Ink, Coloured

Inks of various colours may be made from a strong decoction of the ingredients used in dyeing, mixed with a little alum or other substance used as a mordant, and gum Arabic. Any of the ordinary water-colour cakes employed in drawing, diffused through water, may also be used as coloured ink. See Brown , Green , and Red inks, . Ink, Copying. This is usually prepared by adding a little sugar or other saccharine matter to ordinary black ink, which for this purpose should be very rich in colour, and preferably made from galls prepared by heat, as noticed above. Writing executed with this ink may be copied within the space of 5 or 6 hours, by pa ing it through a pre ( COPYING PRESS ) in contact with thin unsized paper ( BANK-POST ), slightly damped, enclosed between two sheets of thick oiled or waxed paper, when a reversed transcript will be obtained, which will read in proper order when the back of the copy is turned upwards. In the absence of a pre a copy may be taken, when the ink is good and the writing very recent, by rolling the sheets, dully arranged on a ruler, over the surface of a flat smooth table, employing as much force as po ible, and avoiding any slipping or crumbling of the paper. Another method is to pa a warm flat-iron over the paper laid upon the writing. The following proportions are employed: 1. Sugar candy or lump sugar, 1 oz.; or treacle or moist sugar, 1 1 ⁄ 4 oz.; rich black ink, 1 1 ⁄ 2 pint; di olve. 2. Malt wort, 1 pint; evaporate it to the consistence of a syrup, and then di olve it in good black ink, 1 1 ⁄ 4 pint. 3. Solazza juice, 2 oz.; mild ale, 1 ⁄ 2 pint; di olve, strain, and triturate with lampblack (previously heated to dull redne it a covered ve el), 1 ⁄ 4 oz.; when the mixture is complete, add of strong black ink, 1 1 ⁄ 2 pint, mix well, and in 2 or 3 hours decant the clear. Obs. After making the above mixtures, they must be tried with a common steel pen, and if they do not flow freely, some more unprepared ink should be added until they are found to do so.