Andrey Podolyak
"February! Get some ink and cry!”
Boris Pasternak
Apparently, the problems with ink have such a long-standing basis that even the famous poet had a hard time getting ink, and after filling in the next portion of the fresh water with the smell of donkey urine and the next ruined printer, all he could do was cry. But now the situation is changing somewhat, although not always better side, so we also have to take out ink, and, accordingly, cry after that.
On our old Earth there is only 2 factories, producing
ink for inkjet printers (namely those that produce), I do not take into account the huge number of both branded factories for preparing, bottling ink into cartridges and various containers, and small companies for bottling and packaging the same ink in garages and kitchens. There are only 2 ink manufacturers (manufacturers!) with a full production cycle on our small planet.
First the most powerful - the German concern OSR, the plant and head office are located in the cozy town of Gottingham (Hattingham in their language), Egg Street, 71 building. German chemists have always been the best in the world, tunics German soldiers from the Second World War have not faded yet! During the massacre of Germany, Stalin gave the command to remove chemical plants first (without good chemistry you cannot make a nuclear bomb). The OSR concern survived, although it was heavily robbed.
Second the concern is located in South Korea, the city and name are unpronounceable, the curious will find it on the Internet.
Neither Epson, nor Lexmark, nor Hewlett-Packard, nor anyone has its own full-cycle ink production plants - everyone orders and buys either ready-made ink according to their own specifications, or buy a certain base to prepare for commercial production under their own brand in their factories (also naturally equipped and modern). It is impossible to call friends and acquaintances in Germany (and there, not just a quarter, but a third of them were our people!) and ask them to buy one hundred grams of ink for refilling in syringes - they simply don’t produce or bottle them in such packaging. The minimum packaging is a 5-liter canister of the same color (this is rare), the standard supply is a 25-liter canister. Sometimes you can get on 5-liter ones, but if you're lucky.
This means that 25 liters is the standard minimum supply. Basically, commodity shipment is made in durable nylon barrels of 200 or 400 liters, more often 400 liters. But anyone can buy it - if you’re lucky enough to get a 5-liter package, feel free to make a purchase at the sales department, pay the money and take it to the CIS, providing yourself and your friends with high-quality fuel for several years. But the best option is to ask any German office or private owner to arrange the purchase for yourself, give 10-20 euros in commission, and the German will arrange the ink as a humanitarian cargo to the city of Solnechnoyakutsk, Khrenznaetgdetskaya Street, Boarding School named after the monk Berthold Schwartz for feeble-minded reindeer herders with a technical bias.
Obedient German legislation will give humanitarian cargo very large concessions during customs declaration, transportation benefits up to free
transportation, border guards will be less likely to bother about reagents for manufacturing
bombs. The canisters are made in such a way that it is impossible to open them and pour out ink unnoticed
for the consignee-customer. Well, make a hole, pump out the little bits and
dilute with water - depending on your luck, although the material of the canister is very dense. Need to
know that even one type of ink can be produced different varieties- miscellaneous
quality - right down to ersatz ink (for the Germans this is sacred!), and therefore significant
price range - ink of the same type can have a 2-3 times difference in price.
I don’t give real prices on purpose, so as not to lead into temptation. Take out
You can easily travel by bus, car, train, on planes they can sometimes get stuck
- still chemicals, but it depends on the carrier company. Naturally
All company certificates will be presented indicating grades, specifications,
fire safety class (show when checking in baggage on the plane), etc.
In any case, feel free to put it into printers, sell a little and pay for the trip
and the ink itself, and the commission to the German, and we have German (Epson quality).
Epson purchases ink from OCP according to its specifications, with specified parameters
depending on the type of printer, there may be different schemes - for example
sent to England, to a cartridge production factory, where they add their own
proprietary secret additives (for gloss, indicator additives - so that in the service center
could determine that this is branded ink - for this, service centers supply
special test indicators, reptiles, and various other chemicals) - can be added
6-8 additives, the composition of which Epson keeps a big secret. But naturally
that the print quality does not deteriorate, but only improves, but also the price
takes off accordingly. Ready-made cartridges from England with a proud blue sticker
Epson (made in England) are sent to different regions- for us - to Finland,
where Epson's regional warehouses for Europe and picking points are located,
cartridges are either packed in boxes with printers or packed in containers
for sale in retail. From Finland, trucks are transported to Moscow, Kyiv, and large
dealer firms and then small sellers - wholesalers and retailers exhibit
this is good on the shelves to tempt our wallets, it is natural that everyone
earns its share of the profits. Sometimes markings on the same cartridges
may vary from foreign policy situation- if Epson decides that it’s too much
pay workers dearly in England, plus the most stringent environmental legislation
is ruining, it is easier to build a similar factory in Taiwan (but not in Japan
- expensive!), the same ink and cartridges are marked Epson, but the inscription
made in UK (that is, the United Kingdom - but this is not England itself, Taiwan
was until recently a protectorate-province of England and was formally subordinate
British Queen. The term of the protectorate has expired and on the same freedom-loving cartridges
the Taiwanese people began to display the proud inscription made in Taiwan, then
the Chinese got confused and said that Taiwan was and will be an integral part of
and the pride of the celestial empire, and on the same cartridges with the same contents
and the inscription Epson began to show off the inscription made in China, be it wrong
- who knows how to hack me to switch the keyboard layout to another
tongue in such heat! So for lovers of geopolitics, you can decipher the manufacturer
and a factory for marking on the cartridge, but we don’t need it. Still ink
from Germany they go to Taiwan, where they are packaged in cartridges, the cartridges are transported to
Finland, and having bought a printer in Vladivostok (and the printer itself can be assembled
in Malaysia) you are forced to pay the bourgeoisie for the entire transportation chain Philippines-Germany-Taiwan-Finland-Moscow-Vladivostok.
And if you want to join the ranks of anti-globalists and living in Vladivostok, ask
friend midshipman or boatswain to bring a printer directly from Japan, then of course you
wipe the noses of all the imperialists, save 20-30 dollars, though the printer
will be 110 volts with a driver on Japanese, who will also refuse
work with Russian version operating system Das Windows. But having paid 20-30
dollars, you can solve this problem by converting the printer to 220 volts, and the Japanese
The driver with hieroglyphs even looks cool (even though it doesn’t work).
