Inkstand

“ Mrs. Bell had thought of taking this inkstand out, and putting in some spools, or something else which Mary Erskine would be able to use. But Mary herself would not allow her to make such a change. She said it was true that she could not write, but that was no reason why she should not have an inkstand. So she filled the inkstand with ink, and furnished the desk completely in other respects, by putting in six sheets of paper, a pen, and several wafers. The truth was, she thought it possible that an occasion might arise some time or other, at which Albert might wish to write a letter ”

“ Those will be relics for future generations to value.
The table appointments are among the collectable curios of the library, and prominent among these is the inkstand. Inkstands find their prototypes in the inkhorns of the scribe; and throughout the generations which have provided curios for twentieth-century collectors there have been fresh supplies in silver, pewter, Sheffield plate, copper, bronze, iron, wood, china, and brass. Very beautiful indeed are some of the old inkstands in their separate vase-like attachments. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Sad is the lot of any poor child who might have the misfortune to upset an inkstand. You would find her on her knees rubbing the stain with soap and scraping it with a piece of glass until every vestige of ink disappears. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The inks rich in gum, or those concentrated by evaporation from standing in an open inkstand, give a more lustrous and thicker stroke. Some inks penetrate deeper into the paper than others, and some produce chemical effects upon the sizing and even upon the paper itself, so that the characters can easily be recognized on the underside of the sheet. In some old documents the ink has been known to so far destroy the fiber of the paper that a slight agitation of the sheet would shake out as dust much of the part which it covered, thus leaving an imperfect stencil plate of the original writing. ”

“ The Basket I The inkstand is full of ink, and the paper lies white and unspotted, in the round of light thrown by a candle. Puffs of darkness sweep into the corners, and keep rolling through the room behind his chair. The air is silver and pearl, for the night is liquid with moonlight. See how the roof glitters, like ice! Over there, a slice of yellow cuts into the silver-blue, and beside it stand two geraniums, purple because the light is silver-blue, to-night. ”

“ As to paper, there is nothing to be objected till some great discovery supersedes the complication of writing by some undreamed-of way of communicating our thoughts with somewhat of the ease and rapidity of speech. But what a nuisance is ink! It is a barbarism altogether. We see this by the incessant efforts made to relieve us. We have inks of many colours and various consistence; and there is no end to the invention of inkstands: but all does not do. Every ink stains indelibly in the spilling ”

“ Style J. J. This beautiful Inkstand is about 3 inches square, and resembles illustration on this page. The ink-well has a Bohemian cut glass top, ornamented with a spray of flowers. 75 selected minerals are studded around its sides and top. The filling is rich, bright, sparkling silver ore sands. The minerals consist of ores, petrified woods, spars, etc., arranged systematically. Price, postage-paid, $1.75.
CIRCLE-RADIUS DRAWING RULER.
Given for new subscriptions amounting to 25 cents. ”

“ The inkstands of ancient scribes were commonly made double, to hold both black and red ink. Many examples of these from Egypt and elsewhere still exist, and they are shown in many of the Pompeian wall-paintings. They usually are in the form of two bronze cylinders linked together, each with a lid which is attached by a little chain. Other inkstands are single, little round boxes of bronze, in shape like a large pill-box. Another method, specially common in ancient Egypt, was for the scribe to carry about his ink, both black and red, in a solid form ”

“ They have a peculiar kind of ink-stand in Cairo; it is made of brass, and has a long handle running back nearly a foot. This handle is hollow, and holds the pens, and it serves the purpose of sustaining the ink-stand in the girdle. The ink is generally a little thicker than ours, but they can write with European ink without trouble. You see these ink-stands very often in the girdles of merchants and accountants in the bazaars, and it is not unusual to see a man standing or squatting on the sidewalk, and engaged in the production of a letter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ With a finger so inked it is scarcely possible to fail in making a good imprint; the heaviest pressure cannot spoil it. The first desideratum is, then, to cover the slab by means of which the finger is to be blackened, with an extremely thin layer of ink.
This cannot be accomplished with printer’s ink unless the slab is very clean, the ink somewhat fluid, and the roller that is used to spread it, in good condition. When a plate of glass is used for the slab, it is easy, by holding the inked slab between the eye and the light, to judge of the correct amount of inking. ”

