698. Excellent Writing Ink.—Boil eight ounces of galls in coarse powder, and four ounces of logwood in thin chips, in twelve pints of rain water, for one hour: strain the liquor, and add four ounces of green copperas, three ounces of powdered gum-arabic, one ounce of blue vitriol, and one ounce of rock candy, powdered; stir the mixture until the whole be dissolved, then let it subside twenty-four hours; decant it very steadily, and put it into stone bottles for use.
A clove kept in it will prevent it from becoming mouldy.
699. Black Ink.—To make one gallon, take of pounded blue nutgalls one pound; copperas, six ounces; gum common, four ounces; soft water, one gallon. Dissolve the gum separately by the fire, and add, after it has boiled a quarter of an hour. Let the ink be boiled over a slow fire three-quarters of an hour.
700. To make Ink.—To four ounces of bruised galls, allow two of copperas and two of gum-arabic; put the galls into a large bottle, with three pints of rain water; and, in three or four days, dissolve the gum in hot water, and add it with the copperas. Shake the bottle frequently for some days. A few cloves may be put into the bottle, to prevent the ink from moulding.
701. Ink Powder.—Take five ounces of the cleanest nutgalls, bruise them, and sift the powder very fine; then add one ounce of white copperas, two ounces of Roman vitriol, gum-arabic, half an ounce; pound and sift them very fine. An ounce of this powder will make a pint of very black ink.
702. To prevent Ink from moulding.—Half-a-dozen cloves, bruised with gum-arabic, are to be put into the bottle. If a very fine ink is wanted, white wine, or vinegar and water, should be used, instead of water alone.