly heated over an open fire until it ignited. It was allowed to burn for a time and then extinguished by putting a lid on the pot. In this way a liquid was obtained of a dark brown or black color with particles of carbon, and with a consistency varying with the period of heating, being thicker, the longer the heating was continued. If necessary, the liquid was then thinned with unboiled, or only very slightly boiled, linseed oil. Lampblack in the proper quantity was added and the mixture was finally rubbed up on a stone in small quantities at a time to make it uniform.

Boiling The Linseed Oil.

Linseed oil must always be boiled in vessels where it has plenty of room, as the oil soon swells up and it begins to decompose so energetically at a particular temperature that there is considerable risk of its boiling over and catching fire. Various contrivances have been thought out for boiling large quantities of the oil with safety, such as pans with an outlet pipe in the side, through which the oil escapes when it rises too high instead of over the edge of the pan, and fires built on a trolley running on rails, so that they can at once be moved from under the pan if there is any probability of the latter boiling over. The best apparatus for preparing thickened linseed oil is undoubtedly one in which the oil offers a very large surface to the air, and on that account requires to be moderately heated only. The oil soon becomes very thick under these conditions and if necessary can be diluted to any required consistency with unboiled oil.

In boiling linseed oil down to the proper thickness by the old method there are two points demanding special attention. One is the liability of the oil to boil over, and the other consists in the development of large quantities of vapor, mostly of acroleine, which have a most powerful and disagreeable smell, and an intense action upon the eyes. The attendant must be protected from these fumes, and the boiling must therefore be done where there is a strong draught to take the fumes as fast as they are produced. There are various contrivances to cope with boiling over.

Savage’s Printing Ink.

Toning Black Inks.

To Give Dark Inks a Bronze or Changeable Hue.

Quick Dryer For Inks Used On Bookbinders’ Cases.

Inks For Stamp Pads.

The ink used on vulcanized rubber stamps should be such that when applied to a suitable pad it remains sufficiently fluid to adhere to the stamp. At the same time the fluidity should cease by the time the stamp is pressed upon an absorbing surface such as paper. Formerly these inks were made by rubbing up pigments in fat to a paste. Such inks can hardly be prevented, however, from making impressions surrounded by a greasy mark caused by the fat spreading in the pores of the paper. Now, most stamping inks are made without grease and a properly prepared stamping ink contains nothing but glycerine and coal-tar dye. As nearly all these dyes dissolve in hot glycerine the process of manufacture is simple enough. The dye, fuchsine, methyl violet, water blue, emerald green, etc., is put into a thin porcelain dish over which concentrated glycerine is poured, and the whole is heated to nearly 212° F. with constant stirring. It is important to use no more glycerine than is necessary to keep the dye dissolved when the ink is cold. If the mass turns gritty on cooling it must be heated up with more glycerine till solution is perfect.

In dealing with coal-tar dyes insoluble in glycerine, or nearly so, dissolve them first in the least possible quantity of strong, hot alcohol. Then add the glycerine and heat till the spirit is evaporated.

To see whether the ink is properly made spread some of it on a strip of cloth and try it with a rubber stamp. On paper, the separate letters must be quite sharp and distinct. If they run at the edges there is too much glycerine in the ink and more dye must be added to it. If, on the contrary, the impression is indistinct and weak, the ink is too thick and must be diluted by carefully adding glycerine.

Aniline colors are usually employed as the tinting agents. The following is a typical formula, the product being a black ink:

I.—	Nigrosin	3 parts
	Water	15 parts
	Alcohol	15 parts
	Glycerine	70 parts

Dissolve the nigrosin in the alcohol, add the glycerine previously mixed with the water, and rub well together.

Nigrosin is a term applied to several compounds of the same series which differ in solubility. In the place of these compounds it is probable that a mixture would answer to produce black as suggested by Hans Wilder for making writing ink. His formula for the mixture is:

II.—	Methyl violet	3 parts
	Bengal green	5 parts
	Bismarck green	4 parts

A quantity of this mixture should be taken equivalent to the amount of nigrosin directed. These colors are freely soluble in water, and yield a deep greenish-black solution.

