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 Nunes Carvalho

Petrarch's "Laura" was portrayed in this manner by one of his contemporaries, and the method was still in vogue in the days of Michael Angelo. From Italy these pencils subsequently found their way to Germany, but it is not apparent under what particular name. In Italy itself they were called "stili," the equivalent of the word stylus. At no time, however, do these varieties seem to have been the predominating material used for drawing purposes.

In conjunction with these, pens were used for writing and drawing, and at the zenith of the art period of those days black and red crayons were also used on a large scale. The Italians imported the best qualities of red crayons from Germany, the best black chalk being obtained from Spain.

Vasari writes of a certain sixteenth century artist, that he was equally skillful in handling the stylus or the pen, black chalk or red crayon.

It was this period which witnessed the discovery of plumbago, a mineral which was soon worked up into an entirely new material for writing and drawing,— the lead pencil.

This discovery, which was destined to confer such great benefits not only upon practical life, but also upon art, was made in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for in the year 1564 the celebrated black-lead mines of Borrowdale, in Cumberland, were discovered. With the opening of this mine, the first material steps were taken to implant on English soil a lead pencil industry which in the course of time was to assume important dimensions.

The first lead pencils are supposed to have been manufactured in England in the second half of the sixteenth century. The raw plumbago, or "wad," as it was locally termed, was subjected to the following treatment: "On reaching the surface it was sawn into strips of the required size, and these, without any further manipulation, were inserted into the wood. Strange though it may appear, the lead pencils first manufactured in this manner are acknowledged to have been the best—and even at the beginning of the present century they remained unsurpassed upon the score of the softness and fine tone of the lead. Although the Cumberland lead pencils were in great demand owing to the fact that they were the first to successfully meet a long-felt want, they nevertheless owed their permanent and wide-spread reputation— more especially in artistic circles—to their excellent quality.

Towards the end of the last century the black-lead pencil industry was introduced into France, where with some restrictions it soon developed.

With the removal of all restrictions on industrial freedom in 1795, the idea was entertained of using clay as a binding medium for black-lead. This method offered several advantages, for not only did the addition of clay cause a saving of a large percentage of the valuable mineral, but it greatly facilitated the method of manufacture, so that lead pencils could now be offered at greatly reduced prices.

By these improvements a new era in the manufacture of lead pencils was begun in France. Still, there remained much to be done in the field of black- lead pencil making in order to do justice to the increasing demands of art and the requirements of more civilized life.

It is true, different kinds of lead pencils of various degrees were produced, but they did not comply by a long way with the different uses for which they were needed. The manipulation of the brittle material required not only deep study, but also conscientious and skillful workmen, in order to impart the necessary standard of perfection to the lead pencil.