“ Indian ink is simply lamp-soot and some kind of glue: it is one of the best of inks. If pure water be used, instead of gum or glue and water, the writing will rub out very easily when dry, the use of the milk, gum, or glue being to fix it: anything else that is glutinous will serve as well as these. Strong coffee, and many other vegetable products, such as the bark of trees boiled in water, make a mark which is very legible and will not rub. Blood is an indifferent substitute for ink. To make 12 gallons of good common writing-ink, use 12 lbs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The ink being mixed, a little is taken up on the point of a palette knife and smeared along the face of the leather roller and then worked vigorously upon the inking slab, until the ink is thoroughly distributed upon both roller and slab. Do not attempt to thin the ink so as to lessen the labor of distributing the ink, as that will only render the collotype print flat and weak. The ink must be stiff and spare. Now remove the soaking fluid with a very soft sponge, and blot off with fine plate paper, then proceed to roll up with the leather roller, until the image just shows nicely on the plate. ”

“ 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. ”

“ After drawing the centre line of any part the dimensions of that part must be marked off from the centre line, so as to insure that it really is the centre line of that part: thus in making a drawing of a rivet, such as is shown at (a) fig. 1, after drawing the centre line, half the diameter of the rivet would be marked off on each side of that line, in order to determine the lines for the sides of the rivet.
Inking.—For inking in drawings the best Indian ink should be used, and not common writing ink. Common ink [Pg 3] does not dry quick enough, and rapidly corrodes the drawing pens. ”

“ When there is a question as to whether a paper is tub or engine sized, it can be usually decided by wetting the forefinger and thumb and pressing the sheet between them. If tub-sized, the glue which is applied to the surface will perceptibly cling to the fingers.
TO TEST THE INK RESISTING QUALITY OF PAPER.— Draw a heavy ink line across the sheet. If the paper is poorly sized, a feathery edge will appear, caused by spreading of the ink. Slack-sized paper will be penetrated by the ink, which will plainly appear on the reverse side of the sheet. ”

“ The inking of the forme is done by another set of rollers called inkers, placed near the impression cylinder. The inking rollers receive their ink from what is distributed on the table and coat the type while it is passing underneath them. Thus the nine operations of the hand-press requisite to print one impression are greatly reduced. The bed carrying the type to and fro from the point of impression moves mechanically, superseding the running in and out of the carriage by the rounce and handle of the hand-press. ”

“ A jet-black ink will test the quality of the writing by “showing up” all the faults; “pale” or “tinted” inks rather conceal the faults, and lend a false appearance of excellence (p. 322) . A thin ink greatly adds to the ease of writing (see Addenda, p. 23) . Waterproof inks, as a rule, are too thick or gummy, and do not flow freely enough.
The ink-bottle is kept corked when not in use, to keep the ink clean and prevent evaporation. Thick or muddy ink should be put away: it is not worth while trying to use it.
A small brush is used for filling the pen.
PENS
Fig. ”

“ The lines of an original may be of any variety of thickness. It is necessary, therefore, for the draughtsman to see that he works with a good black ink, or ink that will tell as black when it is exposed to the photographic plate. Inks of a warm tone—that is, inclining to red or orange—yield better results than cold inks which incline to blue.
Most prepared liquid inks have a tendency to lose their blackness by exposure to the atmosphere on the removal of the cork from the bottle. The ideal ink is one freshly ground from a dry cake of colour when beginning work. ”

“ The requisites of a good black writing ink or black writing fluid require it to flow readily from the pen, to indicate in a short time a black color and to penetrate the paper to an appreciable degree, and more important than all the rest, to be of great durability. When kept in a closed vessel no sediment of any account should be precipitated, although such will be the case in open ink-wells, and this the quicker the more the air is permitted to get to it. ”

“ Loss of Half-tone arises from the print layer becoming too moist, when the more delicate half-tones fail to print. Dry with blotting paper, and immerse for five minutes in a bath of alcohol; this will take up the water, and the succeeding impressions will be greatly improved.
Uneven Inking.—It sometimes occurs, particularly in pictures which should show a white ground, that the latter takes more ink in one part than another. This usually arises from an unequal111 thickness of the sensitive coating. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”