Manufacturers of good left-handed cartridges (after all, we mean non-original ones,
quality is not meant) they do it simpler - sometimes they buy the same ink,
at the same factory, maybe at the same price, they bottle it into cartridges without any
clever things with the addition of additives and if they are made in China, they are transported by shuttles (or
trucks - when they order) directly to Russia through Kazakhstan. That's why ink
can be excellent (after all, from the same barrel!), and a nice price is 2 times
less, and yet there is control over both quality and quantity.
Bad manufacturers of left-handed cartridges do it even simpler - they buy the most
cheap ink, even a technological defect, is somehow poured into cartridges
by the hands of hardworking Vietnamese, and at all stages there is terrible theft,
there is no control over quality and quantity, then it gets flooded with this shit
market under different names. I will not give any names or recommendations
- nowadays even non-original cartridges are starting to be counterfeited - forbid
God bless you to live in times of change!
Well, if the situation with cartridges is clear, what is the situation with spillage? In
first, not a single printer manufacturer produces bottled ink
(unprofitable, all printer manufacturers are categorically against refills
and reuse of cartridges) - with the exception of ink for large format
plotters, but that's a completely different conversation. That is, you won’t find something like this
inscription on the bottle - 1 liter of Hewlett-Packard ink for Hewlett-Packard inkjet printers,
but for example, 1 liter of Ink-Tek ink for the same printers is easy.
A bright future will come when in any run-down computer salon
Epson's highest quality ink will be sold in liter bottles for
Epson inkjet printers, with warranty and certificates, as well as recommendations
President of Seiko Epson Refilling Company with best wishes.
If you can’t wait, maybe someone will just let out some outright bullshit for fun
for the sake of.
The most interesting thing about this business is that even the latest manufacturer
left-handed cartridges, well, it’s also not profitable for the most vile rabble to sell ink
in bottles! Mostly it's ours domestic invention- available in
I mean fraternal countries of the post-Soviet space. And here, as always, we
ahead of the rest. Naturally, it all starts with the best intentions
- a group of young enthusiasts with sparkling eyes, for example from the Moscow region
the city of Lubny, who are tired of buying crap in cartridges, decide to buy in
Germany with high-quality ink and organize a line for bottling high-quality
ink in small containers - because the demand on the market is enormous (with the advent of inexpensive
high-quality printers and, accordingly, all sorts of ways to deceive smart chips).
A business plan has been drawn up, money has been found (investor, bank loan, mother-in-law -
first you need to buy 6 canisters of 25 liters of each color), found a free one
utility room, funnels, small containers for packaging, printed labels. We've arrived
Messengers, work is in full swing. But suddenly it turns out that someone lost at the casino,
the bank has increased the interest rate on loans, you need to buy new car or an apartment -
you never know? And the guys reluctantly, reluctantly, make a deal with their conscience
- but for the first and last time, right? and add 10 percent water, and
double distilled, purified, everything as it should be. Small packaged bottles
flew away instantly, the delivery channel is established, the demand is gigantic, there are no complaints about the quality
not yet, but if you try 15%, you need to renovate a new office, fly
to the Canary Islands, buy a seat as a deputy - who knows what? - and then just water from under
crane, and besides, in addition to the official 15 percent, workers steal
on tap, messengers upon delivery, slight underfilling, etc. - there were complaints about
quality - the thought dawns on adding aniline or acrylic dyes, otherwise
the ink became too colorless - and so on. And we are for today
day we have what we have. Not only do they dilute it, they have always stolen in Rus'
and they will steal (and not only in Rus'), from diluting the ink with water
you won’t ruin it, well, there will be ugly, colorless photos, nothing more. And the most
The scary thing is that they add such an unimaginable crap for the sake of color and smell that
It's hard for me to even comment.
The lifespan of the printer head is designed for long-term operation in aggressive chemical environments.
environment (and ink is an aggressive chemical environment), but an environment of a certain
composition for which the protective coating of piezocrystals and protective
nozzle coating And if something unknown is poured in, then it is known what happens
- to the delight of service center workers, either piezoelectric crystals fail,
or the inner coating of the nozzles is destroyed, the printer begins to constantly clog.
No cleaning helps - as a result, changing the head costs 100-150 bucks
- sometimes it’s easier to buy a new one. But the new one also needs to be fueled with something. Involuntarily
think about it. The most general advice in such cases is the following - do not buy ink
in random places - even cheaper, given the current development of competition (which
only for the benefit of users) - reputable stores and salons try not to get involved
with outright hackwork, and although no one will give you a guarantee on the ink, still
At least there is someone to go punch in the face - unlike online stores. Here
It is online stores that are very often a convenient form for fusion
ink of any homemade composition - well, where will you go to find out? On this
and calculation.
Therefore, ask on all forums and chats for the opinions of those clients who
This brand and type of ink have already been purchased here, any self-respecting online store
appreciates regular customers and tries to have more of them. Better for shopping
Online stores with a long history of sales are suitable, not those that opened yesterday
and offering unheard of low prices and excellent quality. Once and for all
remember - a quality product is never very cheap,
It's rarely even just cheap.
The chemical composition of ink is quite complex, including aromatic
hydrocarbons that perform an important function - instant absorption of ink
into the paper so that the drop does not spread and increase its size and clarity
printing will be correspondingly high, in short, these hydrocarbons are artificial
dry water when a drop of ink hits the paper and when exposed to light.
Therefore, all ink manufacturers know that when exposed to light, the chemical
the composition of the ink changes for the worse - and the ink is sold and bottled
only in matte or opaque plastic bottles- plastic chemically
is inert, and glass is expensive to make matte and opaque. Whatever the appearances
and wrote in advertising about superfiltration, ultracentrifugation, microdispersity
and so on - as a rule, this comes down to using a household filter of the class
“Spring” - but if the bottles are transparent, it’s from the evil one! Either a pourer
doesn’t know anything about ink, or he doesn’t care about everything - in both cases - it’s dangerous! The simplest test is to wipe the label on the bottle with a rag dampened with water - if the ink floats - then whatever is written about the quality of the ink - but even if they couldn’t find good waterproof ink on the labels - then what’s inside?
