Inking

“ Rolling up.—Apply the inking roller with light pressure to the nearest edge of the plate, and roll backwards and forwards over its surface several times; an experienced printer will at once perceive the condition of the surface. For the first inking a stiffish ink should be used, as the plate will not then so readily become dirty. By repeated rolling in different directions, and what is of equal importance, with varying pressure, endeavour to distribute the ink with perfect evenness, and with a view of producing a clear and vigorous inking, which will yield a similar perfect impression. ”

“ The method of inking is excellent and unexpected. A strip of fine fabric, saturated with the ink, is carried between two rollers so arranged that it intervenes between the paper to be printed on and the centre of the lever-circle. The type-carrying hammers do not, therefore, strike the paper itself at all, but only the ink-saturated band, which, as a result of the percussion, comes in contact with the recording paper, but only in the parts where contact is made, which are nothing more nor less than those corresponding to the configuration of the letter or figure employed. ”

“ A better but more troublesome method is to roll the rollers twice daily in thin varnish, continuing the operation for a week, at the end of which time the roller may be well rolled upon the inking slab in stiff black printing ink, the superfluous ink being occasionally removed from both the roller and slab by scraping with a blunt knife, and a fresh supply of ink applied. ”

“ He will not now rise from the drinking-table so long as there is a drop in the flagon, and therefore we can leave him. When he falls fast asleep, he will suffer himself to be carried on board, like a log, without moving. To-morrow, he will again be the smartest knight in the universe, if he does not dream that he has been Count of Tönsberg to-night."
"It is a singular weakness for a man so strong," replied Lady Ingé, examining the duke with an earnest, penetrating look: "perhaps, also, it was in consequence of his intoxication that he took you for the duke?" ”

“ There, hour by hour, the lazy tide creeps in
Upon the sands I shall not pace again —
Save in a dream, — and, hour by hour, the tide
Creeps lazily out, and I behold it not,
Nor the young moon slow sinking to her rest
Behind the hills; nor yet the dead white trees
Glimmering in the starlight: they are ghosts
Of what has been, and shall be never more.
No, never more!
Nor shall I hear again
The wind that rises at the dead of night
Suddenly, and sweeps inward from the sea,
Rustling the tussock, nor the wekas' wail
Echoing at evening from the tawny hills. ”

“ It is jet black, and keeps its colour for ever. Indeed, in this respect, all oriental inks are infinitely superior to ours, and they have the additional advantage of not being corrosive or injurious either to the pen or paper. Their pen is the reed commonly used in the East, only the nib is made sharper than that which is required to write the Arabic character. The ink-horn is usually the small end of a cow’s horn, which is stuck into the ground at the feet of the scribe ... seated upon the ground, the square piece of thick greasy vellum is held upon the knee, or on the palm of the left hand. ”

“ Notwithstanding the superior antiquity of the latter, they are in excellent preservation; but we frequently find the former, though of more modern date, so much defaced that they are scarcely legible.
"Inks are of various sorts, as—encaustic or varnish, Indian ink, gold and silver, purple, black, red, green, and various other colors. ”

“ Hodges, said that logwood ink penetrates the paper. If this ink has been on here twenty-five years it penetrates the paper.
Sometimes an accident happens in our favor; a piece of that will was torn off this morning. You see the edge there torn off slanting. You see that "o-f"; how much that ink has sunk into that paper. Not the millionth part of a hair. It lies dead upon the top. Just see how the ink went in there—not a particle. It lies right on top. I would call that "float." There is the other edge. There is where the ink stops. It has not entered a particle. ”

“ COLORS AND THEIR ORIGIN— DISCUSSION OF THE RELATIVE MERITS OF LAMPBLACK, MADDER AND INDIGO—THE DURABLE VIRTUES OF INDIGO WHEN EMPLOYED ALONE—CAUSE OF THE BROWNING OF INKS—LONGEVITY OF INK DUE TO VEHICLE WHICH CARRIES IT—WHEN PERFECT INK WILL BE INVENTED. TO ascertain the correct formula of a substantially permanent ink, as we have learned, has been the aim during a century or more, of able chemists, manufacturers and laymen. Their experiments and study of ancient and modern documents all point unerringly in the direction of an ink containing iron and galls. ”