The aniline compound known as brilliant green answers in place of Bengal green. As to the permanency of color of this or any aniline ink, no guarantee is offered. There are comparatively few coloring substances that can be considered permanent even in a qualified sense. Among these, charcoal takes a foremost place. Lampblack remains indefinitely unaltered. This, ground very finely with glycerine, would yield an ink which would perhaps prove serviceable in stamping; but it would be liable to rub off to a greater extent than soluble colors which penetrate the paper more or less. Perhaps castor oil would prove a better vehicle for insoluble coloring matters. Almost any aniline color may be substituted for nigrosin in the foregoing formula, and blue, green, red, purple, and other inks obtained. Insoluble pigments might also be made to answer as suggested for lampblack.

The following is said to be a cushion that will give color permanently. It consists of a box filled with an elastic composition, saturated with a suitable color. The cushion fulfils its purpose for years without being renewed, always contains sufficient moisture, which is drawn from the atmosphere, and continues to act as a color stamp cushion so long as a remnant of the mass or composition remains in the box or receptacle. This cushion or pad is too soft to be self-supporting, but should be held in a low, flat pan, and have a permanent cloth cover.

III.—The composition consists preferably of 1 part gelatin, 1 part water, 6 parts glycerine, and 6 parts coloring matter. A suitable black color can be {411} made from the following materials: One part gelatin glue, 3 parts lampblack, aniline black, or a suitable quantity of logwood extract, 10 parts of glycerine, 1 part absolute alcohol, 2 parts water, 1 part Venetian soap, ¹/₅ part salicylic acid. For red, blue, or violet: One part gelatin glue, 2 parts aniline of desired color, 1 part absolute alcohol, 10 parts glycerine, I part Venetian soap, and ¹/₅ part salicylic acid.

The following are additional recipes used for this purpose:

IV.—Mix and dissolve 2 to 4 drachms aniline violet, 15 ounces alcohol, 15 ounces glycerine. The solution is poured on the cushion and rubbed in with a brush. The general method of preparing the pad is to swell the gelatin with cold water, then boil and add the glycerine, etc.

V.—Mix well 16 pounds of hot linseed oil, 3 ounces of powdered indigo, or a like quantity of Berlin blue, and 8 pounds of lampblack. For ordinary sign-stamping an ink without the indigo might be used. By substituting ultramarine or Prussian blue for the lampblack, a blue “ink” or paint would result.

Inks For Hand Stamps.

Black.—Oil soluble nigrosin and crude oleic acid in equal parts. Add 7 to 8 parts of castor oil.

Red.—Oil soluble aniline red, 2 parts; crude oleic acid, 3 parts; castor oil, from 30 to 60 parts, according to the intensity of color desired.

Red.—Dissolve ¹/₄ ounce of carmine in 2 ounces strong water of ammonia, and add 1 drachm of glycerine and ³/₄ ounce dextrin.

Blue.—Rub 1 ounce Prussian blue with enough water to make a perfectly smooth paste; then add 1 ounce dextrin, incorporate it well, and finally add sufficient water to bring it to the proper consistency.

Blue.—Oil soluble aniline blue, 1 part; crude oleic acid, 2 parts; castor oil, 30 to 32 parts.

Violet.—Alcohol, 15 ounces; glycerine, 15 ounces; aniline violet, 2 to 4 drachms. Mix, dissolve, pour the solution on the cushion, and dab on with a brush.

Color Stamps For Rough Paper.

Indelible Hand-stamp Ink.—

I.—	Copper sulphate	20 parts
I.—	Aniline chlorate	20 parts

Rub up separately to a fine powder, then carefully mix, and add 10 parts of dextrin and incorporate. Add 5 parts of glycerine and rub up, adding water, a little at a time, until a homogeneous viscid mass is obtained. An aniline color is produced in the material, which boiling does not destroy.

II.—	Sodium carbonate	22 parts
	Glycerine	85 parts
	Gum arabic, in powder	20 parts
	Silver nitrate	11 parts
	Ammonia water	20 parts
	Venetian turpentine	10 parts

Triturate the carbonate of sodium, gum arabic, and glycerine together. In a separate flask dissolve the silver nitrate in the ammonia water, mix the solution with the triturate, and heat to boiling, when the turpentine is to be added, with constant stirring. After stamping, expose to the sunlight or use a hot iron. The quantity of glycerine may be varied to suit circumstances.

White Stamping Ink For Embroidery.—

Zinc white	2 drachms
Mucilage	1 drachm
Water	6 drachms

Triturate the zinc white with a small quantity of water till quite smooth, then add the mucilage and the remainder of the water.