Give preference to well-known brands - but it is precisely well-known brands that are most often counterfeited. So the best thing you can do is rely on the advice of an experienced person who has already encountered the problem of choosing ink more than once.
But the market is developing, so most likely unscrupulous companies will die out,
and all that remains for us is to refuel, print and rejoice. How to refuel -
Cephalopods have many enemies. In the southern polar regions - in Antarctic waters, squid form the basis of the sperm whale's food. But cephalopods do not give up without a fight: they are well armed. Their arms are lined with hundreds of suckers, and many squids also have claws, sharp and curved, like those of cats. There are no teeth, but there is a beak. Horny, hooked, it easily bites through fish bones and crab shells. A cuttlefish can crush with its beak the shell of a large crayfish or the skull of a fish twice its size. Four- to six-kilogram dosidicus squids easily bite through the wire line of a spinning rod, and therefore experienced spinning anglers, wanting to “fish” for these animals, use a strong steel core. Even newborn octopuses are not unarmed. Until they have developed their own means of fighting, the little ones arm themselves with “poisonous arrows” of jellyfish and physalia, which, as is known, are stuffed with stinging cells. For example, a juvenile pelagic octopus from the genus Teroctopus tears off the stinging tentacles of the physalia and covers their hands with them. Apparently, this is why small octopuses stay close to fleets of physalia - “Portuguese warships”.
One of the most amazing protective devices that cephalopods acquired in the process of evolution is this miracle weapon - the ink bomb. In a moment of danger, cephalopods emit a stream of black liquid - ink - from the funnel. The ink spreads in the water like a thick cloud, and under the cover of a “smoke screen” the mollusk safely escapes, leaving the enemy to wander in the dark. The ink contains an organic substance from the melanin group, similar in composition to the pigment with which our hair is colored. The shade of ink varies between cephalopods: cuttlefish have brown, and octopuses have black. Ink is produced by a special organ - a pear-shaped outgrowth of the rectum, called the ink sac. This is a dense bubble, divided into two parts by a septum. The upper part is reserved for a reserve reservoir, ink is stored in it, the lower part is filled with the tissues of the gland itself. Her cells are filled with grains of black paint. Old cells are gradually destroyed, their paint dissolves in the juices of the gland and ink is obtained. They enter the “warehouse” - they are pumped into the upper part of the bubble, where they are stored until the first alarm. Not all the contents of the ink sac are sprayed out at one time. An ordinary octopus can set a “smoke screen” six times in a row, and after half an hour it completely restores the entire spent supply of ink. The coloring power of the ink liquid is unusually high. In five seconds, a cuttlefish paints all the water in a large aquarium with its vomited ink, and giant squid they spew out so much ink liquid from the funnel that the sea water becomes cloudy for hundreds of meters. Cephalopods are born with a sac filled with ink. One tiny cuttlefish, barely emerging from its egg shell, marked its birth with five bursts of ink.
IN last decades biologists made an unexpected discovery. It turned out that the traditional idea of a “smoke screen” of cephalopods should be thoroughly revised. Observations have shown that the ink discarded by cephalopods does not dissolve immediately, not before it hits something. They hang in the water as a dark, compact drop for a long time, up to ten minutes or more. But the most striking thing is that the shape of the drop resembles the outlines of the animal that threw it out. The predator, instead of the fleeing prey, grabs this drop. That’s when it “explodes” and envelops the enemy in a dark cloud. The shark becomes completely confused when a school of squid simultaneously, like a multi-barrel mortar, throws out a whole series of “ink bombs”. The shark rushes from side to side, grabs one imaginary squid after another and soon is completely enveloped in a cloud of scattered ink. In 1956, Dr. D. Xo l published in the English journal Nature interesting observations on the maneuvers that the squid resorts to, replacing itself with an ink model. The zoologist put the squid in a tub and tried to catch it with his hand. When his fingers were already a few inches from the target, the squid suddenly darkened and, as it seemed to Hol, froze in place. The next moment, Hall grabbed... an ink model that fell apart in his hands. The deceiver was floating at the other end of the tub.
Hol repeated his attempt, but now he watched the squid closely. When his hand approached again, the squid darkened again, threw out a “bomb” and immediately became deathly pale, and then darted invisible to the far end of the tub. What a subtle maneuver! The squid didn’t just leave its image in its place. No, it's a dress-up scene. First, it attracts the enemy's attention with a sharp change in color. Then he immediately replaces himself with another dark spot - the predator automatically fixes his gaze on it - and disappears from the scene, changing his “outfit”. Please note: the squid is now not black, but white. The ink of cephalopods has another amazing property. American biologist McGinity conducted a series of experiments on the Californian octopus and moray eel. And this is what I found: octopus ink, it turns out, paralyzes the olfactory nerves of predatory fish! After a moray eel has been in an ink cloud, it loses the ability to recognize the smell of a lurking mollusk, even when it stumbles upon it. The paralyzing effect of the octopus drug lasts for more than an hour! The ink of cephalopods in high concentrations is dangerous for themselves. In the sea, in the wild, the octopus avoids the harmful effects of its weapons, quickly leaving the poisoned place. It is not easy for him to do this in a confined space. In pools with poor water changes, the concentration of ink quickly exceeds the permissible norm, poisons the captives, and they die. Is cephalopod ink dangerous for humans? Let's ask such an expert in spearfishing as James Oldr and J. to answer this question. He says: “I was so free with the octopus that I got a blast of ink right in the face. And since I was not wearing a mask, the liquid got into my eyes and blinded me. The surrounding world, however, did not darken because of this, but turned into a wonderful amber color. Everything around me seemed amber in color as long as the film of this ink remained before my eyes. This lasted for ten minutes or so. This incident did not affect my vision."
In the same book, Aldridge writes: “Octopuses surprisingly quickly and harmoniously color themselves to match the color of their surroundings, and when you shoot one of them, kill or stun him, he does not immediately lose the ability to change color. I observed this myself once, putting a caught octopus on a newspaper sheet for cutting. The killed octopus instantly changed color, becoming striped, white and black striped!” After all, he lay on a printed page and copied its text, imprinting on his skin the alternation of black lines and light spaces. Apparently, this octopus was not yet dead; its eyes still perceived the shades of the fading colors of the solar world, which it was leaving forever. Even among higher vertebrates, few have the invaluable gift of changing skin color at whim or necessity, repainting themselves, copying the shades of external decoration. All cephalopods have elastic, rubber-like cells under their skin. They are filled with paint, like watercolor tubes. Scientific name these wonderful cells are chromatophores.
