DR. NORMANDY’S PURPLE INK.—To produce a purple-colored ink called the “King of Purples,” Dr. Normandy recommends the following proportions to be observed:—To twelve pounds of Campeachy wood add as many gallons of boiling water; pour the solution through a funnel with a strainer made of coarse flannel, on one pound of hydrate or acetate of deutoxide of copper finely pulverized (at the bottom of the funnel a piece of sponge is placed), then add immediately 14lbs. of sulphate of alumina and potash, and for every 340 gallons of liquid add eighty pounds of gum arabic or gum Senegal. Let these remain for three or four days, and a beautiful purple color will be produced.
DR. NORMANDY’S BLUE INK.—Dr. Normandy’s blue ink is made by operating upon Chinese blue or cyanoferruret of {315} iron. The cyanoferruret of iron is to be ground in water with oxalic acid or bin-oxalate of potash, adding gum arabic in the following proportions: to seven ounces of water add three drachms of Chinese blue, 1 drachm of bin-oxalate of potash, and 1 drachm of gum arabic; to these ingredients a solution of tin may be added.
GIROND’S SUBSTITUTE FOR GALLS.—The substitute for gallnuts, patented by M. Girond, of Lyons, in 1825, is an extract from the shell of the chestnut, and also from the wood and sap of the chestnut-tree. The extract is denominated Damajavag, and the mode of preparing it is by reducing the chestnut-shell into small pieces, and boiling them in water.
One hundred-weight of the shells of chestnuts broken into small pieces is to be immersed in about 180 or 200 quarts of water, in a vessel of copper or any other material, except iron, and after having been allowed to soak in this water for about 12 hours, the material is then to be boiled for about three hours, in order to obtain the extract. The wood of the chestnut tree may be cut into small pieces or shaved thin, and treated in the same way.
The extract is now to be drawn off from the boiler, and filtered through a fine sieve or cloth, after which the water must be evaporated from it until the extract is reduced to the consistence of paste.
It may now be cut into cakes of any convenient size, and dried in an oven of low temperature, and when hard, may be packed for sale, and used for any of the purposes in the arts to which gallnuts have been heretofore applied. The quantity of damajavag obtained from the above will be about 8 or 10 lbs.
In using this damajavag, it is only necessary to pound or otherwise reduce it to powder when it may be mixed with other ingredients as pulverized gall nuts.
The same chemical properties belong to the sap of the chestnut-tree, which may be extracted by tapping the trunk, and when so obtained, may be used for the same purpose as gallnuts.
STEPHENS’ BLUE INK.—Stephens’ blue ink is prepared as follows:—Take Prussian blue, whether produced from a combination of prussiate of potash and salts of iron, or the Prussian {316} blue of commerce, as commonly manufactured, and put this into an earthen vessel, and pour over it a quantity of strong acid, sufficient to cover the Prussian blue. Muriatic acid, sulphuric acid, or any other acid which has a sufficient action upon iron will do. If sulphuric acid is used it should be diluted a little, that is, with a quantity of water equal to about its bulk. The Prussian blue is allowed to remain in the acid from twenty-four to forty-eight hours or longer, and then the mixture is diluted with a large quantity of water, stirring it up at the time, for the purpose of washing from it the salts of iron. When in this state of dilution, it is allowed to stand until the color has subsided, when the supernatant liquor is drawn off with a syphon and more water added to it. This process is repeated until the acid, with the iron, has been completely washed away, which is known by testing it with prussiate of potash, which will show if it yields any blue precipitate; if not, it is sufficiently washed. The product is then placed upon a filter, and suffered to remain until the liquid has all drained away.
The Prussian blue, thus prepared, is reduced to a state containing less iron than the Prussian blue of commerce, in which state it is more readily acted upon, and rendered soluble than in any other condition.