Preceding the discovery of the "anilines," as already related, other substances had been employed for "added" color in the admixture of ink, principally madder, Brazil wood, indigo, and logwood.
Only a casual reference has heretofore been made to Brazil wood and logwood.
Brazil wood, also called peach wood, is imported from Brazil. Its employment as a dyestuff is known to be of great antiquity, antedating considerably the discovery of South America. Bancroft states, "The name 'Brazil' was given to the country on account of the extensive forests of the already well-known 'Brazil wood,' which was found by its Portuguese discoverers. The dyestuff thus gave its name to the country from which it was afterwards principally obtained. The word 'Brazil' appears to have been originally used to designate a bright red or flame color. Thus in a contract between the cities of Bologna and Ferrara, in 1194, the dyestuff kermez is referred to as grana de Brazile and Brazil wood, both dyestuffs at that time being obtained from India." For "added" color to ink and alone it was much used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Logwood, employed more extensively for "added" color than any other color compound, was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, A. D. 1502. In England it does not appear to have been much used until about 1575. In 1581 the Parliament prohibited its use "because the colours produced from it were of a fugacious character." Its use was legalized in 1673 by an act, the preamble of which reads, "The ingenious industry of modern times hath taught the dyers of England the art of fixing, the colours made of logwood, alias blackwood, so as that, by experience, they are found as lasting as the colours made with any sort of dyeing wood whatever." It is obtained principally from the Campeachy tree, which grows in the West Indies and South America.
The practical utility of logwood as the base for an ink was a discovery of Runge in 1848, who found that a dilute solution of its coloring matter, to which had been added a small quantity of neutral chromate of potassium, produced a deep black liquid which apparently remained clear and did not deposit any sediment. This composition became very popular on account of its cheapness and dark purple color. It is of a fugitive character, though, and has passed almost entirely out of commercial use.
CHAPTER XXI.
ANCIENT AND MODERN INK RECEIPTS.
"INDIAN" INK—SPANISH LICORICE—BITUMEN—CARBON
FROM PETROLEUM—PROCESS TO OBTAIN GALLIC
ACID—EFFECT OF SUGAR IN INK—DARK COLORED
GALLS BEST FOR INK MAKING—SUBSTITUTES FOR
GALLS—RELATIVE PROPORTIONS OF IRON AND
GALLS—ANECDOTE OF PROFESSOR TRIALL—
ESTIMATION OF SULPHATE OF COPPER—QUAINT INK
RECIPE—RIBAUCOURT'S INK—HORSELEY'S INK—
ELSNER'S INDELIBLE MARKING INK—BLACK INK FOR
COMMON AND COPYING USES—COMMON BLACK
INK—SHINING BLACK INK—PROCESS FOR "BEST"
INK—INDELIBLE BLACK INK WITHOUT GALLS OR
IRON—INK POWDER—STEEL PEN INK—SOME EARLY
LITERATURE OF THE COAL TAR PRODUCTS—INK PLANT
OF NEW GRANADA—"IMPERISHABLE" INK—FIRE-
PROOF INK—"INERADICABLE" INK—EXCHEQUER
INK—"PERMANENT" RED INK—SUBSTITUTE FOR "INDIAN"
INK—TO PREVENT INK FREEZING—BACTERIA
IN INK—GOLD AND OTHER INKS USED FOR ILLUMlNATING.
INNUMERABLE receipts and directions for making inks of every kind, color and quality are to be found distributed in books more or less devoted to such subjects, in the encyclopaedias, chemistries, and other scientific publications. If assembled together they would occupy hundreds of pages. Those cited are exemplars indicating the trend of ideas belonging to different nations, epochs, and the diversity of materials. They can also be considered as object lessons which conclusively demonstrate the dissatisfaction always existing in respect to the constitution and modes of ink admixture. Many of them are curious and are reproduced without any amendments.
"Indian ink is a black pigment brought hither from China, which on being rubbed with water, dissolves; and forms a substance resembling ink; but of a consistence extremely well adapted to the working with a pencil-brush, on which account it is not only much used as a black colour in miniature painting; but is the black now generally made use of for all smaller drawings in chiaro obscuro (or where the effect is to be produced from light and shade only).