Stencil Inks.

I.—Dissolve 1 ounce of gum arabic in 6 ounces water, and strain. This is the mucilage. For Black Color use drop black, powdered, and ground with the mucilage to extreme fineness; for Blue, ultramarine is used in the same manner; for Green, emerald green; for White, flake white; for Red, vermilion, lake, or carmine; for Yellow, chrome yellow. When ground too thick they are thinned {412} with a little water. Apply with a small brush.

II.—Triturate together 1 pint pine soot and 2 pints Prussian blue with a little glycerine, then add 3 pints gum arabic and sufficient glycerine to form a thin paste.

Blue Stencil Inks.

I.—	Shellac	2 ounces
	Borax	1 ¹/₂ ounces
	Water	10 ounces

Boil together until 10 ounces of solution is obtained. The coloring:

Prussian blue	1 ounce
China clay	¹/₂ ounce
Powdered acacia	¹/₂ ounce

Mix thoroughly and gradually incorporate the shellac solution.

II.—	Prussian blue	2 ounces
	Lampblack	1 ounce
	Gum arabic	3 ounces
	Glycerine, sufficient.

Triturate together the dry powders and then make into a suitable paste with glycerine.

Indelible Stencil Inks.

II.—Sulphate of manganese, 2 parts; lampblack, 1 part; sugar, 4 parts; all in fine powder and triturated to a paste in a little water.

III.—Nitrate of silver, ¹/₄ ounce; water, ³/₄ ounce. Dissolve, add as much of the strongest liquor of ammonia as will dissolve the precipitate formed on its first addition. Then add of mucilage, 1 ¹/₂ drachms, and a little sap green, syrup of buckthorn, or finely powdered indigo, to color. This turns black on being held near the fire, or touched with a hot iron.

Sympathetic Inks:

Table of Substances Used in Making Sympathetic Inks.—

For writing and for bringing out the writing:

Cobalt chloride, heat.

Cobalt acetate and a little saltpeter, heat.

Cobalt chloride and nickel chloride mixed, heat.

Nitric acid, heat.

Sulphuric acid, heat.

Sodium chloride, heat.

Saltpeter, heat.

Copper sulphate and ammonium chloride, heat.

Silver nitrate, sunlight.

Gold trichloride, sunlight.

Ferric sulphate, infusion of gallnuts or ferrocyanide of potassium.

Copper sulphate, ferrocyanide of potassium.

Lead vinegar, hydrogen sulphide.

Mercuric nitrate, hydrogen sulphide.

Starch water, tincture of iodine or iodine vapors.

Cobalt nitrate, oxalic acid.

Fowler’s solution, copper nitrate.

Soda lye or sodium carbonate, phenolphthaleine.

A sympathetic ink is one that is invisible when written, but which can be made visible by some treatment. Common milk can be used for writing, and exposure to strong heat will scorch and render the dried milk characters visible.

The following inks are developed by exposure to the action of reagents:

I.—Upon writing with a very clear solution of starch on paper that contains but little sizing, and submitting the dry characters to the vapor of iodine (or passing over them a weak solution of potassium iodide), the writing becomes blue, and disappears under the action of a solution of hyposulphite of soda (1 in 1,000).

II.—Characters written with a weak solution of the soluble chloride of platinum or iridium become black when the paper is submitted to mercurial vapor. This ink may be used for marking linen, as it is indelible.

III.—Sulphate of copper in very dilute solution will produce an invisible writing, which may be turned light blue by vapors of ammonia.

IV.—Soluble compounds of antimony will become red by hydrogen sulphide vapor.

V.—Soluble compounds of arsenic and of peroxide of tin will become yellow by the same vapor.

VI.—An acid solution of iron chloride is diluted until the writing is invisible when dry. This writing has the property of becoming red by sulphocyanide vapors (arising from the action of sulphuric acid on potassium sulphocyanide in a long-necked flask), and it disappears {413} by ammonia, and may alternately be made to appear and disappear by these two vapors.

VII.—Write with a solution of paraffine in benzol. When the solvent has evaporated, the paraffine is invisible, but becomes visible on being dusted with lampblack or powdered graphite or smoking over a candle flame.