Each chromatophore is a microscopic ball (when at rest) or a pinpoint disk (when stretched), surrounded at the edges, like sun rays, by many subtle dilator muscles, i.e. dilators. Only a few chromatophores have only 4 dilators, usually there are more of them - about 24. Dilators, contracting, stretch the chromatophore, and then the paint contained in it occupies an area tens of times larger than before. The diameter of the chromatophore can increase 60 times - from the size of a needle point to the size of a pinhead. In other words, the difference between a contracted and an expanded “colored” cell is as great as it is between a two-kopeck coin and a car wheel. When the dilator muscles relax, the elastic shell of the chromatophore takes its previous shape. The chromatophore stretches and contracts with exceptional speed. It changes its size in one or two seconds. Each dilator is connected by nerves to brain cells. In octopuses, the “control room”, which manages the change of scenery, occupies two pairs of lobe-shaped lobes in the brain. The front pair controls the color of the head and tentacles, the back pair controls the color of the body. Each blade controls its own, i.e. right or left side. If you cut the nerves leading to the chromatophores of the right side, then on the right side of the mollusk one unchanged color will harden, while its left-hand side will “play” with colors of different tones. What organs correct the functioning of the brain, causing it to change the color of the body exactly in accordance with the surrounding background? First of all, these are the eyes. Visual impressions received by animals arrive at the nerve centers, and they send appropriate signals to the chromatophores: they stretch some, contract others, achieving a combination of colors that is most suitable for camouflage. An octopus that is blind in one eye loses the ability to easily change shades on the eyeless side of the body. Removal of the second eye results in almost complete loss of the ability to change color. The disappearance of color reactions in a blinded octopus is incomplete, because the change in color depends on the impressions received not only by the eyes, but also... by the suction cups. If you deprive an octopus of its tentacles or cut off all the suckers, it turns pale and, no matter how it puffs itself up, it cannot turn red, green, or black. Cephalopod chromatophores contain black, brown, red-brown, orange and yellow pigments. The largest are dark chromatophores; in the skin they lie closer to the surface. The smallest ones are yellow. Each mollusk is endowed with chromatophores of only three colors: brown, red and yellow. Their combination, of course, cannot give the full variety of shades for which cephalopods are famous. Metallic shine, violet, silver-blue, green and bluish-opal tones impart to their skin a special kind of cells - irridiocysts. They lie under a layer of chromatophores and hide many shiny plates behind a transparent shell. Irridiocysts are filled with rows of “mirrors” the whole system“prisms” and “reflectors” that reflect and refract light, dividing it into different colors of the spectrum. An irritated octopus from ash-gray can turn black in a second and turn back into gray, demonstrating on its skin all the subtle transitions and nuances in this color scheme. The countless variety of shades in which the octopus's body is painted can only be compared with the changing color of the evening sky and sea. If someone came up with the idea of organizing a worldwide “chameleon” competition, the cuttlefish would probably win the first prize. In the art of camouflage, no one can compete with her, not even an octopus. The cuttlefish adapts to any soil without difficulty. One minute she was striped like a zebra, she sank onto the sand and immediately changed her color - she became sandy yellow. She floated over the white marble slab and turned white. Here she lies on the pebbles, illuminated by the sun, her back is decorated with a pattern of light (to match the sun’s glare) and gray-brown spots. On black basalt the cuttlefish is black as a raven, and on the mottled stone it is piebald. The literature describes nine color patterns of “masks” that cuttlefish use to express feelings and camouflage. Striped or spotted coloring, composed of sharply contrasting elements (black stripes on a white skin, or white on black, black spots on a yellow background), is found in many animals: tiger, leopard, jaguar, ocelot, giraffe, kudu, bongo, okapi , fish, butterflies. Have you noticed that all of these animals have stripes and spots in rows across their bodies? After all, this is not accidental. The fact is that the transverse stripes, reaching the boundaries of the silhouette, suddenly end. The solid contour line is dissected by alternating white and black fields of color, and the animal, losing its familiar outlines, merges with the background of the area. People also resort to the same method of camouflage when they paint warships and other objects with light and dark spots that delineate the contours of the structure being camouflaged. Contrasting stripes, breaking up the silhouette of the cuttlefish, help it blend in with the color of any soil. After all, the zebra pattern is a universal camouflage.
The ability of cephalopods to glow has long been known. The French naturalist Jean Baptiste Véran loved to come to the seashore when fishermen returned with their catch. Their boats brought strange animals. One day, near Nice, he saw a crowd of people on the shore. A completely unusual creature was caught in the net. The body is thick - like a sack, like an octopus, but there are ten tentacles, and they are connected by a thin membrane. Verani lowered the bizarre captive into a bucket of sea water; “At that very moment,” he writes, “I was captivated by the amazing spectacle of sparkling spots that appeared on the skin of the animal. Either it was the blue ray of sapphire that blinded me, or the opal ray of topaz, or both richly hued colors mixed in a magnificent radiance that surrounded the mollusk at night, and it seemed one of the most wonderful creations of nature.” Thus, in 1834, Jean Baptiste Verani discovered the bioluminescence of cephalopods. He was not mistaken when he decided that the numerous bluish dots on the animal’s body were luminous organs - photophores. The deep-sea squid of the genus Histioteuthis, which Verani studied, has about two hundred of these bright “lanterns”; some of them reach a diameter of 7.5 mm. The design of a photophore resembles a spotlight or a car headlight. And its shape is approximately the same - hemispherical. The organ is covered on all sides, except for the luminous surface facing outward, with a black opaque layer. The bottom of the photophore is lined with shiny fabric. This is a specular reflector. Directly in front of it is a light source - a photogenic body, a mass of phosphorescent cells. The top of the “headlight” is covered with a transparent lens, and on top of it is a diaphragm (a layer of black cells - chromatophores). By sliding the diaphragm onto the lens, the animal can adjust the intensity of the “headlight” and even turn it off completely. The luminous organs of squids are also endowed with a number of other optical devices.
