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. A skill and carefulness, which can be acquired only by long and laborious experience, are indispensable to the management of the various processes. Time is an essential element of success in this peculiar art; and that makes absolutely requisite also, two other conditions,—patience and capital. We shall therefore be brief on this point,—referring those who wish for minute details, to the cyclopaedias, dictionaries of the arts and sciences, and the larger works on practical chemistry. The following we venture to present as the most correct account of this subject, derived from the latest scientific and practical authorities.
The composition of ink varies according to its colors, and the purposes to which it is to be applied.
Common black writing-ink is the tannate of the sesquoxyd of iron mixed with a smaller quantity of the gallate of the