VIII.—Dissolve 1 part of a lead salt, 0.1 part of uranium acetate, and the same quantity of bismuth citrate in 100 parts of water. Then add, drop by drop, a solution of sal ammoniac until the whole becomes transparent. Afterwards, mix with a few drops of gum arabic. To reveal the characters traced with this ink, expose them to the fumes of sulphuric acid, which turns them immediately to a dark brown. The characters fade away in a few minutes, but can be renewed by a slight washing with very dilute nitric acid.

Typewriter Ribbon Inks.

I.—Take vaseline (petrolatum) of high boiling point, melt it on a water bath or slow fire, and incorporate by constant stirring as much lamp or powdered drop black as it will take up without becoming granular. If the vaseline remains in excess, the print is liable to have a greasy outline; if the color is in excess, the print will not be clear. Remove the mixture from the fire, and while it is cooling mix equal parts of petroleum, benzine, and rectified oil of turpentine, in which dissolve the fatty ink, introduced in small portions, by constant agitation. The volatile solvents should be in such quantity that the fluid ink is of the consistence of fresh oil paint. One secret of success lies in the proper application of the ink to the ribbon. Wind the ribbon on a piece of cardboard, spread on a table several layers of newspaper, then unwind the ribbon in such lengths as may be most convenient, and lay it flat on the paper. Apply the ink, after agitation, by means of a soft brush, and rub it well into the interstices of the ribbon with a toothbrush. Hardly any ink should remain visible on the surface. For colored inks use Prussian blue, red lead, etc., and especially the aniline colors.

II.—	Aniline black	¹/₂ ounce
	Pure alcohol	15 ounces
	Concentrated glycerine	15 ounces

Dissolve the aniline black in the alcohol, and add the glycerine. Ink as before. The aniline inks containing glycerine are copying inks.

III.—	Alcohol	2 ounces
	Aniline color	¹/₄ ounce
	Water	2 ounces
	Glycerine	4 ounces

Dissolve the aniline in the alcohol and add the water and glycerine.

IV.—	Castor oil	2 ounces
	Cassia oil	¹/₂ ounce
	Carbolic acid	¹/₂ ounce

Warm them together and add 1 ounce of aniline color. Indelible typewriter inks may be made by using lampblack in place of the aniline, mixing it with soft petrolatum and dissolving the cooled mass in a mixture of equal parts of benzine and turpentine.

Coloring Agents:

Red.—

I.—	Bordeaux red, O. S.	15 parts
	Aniline red, O. S.	15 parts
	Crude oleic acid	45 parts
	Castor oil enough to make	1,000 parts

Rub the colors up with the oleic acid, add the oil, warming the whole to 100° to 110° F. (not higher), under constant stirring. If the color is not sufficiently intense for your purposes, rub up a trifle more of it with oleic acid, and add it to the ink. By a little experimentation you can get an ink exactly to your desire in the matter.

Blue-Black.—

II.—	Aniline black, O. S.	5 parts
	Oleic acid, crude	5 parts
	Castor oil, quantity sufficient to	100 parts.

Violet.—

III.—	Aniline violet, O. S.	3 parts
	Crude oleic acid	5 parts
	Castor oil, quantity sufficient to	100 parts.

The penetration of the ink may be increased ad libitum by the addition of a few drops of absolute alcohol, or, better, of benzol.

Reinking.

Writing Inks.

The common writing fluids depend mostly upon galls, logwood, or aniline for coloring. There are literally thousands of formulas. A few of the most reliable have been gathered together here:

I.—Aleppo galls (well bruised), 4 ounces; clean soft water, I quart; macerate in a clean corked bottle for 10 days or a fortnight or longer, with frequent agitation; then add of gum arabic (dissolved in a wineglassful of water), 1 ¹/₂ ounces; lump sugar, ¹/₂ ounce. Mix well, and afterwards further add of sulphate of iron (green copperas crushed small), 1 ¹/₂ ounces. Agitate occasionally for 2 or 3 days, when the ink may be decanted for use, but is better if the whole is left to digest together for 2 or 3 weeks. When time is an object, the whole of the ingredients may at once be put into a bottle, and the latter agitated daily until the ink is made; and boiling water instead of cold water may be employed. Product, 1 quart of excellent ink, writing pale at first, but soon turning intensely black.

