mention is made of smoke-black, we have to infer that pitch was burnt to make this black. Linseed oil, as the most bulky ingredient, very properly occupies the first place. The real value of nutgalls and vitriol is not so apparent: they were important ingredients in writing ink, and the Italian printer may have thought them indispensable in printing ink. Shellac and liquid varnish were used to give a glossy surface.
Printers soon discovered that printing was an art of too many details, and that the manufacture of printing ink was its most objectionable duty. There was risk of fire in the boiling of linseed oil; there was discomfort and dirt connected with the manipulation of the ingredients; and in inexpert hands there was waste and often entire failure. In all large cities, ink-making was set apart and practised as a distinct trade. As a necessary consequence, the quality deteriorated through the competition that followed. Moxon's criticism of ink made in England in 1683 could be applied without any injustice to much of the ink of the fifteenth century.[1]
- ↑ Our Inck-makers to save charges, mingle many times Trane-Oyl among theirs and a great deal of Rosin; which Trane-Oyl by its grossness Furs and Choaks up a Form, and by its fatness hinders the Inck from drying; so that when the Work comes to the Binders, it Sets-off; and besides is dull, smeary and unpleasant to the eye. And the Rosin, if too great a quantity be put in, and the Form be not very Lean-Beaten, makes the Inck turn yellow: And the same does the New Linseed-Oyl.—Secondly. They seldom Boyl or Burn it to that consistence the Hollanders do, because they not only save labour and Fewel, but have a greater weight of Inck out of the same quantity of Oyl when less Burnt away than when more Burnt away; which want of Burning makes the Inck also, though made of good old Linseed-Oyl, Fat and Smeary, and hinders its Drying; so that when it comes to the Binders it also Sets-off.—Thirdly. They do not use that way of clearing their Inck the Hollanders do, or indeed any other way than meer Burning it, whereby the Inck remains more Oyly and Greasie than if it were well clarified.—Fourthly. They, to save the Press-man the labour of Rubbing the Blacking into Varnish on the Inck-Block, Boyl the Blacking in the Varnish, or at least put the Blacking in whilst the Varnish is yet Boyling-hot, which so Burns and Rubifies the Blacking, that it loses much of its brisk and vivid black complection.—Fifthly. Because. Blacking is dear, and adds little to the weight of the Inck, they stint themselves to a quantity which they exceed not; so that sometimes the Inck proves so unsufferable Pale, that the Press-man is forced to Rub in more Blacking upon the Block; yet this he is often so loth to do, that he will rather hazard the Content the Colour shall give, than take the pains to amend it: satisfying himself that he can lay the blame upon the Inck-maker. Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, vol. ii, pp. 76, 77.