In Histioteuthis, for example, the light emanating from the photogenic mass crosses an obliquely placed “mirror”. Special muscles turn the “mirror” in different directions, and the beam of light changes direction. Photophores also contain light filters-screens made of multi-colored cells. Sometimes a color reflector plays the role of a light filter. Often one mollusk has lighting means of ten various designs. Photophores are more common in squids. They are located on the surface of their body, at the ends of the arms (in Abraliopsis, Batoteuthis), on the stems of the tentacles (in Lycoteuthis), at the ends of the club (in Chiroteuthis). Some squids are literally dotted with large and small photophores, not only on the outside, but also on the inside. Lycoteuthis diadema wears a "belt of fire" under its mantle. precious stones " The light from the shining “stones” penetrates outward through transparent “windows” in the skin and muscles of these animals. Often photophores sit on the eyes - on the eyelids or even on the eyeball itself, and sometimes they merge into continuous stripes surrounding the eye orbit with a luminous semiring. In many mesopelagic squids, photophores are located on the ventral surface of the mantle, head and arms, as well as on the ventral side of the eyes and internal organs. The light from them should be directed downward when the squid's body is horizontal. American scientists Young and Roper found that squids of the genera Histioteuthis, Octopoteuthis, Abraliopsis are capable of changing the intensity of their own glow depending on the intensity of light incident from above. The stronger the illumination, the brighter the photophores light up, and vice versa, when darkness falls, these lanterns dim and go out. It's a kind of camouflage. Non-luminous squids would be visible from below as dark silhouettes against a light sky background, and the inclusion of photophores makes them invisible. Cuttlefish have luminous organs of a different structure than squids: they do not have a solid mass of photogenic cells. Glowing cuttlefish lanterns are the most economical light bulbs in the world. They burn for years without recharging. The “fuel” that produces light multiplies faster than it can burn. Cuttlefish carry a whole world of glowing bacteria in a special capsule inside their bodies. The “bubble” with bacteria is immersed in the recess of the ink sac. The bottom of the cavity is lined, like mother of pearl, with a layer of shiny cells. This is a specular reflector. The cuttlefish's "pocket flashlight" also has a collector lens. Gelatinous and transparent, it lies on top - on a bag with bacteria. The flashlight also has a switch. When it is necessary to “put out” the light, the cuttlefish releases several droplets of ink into the mantle cavity. The ink covers the bag of bacteria with a thin film, as if throwing a black blanket over it, and the light goes out. Zoologists named the two-horned sepiola chochin-iku (Sepiola birostrata) - a miniature creature the size of a thumbnail that hunts crustaceans near the coast of Japan and the Kuril Islands. At night, sepiola glows. A radiant halo surrounds her tiny body, and the shining baby soars above the black abyss of the sea, like a living star. Sepiola is not difficult to catch. A simple net on a long stick is suitable for this. Turning her over on her back and carefully bending the edge of her mantle, we will see a large, two-horned (hence the name of the baby) bubble. It is filled with mucus and lies on the ink sac, covering it entirely. This is a mycetome - a “tank” for luminous bacteria. Observations have shown that the Chochinika, saving its life, throws “liquid fire” at the enemy - instantly a luminous cloud flares up around the animal. A predator trying to grab a cuttlefish goes blind. Meanwhile, the mollusk hurries to hide in a safe place. However best results Heteroteuthis, a “pyrotechnician” about whom Aristotle wrote, achieved success in the “flamethrower” art. Heteroteuthis lives in Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea at shallow depths - up to 500-1000. m. The mycete Heteroteuthis is equipped with a large reservoir. When the muscles of its elastic walls contract, millions of bacteria erupt outward, flaring up in the depths of the sea like bright fireworks. Photophores perform different functions. Owners of photophores use them to hide from enemies or scare them away, and also identify each other. In addition, photophores can serve as bait, for example, the lanterns at the ends of the long and thin tentacles of Chiroteuthis. The luminous organs of cephalopods work very economically: 80 and even 93% of the light they emit are short-wave rays and only a few percent are thermal rays. In an electric light bulb, only 4% of the supplied energy is converted into light, and 96% into heat. In a neon lamp, the efficiency is slightly higher - up to 10%.
Autotomy (self-mutilation) - ancient remedy life insurance - octopuses also have it in their arsenal of protective devices. Eight long arms that explore every inch of unfamiliar space as the octopus steps out onto the | hunting, more often than other parts of the body are in danger. The tentacles are strong - by grabbing one, you can pull the entire octopus out of the hole. This is where the octopus autotomizes itself: the muscles of the captured tentacle contract spasmodically. They contract with such force that they tear themselves apart. The tentacle falls off as if cut with a knife. The octopus Octopus defilippi has mastered the art of autotomy. Grabbed by the hand, he immediately breaks up with her. The tentacle wriggles desperately: this is a false maneuver - the enemy rushes at the tentacle and misses main goal. The rejected tentacle twitches for a long time and, if released, even tries to crawl and can attach itself. Females of the pelagic octopus of the genus Teroctopus have very long dorsal arms with wide, leathery edges decorated with large ocellated spots along the edges. When attacked by a predator, a piece of the grabbed arm is torn off right along the groove. Therefore, Tremoctopus females usually have torn arms.
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Ancestors inkjet ink there was regular ink for writing and drawing. Their history goes back to ancient times.
The Cairo Museum houses an artifact - a writing instrument consisting of an ink bottle, a writing stick and a sand pad that served as blotting paper. About 5 thousand years ago, this device belonged to a court scribe in Ancient Egypt.
During excavations in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum on the shores of the Gulf of Naples, archaeologists discovered a clay vessel, at the bottom of which there was dried black ink - soot diluted in oil. By the way, a similar recipe for making ink 3000 years ago was used by the Egyptians, who burned the roots of the aquatic plant papyrus, and the resulting ash was mixed with gum - a glassy mass flowing from damaged cherry or acacia wood tissue.