II.—Aleppo galls (bruised), 12 pounds; soft water, 6 gallons. Boil in a copper vessel for 1 hour, adding more water to make up for the portion lost by evaporation; strain, and again boil the galls with water, 4 gallons, for ¹/₂ hour; strain off the liquor, and boil a third time with water, 2 ¹/₂ gallons, and strain. Mix the several liquors, and while still hot add of green copperas (coarsely powdered), 4 ¹/₂ pounds; gum arabic (bruised small), 4 pounds. Agitate until dissolved, and after defecation strain through a hair sieve, and keep in a bunged cask for use. Product, 12 gallons.

III.—Aleppo galls (bruised), 14 pounds; gum, 5 pounds. Put them in a small cask, and add boiling soft water, 15 gallons. Allow the whole to macerate, with frequent agitation, for a fortnight, then further add of green copperas, 5 pounds, dissolved in water, 7 pints. Again mix well, and agitate the whole once daily for 2 or 3 weeks. Product, 15 gallons.

Brown Ink.

II.—A strong decoction of logwood, with a very little bichromate of potash.

Blue Ink.

Anticorrosive Or Asiatic Ink.

II.—Bruised galls, 14 pounds; gum, 5 pounds. Put them in a small cask, and add of boiling water, 15 gallons. Allow the whole to macerate, with frequent agitation, for 2 weeks, then further add green copperas, 5 pounds, dissolved in 7 pints water. Again mix well, and agitate the whole daily for 2 or 3 weeks.

Blue-black Ink.

NOTE.—No gum or sugar is proper and on no account must the acid be omitted. When intended for copying, 5 ¹/₂ ounces of galls is the quantity. On the large scale this fine ink is made by percolation.

Colored Inks.

Copying Ink.

This is usually prepared by adding a little sugar to ordinary black ink, which for this purpose should be very rich in color, and preferably made galls prepared by heat. Writing executed with this ink may be copied within the space of 5 or 6 hours, by passing it through a copying press in contact with thin, unsized paper, slightly damped, enclosed between 2 sheets of thick oiled or waxed paper, when a reversed transcript will be obtained, which will read in proper order when the back of the copy is turned upwards. In the absence of a press a copy may be taken, when the ink is good and the writing very recent, by rolling the sheets, duly arranged on a ruler, over the surface of a flat, smooth table, employing as much force as possible, and avoiding any slipping or crumbling of the paper. Another method is to pass a warm flatiron over the paper laid upon the writing. The following proportions are employed:

I.—Sugar candy or lump sugar, 1 ounce; or molasses or moist sugar, 1 ¹/₄ ounces; rich black ink, 1 ¹/₂ pints; dissolve.

II.—Malt wort, 1 pint; evaporate it to the consistence of a syrup, and then dissolve it in good black ink, 1 ¹/₄ pints.

III.—Solazza juice, 2 ounces; mild ale, ¹/₂ pint; dissolve, strain, and triturate with lampblack (previously heated to dull redness in a covered vessel), ¹/₄ ounce; when the mixture is complete, add of strong black, 1 ¹/₂ pints; mix well, and in 2 or 3 hours decant the clear.

After making the above mixtures, they must be tried with a common steel pen, and if they do not flow freely, some more unprepared ink should be added until they are found to do so.

Alizarine Blue.

Gum arabic	1.5 parts
Sugar	7.5 parts
Sulphuric acid, 66° B	10.5 parts
Aniline blue	1.5 parts
Carbolic acid	0.5 parts
Mirobalan extract to make	1,000 parts.

This ink when first used has a bluish tint, afterwards becoming black.

Alizarine Green.

Iron sulphate	30 parts
Copper sulphate	0.5 parts
Sulphuric acid	2 parts
Sugar	8 parts
Wood vinegar, rectified	50 parts
Indigo carmine	30 parts

Copying Ink For Copying Without A Press.

Reduce by evaporation 10 volumes of any good ink to 6, then add 4 volumes of glycerine. Or manufacture some ink of nearly double strength, and add to any quantity of it nearly an equal volume of glycerine.

Gold Ink.

Green Ink.

Aniline green (soluble)	2 parts
Glycerine	16 parts
Alcohol	112 parts
Mucilage of gum arabic	4 parts

Dissolve the aniline in the alcohol, and add the other ingredients. Most of the gum arabic precipitates, but according to the author of the formula (Nelson) it has the effect of rendering the ink slow-flowing enough to write with. Filter. {416}

Hectograph Inks

II.—Blue.—Resorcin blue M, 10 parts.