“ The ink of the ancients had nothing in common with ours, but the colour and gum. Gall-nuts, copperas, and gum make up the composition of our ink; whereas soot or ivory-black was the chief ingredient in that of the ancients. [13]
Ink has been made of various colours; we find gold and silver ink, and red, green, yellow, and blue inks; but the black is considered as the best adapted to its purpose.
ANECDOTES OF EUROPEAN MANNERS.
The following circumstances probably gave rise to the tyranny of the feudal power, and are the facts on which the fictions of romance are raised. ”

“ The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and other peoples of remote antiquity used inks made of charcoal or soot mixed with gum, glue, or varnish. Similar compositions were used to a late date. The Romans made extensive use of sepia, the coloring substance obtained from the cuttlefish. Irongall inks, inks that consist of an iron salt and tannin, were invented by an 11th century monk named Theophilus. Of course these inks were mixed with coloring matter, and other paints and pigments were used in the preparation of manuscripts. The earlier printing inks were made of lampblack and linseed oil. ”

“ Whatever arts the Chinese or Japanese or Jesuits may have invented or preserved the art of telling the truth is evidently, to all of them, one of "the lost arts,"—lost irretrievably and forever! ↑ Here we might add, without fear of contradiction, that Ink is still extensively used to "blacken characters," without regard to the depth of the incision. ↑ The specimen of the English language which we quote, is not faultless; and the Latin is execrable. There is no such word as scriborium in any language, ancient or modern. The Romans called writing-ink atramentum scriptorum. ”

“ That if the ink of part of a writing is of a different shade, though of the same colour, from that of the other parts, we cannot infer from that circumstance alone that the writing was done at different times. Ink taken from the top of an inkstand will be lighter than that from the bottom, where the dregs are; the deeper the pen is dipped into the ink, the darker the writing will be. ”

“ Now it must here be understood that ink is the great missive weapon in all battles of the learned, which conveyed through a sort of engine called a quill, infinite numbers of these are darted at the enemy by the valiant on each side, with equal skill and violence as if it were an engagement of porcupines. ”

“ His inkstand is a mystery of beauty which unskilled hands dare not touch, lest the ink spring at him from some of the open mouths, or sprinkle on him from the bronze wings, or with some unexpected squirt dash into his eyes the blackness of darkness. ”

“ The longest and most valuable passage which we find in the writings of any English author, who has alluded to our subject, is the following, from "The Origin and Progress of Writing," by Thomas Astle, F. R. S., F. A. S. &c., pp. 209 to 212, 2d edition, London, 1803.
"Of Inks. Ink has not only been useful in all ages, but still continues absolutely necessary to the preservation and improvement of every art and science, and for conducting the ordinary transactions of life.
"Daily experience shows that the most common objects generally prove most useful and beneficial to mankind. ”

“ THE origin of Ink belongs to an era following the invention of writing. When the development of that art had advanced beyond the age of stone inscription or clay tablet, some material for marking with the reed and the brush was necessary. It was not difficult to obtain black or colored mixtures for this purpose. With their advent, forty centuries or more ago, begins the genesis of ink. ”

“ The ancients used also a number of tinctures as ink, among them a brown color, sepia, in Hebrew tekeleth. As a natural ink its origin antedates every other ink, artificial or otherwise, in the world. It is a black-brown liquor, secreted by a small gland into an oval pouch, and through a connecting duct is ejected at will by the cuttle fish which inhabits the seas of Europe, especially the Mediterranean. These fish constantly employ the contents of their "ink bags" to discolor the water, when in the presence of enemies, in order to facilitate their escape from them. ”