Papyrus plant, the roots of which were used to make ink in ancient Egypt
In China, 2.5 thousand years ago, black ink was made from a mixture of soot, plant resin and an alkaline solution. This ink was very thick, so it was applied to the parchment not with feathers, but with brushes. After drying, they were easily separated from the carrier, especially on the folds.
Recipes for ink made from a decoction of the peels of green chestnuts, from ripe blueberries and elderberries, and from the peels of walnuts have been preserved to this day.
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| Chestnut | Blueberry |
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| Black elderberry | Walnut |
Plants that were used to make ink in ancient times
One of the ancient Roman recipes prescribed the use of large quantity grapes Such grapes should be eaten, and the seeds should be collected, dried and burned to obtain soot, which was a natural dye. To give the ink the required viscosity and consistency, the carbon black was combined and thoroughly mixed with a small amount vegetable oil. After this, the grape seed ink was ready for use.
Grape seeds - raw materials for ink production
Even ancient people noticed that octopuses and cuttlefish, in a moment of danger, release a camouflage ink bomb from special bags. People began to use the ink liquid of cephalopods for writing and drawing. To do this, bags of ink were removed from the body of octopuses and cuttlefish, dried in the sun, ground into dust, mixed with alkali, heated, treated with sulfuric acid, dried in the sun again and placed under a press. As a result of these manipulations, a dye called sepia was obtained, which is still used to make inks and paints.
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Natural sepia was made from the ink sac of octopuses and cuttlefish
But the best black ink was made from round growths on oak leaves - galls. Such growths are formed when the gallworm insect lays its larvae in the leaf tissue. The tree, protecting itself from the invasion of larvae, surrounds them with a dense ring of overgrown shell. In ancient times, it was these growths that were ground into fine dust, infused in water, and glue and copper sulfate were added to the resulting mixture. Such ink had a pleasant shine and looked as if it had just come from the pen of a scribe. Walnut ink had one drawback: for the first 10-12 hours after application it remained completely transparent, and only after some time did it darken and acquire shine.
Growths - galls on oak leaves
To design religious books, Byzantine and Russian scribes made gold and silver ink. To do this, a small pea of molasses was combined with the thinnest gold or silver leaves. The resulting mixture was thoroughly kneaded until smooth and used for writing. Then the honey was carefully washed away, and the elegant golden letters remained. Sweden still has a purple Bible written in silver ink. The age of this “silver” Bible is about 1.5 thousand years.
Bible written in silver ink
In Greece and ancient Rome in the 3rd century. BC. Red royal ink was made from cinnabar and purple. Purple was obtained from the bodies of Brandaris clams, which were removed from their shells, placed in salt water, then sun-dried and boiled. From 10 thousand shellfish, only 1 gram of purple ink was obtained. According to rough calculations, 1 kg of purple ink should have cost 45 thousand gold marks. Red ink, under penalty of death, was prohibited from being used outside imperial court. Special guards were assigned to them, who were responsible for the safety of the ink with their own heads.
Bolinus brandaris, from which purple ink was made in Ancient Greece and Rome
In Rus' there were no such strictures associated with purple ink. They learned to make them from scale insects, which were dried and ground into powder. Red ink was used by Russian scribes to highlight a paragraph, the so-called “red line”. It got its name due to the fact that at the beginning of each section the first letter was painted in red ink in the form of a picture. This made it easier to divide the text into chapters and understand it.
Larvae of the mealybug, from which red ink was made in Rus'
The mystery of ruby, sapphire and mother-of-pearl ink, which is called “gem ink,” has not yet been solved. The recipe for making such ink was kept strictly secret by Mongolian monks.
It is believed that the first printing device to use black ink was Johannes Gutenberg's press, invented in 1456. The press is equipped with removable typefaces depicting letters. From such letters it was possible to form words, phrases and entire sentences. The letters could be used multiple times. They were placed under a press on a sheet of paper and thus impressions were obtained.
Johannes Gutenberg Press
The invention of the press by Johannes Gutenberg greatly accelerated the development of inkjet inks.
In 1460 it was invented printing technology using linseed oil, which made it possible to apply images to metal surfaces. A reliable recipe for linen ink has not survived to this day. It is only known that the main components of such ink were polyoxides and plant pigments.
Several centuries later, vegetable and linseed oils became the main components of ink. This ink was liquid and dried slowly. At the same time, the first ink with the addition of petroleum distillate was produced.
In the 16th century there appeared iron ink, which were made from alder root, walnut or oak bark and ink nuts, set in a vessel with iron fragments. When alder bark was cooked, tannic acids were released from it, which, interacting with iron fragments, produced ferrous iron salts. Fresh ink was pale in color, but as it dried, the iron oxidized and darkened. The resulting prints were light resistant and did not dissolve in water. To give the ink the necessary viscosity and strength, cherry glue (gum), ginger, cloves and alum were added to its composition.
In the 17th century, instead of iron fragments, copper sulfate began to be used in the production of iron ink. This made it possible to speed up the ink production process. Black ink obtained in this way began to be called “good ink” in Rus'.
In 1847, German organic chemist Professor Runge made ink from tropical sandalwood extract. The sap of this tree contains hematoxylin, which when oxidized produces a purple-black pigment. Therefore, the ink developed by Professor Runge had a purple tint.
Professor Runge - inventor of sandalwood ink
In 1870, 414 years after Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, ink was used in the first typewriters. Such machines were equipped with a striking mechanism with alphabetic characters and an ink ribbon. By striking the tape, the letterers transferred the corresponding ink letters and signs onto the paper. One of the first models of typewriters is shown in the figure below.
One of the first typewriter models
The next stage in the development of ink was the appearance of alizarin ink, which was invented in 1885 by the Saxon teacher Christian Augustan Leongardi. Leonhardi's ink was made from the juice of gall nuts with the addition of crappie from the roots of the oriental madder plant. Madder specks provided the colorless-turbid gall ink with a rich blue-green tint. Later, crappies were replaced with a synthetic dye, and gall nuts with gallic acid. So alizarin ink became completely synthetic and cheaper to manufacture. Even later, a synthetic dye of a beautiful bright purple color was found. Ink made using this dye is called aniline.
