Historical Note
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The Sooty Details of Ink The Chinese and Egyptians developed writing ink as early as 2600 BC. Ink is a mixture of coloring matter dispersed or dissolved in a liquid "vehicle" or carrier. The earliest inks were made with soot— carbon black produced by combustion— suspended in water, and stabilized with a natural gum or animal glue. Commonly referred to as India ink or China ink, this ancient writing material is still in use, particularly in China and Japan, where it is used for writing with brushes. Such inks were used in northern India as early as the second century AD. In the south of India, a technique was developed in which writing or a design was scratched into a specially treated palm leaf, then rubbed with black ink. The leaf was then washed clean, leaving ink only in the incised lines. Ink for this process was made with soot from burned coconuts or almonds, mixed with a vehicle of oil. Two millennia ago, Jewish scribes developed special inks for particular applications. Inks for writing sacred texts were generally oil-based and included extra ingredients meant to make them indelible, as were inks for the writing of legal documents. One particular application, however, required an erasable ink. When a married woman was accused of infidelity, the prescribed procedure was for the rabbi to write down the accusations against her, then erase the freshly inked words with "bitter water." The woman was forced to drink the water and if she became ill as a result, this was taken as a sign that she was guilty. Ink for this purpose was probably made by mixing soot from burnt olive oil together with fresh oil. The erasing solvent, rather than the ink, was likely to have sickened the accused woman. In fact, according to Chinese custom, ink was sometimes swallowed as a cure for stomach ailments. A European recipe of the 12th century describes the manufacture of writing ink from hawthorn bark, made by drying and then cooking the bark together with water and wine. The resulting brew was boiled down, then dried for long-term storage. A small batch of ink could be prepared for writing by mixing some of the dried material together with wine and iron sulphate over a fire. Other common recipes used
acids derived from gall-nuts instead of bark. Such inks contained dissolved dyes instead of suspended pigment particles like carbon black. A recipe using gall-nuts was published in 1571: To make common yncke of wyne take a quarte, Two ouces of gomme, let that be a parte, Five ounces of galles, of copres take three, Long standing dooth make it better to be; If wyne ye do want, rayne water is best, And as much stuffe as above in the least: If yncke be to thick, put vinegre in, For water dooth make the colour more dimme. Writing inks in use today are similar, and are generally composed of a solution of dyes in water or an organic solvent. Writing inks with dissolved dyes rather than suspended pigments can flow more easily through a felt-tip or ball-point pen without clogging, or the clumping of pigment particles. Printing inks were develo
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