Dissolve by means of heat in a mixture of:

Dilute acetic acid	1 part
Distilled water	85 parts
Glycerine	4 parts
Alcohol, 90 per cent	10 parts

III.—Green.—Aniline green, water solution, 15 parts; glycerine, 10 parts; Water, 50 parts; alcohol, 10 parts.

Paste Ink To Write With Water.

II.—Red.—Take 1 part of red aniline mixed with 10 parts of acetic acid; 5 parts of citric acid, and 25 parts of mucilage, all well mixed. For use, mix 1 part of the paste with 16 parts of water.

III.—Blue.—Take 2 parts of aniline blue mixed with 10 parts of acetic acid; 5 parts of citric acid, and 40 parts of mucilage, all well mixed. For use, mix 1 part of the paste with 8 parts of water.

IV.—Violet.—Use the same ingredients in the same proportions as blue, with the difference that violet aniline is used instead of blue aniline.

V.—Green.—Take 1 part of aniline blue; 3 parts of picric acid, mixed with 10 parts of acetic acid; 3 parts of citric acid, and 80 parts of mucilage. For use, 1 part of this paste is mixed with 8 parts of water.

VI.—Copying.—Take 6 parts of pulverized bichromate of potash, mixed with 10 parts of acetic acid and 240 parts of liquid extract of logwood, and add a pulverized mixture of 35 parts of alum, 20 parts of sal sorrel, and 20 parts mucilage. Mix well. For use, 1 part of this paste is mixed with 4 parts of hot water.

Purple Ink.

II. (Normandy).—To 12 pounds of Campeachy wood add as many gallons of boiling water. Pour the solution through a funnel with a strainer made of coarse flannel, or 1 pound of hydrate, or acetate of deutoxide of copper finely powdered (having at the bottom of the funnel a piece of sponge); then add immediately 14 pounds of alum, and for every 340 gallons of liquid add 80 pounds of gum arabic or gum senegal. Let these remain for 3 or 4 days, and a beautiful purple color will be produced.

Red Ink.

Inks For Shading Pen.

I.—	Water-soluble nigrosin	1 part
	Water	9 parts
	Mucilage acacia	1 part
II.—	Paris violet	2 parts
	Water	6 parts
	Mucilage acacia	2 parts
III.—	Methyl violet	1 part
	Distilled water	7 parts
	Mucilage acacia	2 parts
IV.—	Bordeaux red	3 parts
	Alcohol	2 parts
	Water	20 parts
	Mucilage acacia	2 parts
V.—	Rosaniline acetate	2 parts
	Alcohol	1 part
	Water	10 parts
	Mucilage acacia	2 parts

Silver Ink.

II.—Make as gold ink, but use silver leaf or silver bronze powder.

III.—	Oxide of zinc	30 grains
	Mucilage	1 ounce
	Spirit of wine	40 drops
	Silver bronze	3 drachms

Rub together, until perfectly smooth, {417} the zinc and mucilage, then add the spirit of wine and silver bronze and make up the quantity to 2 ounces with water.

Violet Ink.

II.—Another good violet ink is made by dissolving some violet aniline in water to which some alcohol has been added. It takes very little aniline to make a large quantity of the ink.

White Ink

White marks may sometimes be made on colored papers by the application of acids or alkalies. The result, of course, depends on the nature of the coloring matter in each instance, and any “ink” of this kind would be efficacious or otherwise, according to the coloring present in the paper.

Yellow Ink.

II.—Boil French berries, ¹/₂ pound, and alum, 1 ounce, in rain water, 1 quart, for ¹/₂ an hour, or longer, then strain and dissolve in the hot liquor gum arabic, 1 ounce.

Waterproof Ink

White Stamping Ink.—

Zinc white	2 drachms
White precipitate	5 grains
Mucilage	1 drachm
Water	6 drachms

Triturate the zinc white with a small quantity of water till quite smooth, then add the mucilage and the remainder of the water.

INK FOR THE LAUNDRY: See Laundry Preparations.

INK FOR LEATHER FINISHERS: See Leather.

INKS FOR TYPEWRITERS: See Typewriter Ribbons.

INK FOR WRITING ON GLASS: See Etching and Glass.