A century after the invention of alizarin and aniline inks, the first inkjet printing systems were developed in the late 1970s. In 1976, the first inkjet printer from IBM, the Model 6640, saw the light of day; in 1977, the first inkjet printer rolled off the assembly line of Siemens; in 1978, the development new technology BubbleJet inkjet printing was announced by Canon Corporation, a little later innovative technology Hewlett Packard introduced drop-on-demand inkjet printing.
The first generation of inkjet printers used aqueous ink, consisting of a coloring liquid and water. Water-based ink, due to its uniform consistency and the absence of solid particles, impregnates not only the surface, but also the deep layers of paper. They produce very bright and vibrant prints, much more colorful than pigment inks. The advantage of aqueous inks is their cost-effectiveness, the disadvantage is that they are unstable to sun rays and moisture. Such ink quickly fades in the sun and is washed off with plain water. Prints made with water-based ink should be stored in a dry, dark place, preferably in a photo album.
The development of inkjet printing technology has led to the emergence of photo printers designed to print high-quality photographs. These photo printers use pigment ink, which contains water, pigments and special additives. Pigments are microscopic particles of solid matter of organic or inorganic origin. The size of such particles is 500 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, so they pass freely through the print head nozzles. The advantage of pigment inks is their resistance to sunlight and moisture, the disadvantage is their lack of brightness compared to water-based inks.
Having produced the first pigment inks, manufacturers immediately began to improve their composition. Today, the chemical industry is working to make inkjet inks more realistic and varied in color, reduce droplet size, improve light and moisture resistance, and more.
Inkjet color schemes are expanding. If the first inkjet printers had four-color cartridges with a standard set of CMYK colors (black, yellow, magenta and cyan), today they produce extended CMYK schemes consisting of six, eight and even eleven colors.
Innovative developments in the field of inkjet printing include sympathetic ink, which appear under the influence of ultraviolet light, disappearing ink, which discolor when heated, fluorescent ink that glow in the dark, silver ink, conducting electrical impulses, textile ink, which print excellently on fabric, latex, which contain artificial latex polymers and some other types of ink. These inks represent the future of inkjet printing.
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Cuttlefish is a mollusk belonging to the class of cephalopods. In the concept of people, it is associated with something nondescript and shapeless. In fact, cuttlefish are very beautiful.
Appearance of animals
The cuttlefish has an oval, slightly flattened body. The mantle (skin-muscle sac) forms its main part. The inner shell acts as a skeleton, and this distinctive feature is characteristic only of cuttlefish. It consists of a plate with internal cavities that provide the cuttlefish with buoyancy. The shell is located inside the body and protects the internal organs.
The head and body of the mollusk are fused. The cuttlefish's eyes are very large and can zoom in, with the pupil controlling the intensity of the light. On the head of the cuttlefish there is something similar to a beak, with which the mollusk extracts and crushes food. And also, like numerous cephalopods, the cuttlefish has an ink sac. This is a special organ, which is a dense capsule divided into two parts. One part contains ready-made ink, and the other contains special cells saturated with special grains of paint. When mature, the cells are destroyed and ink is formed. Ink sac produces great amount ink. An empty bag is restored on average in half an hour.
The most famous types:
- Pharaoh's;
- crucifying (the most beautiful and poisonous);
- broad-armed (largest);
- striped (very poisonous).
The mollusk has eight tentacles and two anterior palps. Each of them has small suction cups. The front tentacles are hidden in pockets under the eyes and are used to attack prey. Elongated fins are located on the sides of the body and help the cuttlefish when moving.
Description of cuttlefish, coloring
A characteristic feature of these mollusks is the ability to change the color of their body. The color of cuttlefish is unusually diverse. This is possible thanks to skin chromatophore cells. The change in body color occurs consciously; the chromatophores obey the brain. This process occurs instantly, and the impression is formed that everything happens automatically. Cuttlefish cells are filled with special pigments of different colors.
In terms of variety of colors, complexity of patterns and speed of color changes, the mollusk has no equal. Certain species of cuttlefish are capable of luminescence. Color changes are used for camouflage. Patterns different forms carry certain information for relatives. The cuttlefish is one of the most intelligent species of invertebrates.
Shellfish sizes
Cuttlefish are relatively small in size compared to other cephalopods. The broad-armed sepia is the largest of the cuttlefish. Together with the tentacles, the body length is 1.5 m and the weight is approximately 10 kg. However, most individuals are smaller in size, their length is no more than 20-30 cm. And there are also several species that are completely small size- up to 2 cm, which are considered the smallest cephalopods in the world.
Area
Where does cuttlefish live? And it lives only in shallow waters, in tropical and subtropical seas that wash the shores of Africa and Eurasia. However, the striped cuttlefish has also been found off the coast of Australia. Mollusks prefer to live alone, occasionally in small groups, and only during the breeding season do large aggregations of cuttlefish form. During the mating season, they can move around, but, as a rule, lead a sedentary life.
Clams swim shallowly and stick to the shoreline. Seeing prey, cuttlefish freeze for a second, and then quickly overtake the victim. When danger arises, the mollusks lie to the bottom and try to cover themselves with sand with their fins. The cuttlefish is a very cautious and timid mollusk.
Cuttlefish nutrition
From time to time, large individuals are able to eat smaller counterparts. This is not due to an aggressive nature, but more due to food indiscriminateness.
Shellfish eat almost anything that moves and does not exceed their own size. They feed on fish, crabs, shrimp, and shellfish. The cuttlefish blows a stream of water into the sand from the siphon, thereby raising it, and at this time the mollusk swallows small animals and cuts up larger ones with its beak. It will not be difficult for a cuttlefish to bite through the shell of a crab or the skull of a small fish.
Reproduction
The cuttlefish is an animal that reproduces only once. Mollusks migrate to comfortable places for laying eggs, forming schools of several thousand individuals along the way. Communication occurs by changing body color. With mutual sympathy, both mollusks glow with bright colors. Cuttlefish eggs are mostly black and resemble grapes. After laying eggs, adult cuttlefish die. Cephalopods are born already formed. From birth, small cuttlefish are able to use ink. Cuttlefish live on average 1-2 years.
Nutritional value of shellfish meat
Cuttlefish is a source of excellent meat, which contains valuable unsaturated acids - eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids, which protect against many diseases of the cardiovascular system. These elements also reduce the level of triglycerides in the blood, preventing the formation of blood clots and blockage of arteries.