“ Some of the old inks, though retaining their black color have, from the presence of acid in the ink or paper, eaten through the paper as thoroughly as if the writing had been done with a sharp instrument. In part of one old volume of court records, the ink, while not injuring the paper or becoming illegible upon the face of the leaves, has gradually become legible upon the reverse, while the heavy paper has been impervious to the other inks used. ”

“ While there are some monuments of this kind of ink in fair condition of the fourth and succeeding centuries, they aggregate but a very small proportion of the vast number of principally Indian ink specimens which remain to us of those epochs. As exemplars, however, of a forgotten class of inks belonging to a still more remote antiquity, careful research adduces certain proof of their existence more than nine hundred years before the Christian era commenced. ”

“ The inks of the ancients seem to have been more durable than our own; they were thicker and more unctuous, in substance and durability more resembling the ink now used by printers. An inkstand was discovered at Herculaneum, containing ink as thick as oil, and still usable for writing. The ancients used inks of various colours. ”

“ It penetrated the substance of the paper (as caustics or powerful chemical solvents and corrosives act on the organic fibre) : it bit in, or burned in,—and was therefore well named ENCAUSTON and Incaustum.
CHEMISTRY or COMPOSITION of INK.
We do not propose to furnish recipes, prescriptions, directions or instructions for the manufacture of this article. No mere statement in words can enable any one to arrive at perfection, or excellence, or practical success in the production of this article, or any articles whatsoever. ”

“ NILS LYKKE. Hide the ring, man! Hide it, I say! You mistake me. Lady Inger doubts not at all that you are her child; but—ay, look about you; look at all this wealth; look at these mighty ancestors and kinsmen whose pictures deck the walls both high and low; look lastly at herself, the haughty dame, used to bear sway as the first noblewoman in the kingdom. Think you it can be to her mind to take a poor ignorant youth by the hand before all men's eyes and say: Behold my son!
NILS STENSSON. Ay, you are right, I am poor and ignorant. I have nought to offer her in return for what I crave. ”

“ History has not given us the names of ancient ink makers; but we can believe there must have been during a period of thousands of years a great many, and that the kinds and varieties of inks were without number. ”

“ Simple as the composition of Ink may be thought, and really is—it is a fact well known, that we have at present none equal in beauty and color to that used by the ancients; as will appear by an inspection of many of the manuscripts above quoted, especially those written in England in the times of the Saxons. ”

“ Indigo has been recently imported,—a substance whose composition I have not yet investigated. The dyers make theirs from the dark crust that gradually accumulates on brass-kettles. Ink is made also from torches (pine-knots) , and from charcoal pounded fine in mortars. "The cuttle-fish" has a remarkable quality in this respect; but the coloring-matter which it produces is not used in the manufacture of ink. All ink is improved by exposure to the sun's rays. Book-writers' ink has gum mixed with it,—weaver's ink is made up with glue. ”

“ A man ungentle, huge, fearful, uncouth was Ingcél. A single eye in his head, as broad as an oxhide, as black as a chafer, with three pupils therein. Thirteen hundred were in the body of his marauders. The marauders of the men of Erin were more numerous than they.
They go for a sea-encounter on the main. "Ye should not do this," says Ingcél: "do not break the truth of men (fair play) upon us, for ye are more in number than I."
"Nought but a combat on equal terms shall befall thee," say the reavers of Erin. ”

“ To classify them would be impossible; but black writing ink, chemical writing fluid, colored writing ink, copying ink, India ink, secret or sympathetic ink, and indelible ink make seven classes; the others may be denominated under the head of miscellaneous inks, and of them all, there is no single ink answering every requirement and few answer at all times the same requirements. Ink may be either a clear solution of any coloring matter or of coloring matter held in suspension. ”

“ Those of the "gall" class employed in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some formulas of which are utilized by the manufacturers of ink in our own time, consisted generally in combination; infusions of nut-galls, sulphate of copper or iron, or both, and fish-glue or gum, slightly acidulated. The frequent introduction of the so-called "added" color into these inks, time has shown to have been a grave mistake. ”