Cuttlefish meat contains vitamins B2, B12, A, nicotinic and folic acid. In addition, shellfish meat is rich in minerals. In addition to useful substances, meat contains impurities such as cadmium and mercury. Nutritionists recommend eating no more than two servings per week.
Useful properties of ink
- Improves mood and fights emotional problems.
- Helps in the treatment of reproductive diseases.
- Eliminate symptoms of digestive disorders.
- Helps in the treatment of skin diseases.
In ancient times, ink liquid was used for writing. Cuttlefish ink is included in medicines. This substance has a calming effect.
Ink is used in production food coloring and seasonings. They give dishes a special black color and an excellent salty taste. Ready-to-use ink is sold in stores. Ink is also used to make sauces that have a bright and unique taste. Cuttlefish ink contains elements that help metabolism and have anti-inflammatory effects.
Interesting facts about cephalopods
- The cuttlefish has three hearts. Two hearts are used to pump blood to the gills, and the third is used to circulate oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
- The blood of cuttlefish contains a protein called hemocyanin, which is used to carry oxygen. That's why her blood is blue-green.
- Cuttlefish is a mollusk that can imitate the shape and texture of surrounding objects. The mollusk changes its color by expanding or retracting small tubercles located throughout its body, thanks to which it practically merges with sand, cobblestones and other surfaces.
- Males, in order to court the female and not attract the attention of others, repaint themselves in an interesting camouflage. They paint one half of the body with colorful paint, and camouflage the other half as females, imitating muted tones.
- Cuttlefish can see well in low light conditions, as well as what is behind them.
- Cuttlefish are able to imitate the dynamic movements of algae on their bodies to become invisible. Or they organize a color show to catch prey.
- Mollusks skillfully defend themselves from enemies, but their relatively low rate of movement makes them vulnerable to their pursuers: dolphins and sharks.
Cuttlefish is also an interesting object for aquarists. However, keeping them is not easy because the mollusks are very shy, often releasing ink into the water, and it becomes opaque. After a certain amount of time, the cuttlefish gets used to the owner and ceases to be afraid of him.
Octopuses represent the class of cephalopods (Cephalopoda) known for their intelligence, uncanny ability to blend in environment, unique style of movement ( jet propulsion), as well as splashing ink. On the following slides, you will discover 10 fascinating facts about octopuses.
1. Octopuses are divided into two main suborders
We know about 300 living species of octopuses, which are divided into two main groups (suborders): 1) finned or deep-sea octopuses (Cirrina) and 2) finless or true octopuses (Incirrina). Fin fish are characterized by the presence of two fins on the head and a small inner shell. In addition, they have antennae on their arms (tentacles) near each sucker, which may play a role in feeding. Finless, includes many of the best known species of octopuses, most of which are benthic.
2. Octopus tentacles are called arms
The average person won't see the difference between tentacles and arms, but marine biologists clearly distinguish between the two. The arms of cephalopods are covered with suction cups along their entire length, and the tentacles have suction cups only at the tips and are used to capture food. By this standard, most octopuses have eight arms and no tentacles, while two other orders of cephalopods, cuttlefish and squid, have eight arms and two tentacles.
3. Octopuses release ink to protect themselves.
When threatened by predators, most octopuses release a thick cloud of black ink made up of melanin (the same pigment that affects the color of our skin and hair). You might think that the cloud simply serves as a visual distraction to buy the octopuses time to escape, but it also affects the predators' sense of smell (sharks, which can smell hundreds of meters away, are especially vulnerable to this kind of olfactory attack).
4. Octopuses are extremely intelligent
Octopuses are the only marine animals, other than whales and pinnipeds, that are capable of solving certain problems and recognizing various patterns. But regardless of octopus intelligence, it is very different from human intelligence: 70% of an octopus's neurons are located along the length of its arms, not in its brain, and there is no conclusive evidence that these are capable of communicating with each other.
5. Octopuses have three hearts
All vertebrates have one heart, but octopuses are equipped with three: one that pumps blood throughout the octopus's body (including the animal's arms), and two that pump blood through the gills that they use to breathe underwater. There is another key difference from vertebrates: the main component of octopus blood is hemocyanin, which contains copper atoms, rather than iron-containing hemoglobin, which explains the blue color of octopus blood.
6. Octopuses use three modes of locomotion
A bit like an underwater sports car, the octopus moves with three different ways. If there is no need to rush, they walk along the ocean floor using their flexible tentacle arms. To move faster underwater, they actively swim in the desired direction, bending their arms and body. In case of real rush (for example, attack hungry shark), octopuses use jet propulsion, shooting a stream of water (and ink to disorient the predator) from the body cavity and get away as quickly as possible.
7. Octopuses are masters of camouflage
Octopus skin is covered with three types of specialized cells that can quickly change color, reflectivity and transparency, allowing the animal to blend into its environment. Pigment-containing cells - chromatophores - are responsible for the red, orange, yellow, brown, white and black colors of the skin, and also give it shine, which is ideal for camouflage. Thanks to this arsenal of cells, some octopuses are able to disguise themselves as algae!
8. The giant octopus is considered the largest species of octopus
Forget all the movies about octopus monsters with tentacles as thick as tree trunks that sweep helpless sailors overboard and drown them. big ships. The largest known species of octopus is the giant octopus. (Enteroctopus dofleini), on average weighs about 15 kg, and the length of the arms (tentacles) is about 3-4 m. However, there is some dubious evidence of significantly larger individuals of the giant octopus, weighing more than 200 kg.
9. Octopuses have a very short lifespan
You may want to reconsider buying an octopus as a pet because most species have a lifespan of about a year. Evolution has programmed male octopuses to die within weeks of mating, and females stop feeding while waiting for the eggs to hatch, and often starve to death. Even if you sterilize your octopuses (most likely, not every veterinarian in your city specializes in such operations), it is unlikely that your pet will live longer than that of a hamster or gerbil mouse.
10. The octopus order has another name
You may have noticed that in this article only one term was used, “octopuses,” which is familiar to everyone and does not hurt the ears. But this order of cephalopods is also known as octopus (octopus in Greek means “eight legs”).
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