Zatoplyaev Ivan
Research work "These amazing ink" with a description of the experience of making ink according to an ancient recipe.
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Municipal educational institution
average comprehensive school № 45
Traktorozavodsky district of Volgograd
School research competition
and schoolchildren's projects"I am a researcher"
Direction: "The world"
RESEARCH
This amazing ink
Head: Natalia Anatolyevna Dubrasova,
teacher of the first qualification category
Student: 4th grade
Zatoplyaev Ivan Alexandrovich
Volgograd 2013
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….3
- History of ink………………………………………………………...4
2. A little about the inkwell……………………………………………………………7
- Interesting Facts about ink…………………………………………8
- Ink recipes……………………………………………………….8
4.1 Ink from ink nuts……………………………….9
4.2. Chestnut ink………………………………………………………9
4.3. Elderberry ink……………………………………………9
4.4. Peel ink walnuts……………………………9
4.5. Tannin ink……………………………………………...9
4.6. Stationery alizarin ink…………………………9
4.7. Alizarin ink according to Leonhardi……………………….10
4.8. Aniline ink………………………………………………………10
- Experiment……………. ……………………………………………..10
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………11
Literature………………………………………………………………...11
Introduction
One day, after reading an assignment in a textbook on “ Literary reading"about the chronicler who prepared ink from old rusty nails, kvass, honey, sour cabbage soup, ink nuts (growths on oak leaves), I became interested in how they were actually made before. I decided to find out the history of ink, its varieties and recipes. I had a hypothesis that you can make ink yourself at home. And I decided to try to make the ancient ink with which A. S. Pushkin wrote his poems, especially since all the components of this ink can be found in our time.
Purpose of the study:study the history of origin, manufacturing methods, types of ink, find interesting facts about ink, test your hypothesis about the possibility of making ink yourself.
Tasks:
- Study information on this topic using literature and Internet resources.
- Making ink at home.
Object of study:ink information.
Subject of study:making ink at home.
Research methods:collection and analysis of information, experiment.
Research tools:computer, Internet, printed publications, materials and substances for making ink.
1. History of ink
It is difficult to meet a person who does not use ink and does not know what it is. But how many of us know the history of the origin, chemical composition ink, production process.
Ink appeared when humanity had a need to write something down on paper. Then people different nations invented their own ink to preserve their history for future generations.
The oldest ink recipe found by archaeologists belongs to the ancient Egyptians. Long before our era, they used for writing a mixture of ash from burning papyrus roots and a solution of gum - sticky thick juice of acacia or cherry. The same composition was used in China 2.5 thousand years ago. Chinese ink was a mixture of soot and resins dissolved in alkalis. It would be more correct to call such ink ink. This ink had a very significant drawback: over time, it became brittle and bounced off the paper at the folds. In addition, it was quite thick and did not flow well from the pen. Perhaps this is why in the East they preferred to paint hieroglyphs with a brush.
In ancient times, people made ink from... cuttlefish. In cuttlefish and their cousins Octopuses have a special ink sac, from which the animals, in a moment of danger, release an “ink bomb” - for camouflage.
The ink bags are dried in the sun, crushed, lye is added and heated, then sulfuric acid is added, again dried and pressed. The result is sepia, which is still widely used by artists today. This is probably the oldest ink in the world, 100 million years old!
Ink appeared in Europe much later. In the 3rd century BC. in Greece and Rome several types of ink were used. Reds, "court guards", were used for state documents and were strictly guarded by guards. Black ones were made from soot, fruit seeds, charcoal and bone charcoal.
From purple and cinnabar to Ancient Rome made red “court ink”, which was used only to write government documents. The process of obtaining purple was very labor-intensive. At first, literally hundreds of thousands, millions of shells were collected.
In southern Italy, a “shell mountain” has been preserved, consisting almost entirely of the shells of the mollusk Brandaris. The bodies of mollusks were removed from the shells and placed in salt water. Then they dried them in the sun for three or four days, then boiled them, and as a result, out of every ten thousand shellfish they received... only one gram of paint! Most likely, this became known after the German chemist P. Friedke reproduced the ancient purple in the 19th century. Having processed 12 thousand shellfish, he extracted 1.5 grams. coloring matter. Approximately 1 kg. The purple was supposed to cost 45 thousand gold marks. Apparently, it was not the brightness and beauty, but the price of the dye that aroused the delight of the courtiers.
Complex technology The production of paint and its high quality (fabrics dyed purple did not fade for 200 years) made purple dyes and, accordingly, ink extremely expensive. For obvious reasons, a completely different type of ink has become widespread. At first it was black paint, which was used both in painting and writing. Ancient Roman artists made ink from fruit seeds, grapevines, soft wood, soot, charcoal and bone charcoal.
And red ink was considered sacred in those days: only the emperor could write with it. There was even an imperial decree prohibiting the use of red ink outside imperial court under threat death penalty. This ink was very expensive and was guarded by special guards.
In Rus' there were no such strictures associated with red ink. They were made from scale insects, which were ground into powder. Red ink was very necessary for our ancestors. Why? Because in XI-XIII centuries monks who copied books did not separate words when writing; everything was written in continuous text. This was difficult to read. Therefore, all sections in the book were marked with a red letter, often drawn in the form of a picture. This made it easier to read. This is where the concept of “red line” - paragraph - comes from.
Gold and silver ink were very beautiful; they were most often used to decorate religious books. But the use of gold and silver to make ink was not at all out of the ordinary. Byzantine and Russian scribes ground honey with thin gold and silver leaves, then washed the honey, but the elegant gold and silver letters remained. The library of Uppsala University in Sweden houses a “silver bible” that is more than one and a half thousand years old. It is written in silver ink on red parchment.
The oldest Russian ink recipe is soot with gum (cherry glue), diluted in ordinary water. This is the so-called "smoked ink". The 15th century gave new recipe- “boiled ink” - ink made from a decoction of the bark of tanning plants. Alder roots, walnut or oak bark were used to make them. From this they boiled ink wort and dipped pieces of iron into it. Gum (cherry glue) was added to strengthen the ink, and alum, ginger and cloves were added to reduce viscosity.
In the 18th century, iron sulfate appeared, which began to be used instead of pieces of rusty iron, which sharply increased the speed of preparing ink, which in Rus' began to be called “good ink.”
There are also several exotic ink recipes, including chestnut ink - from a decoction of green chestnut peels, from ripe elderberries and walnut peels. Ink was also made from blueberries. The “Decree on Blueberry Ink” was preserved in a manuscript of the 16th-17th centuries.
But such ink has long since become history. They were replaced by ink from gall nuts covering oak leaves. These are growths on leaves and branches in which the larva of the gallworm insect lives. The juice was squeezed out of gall nuts, mixed with iron sulfate, and a little glue was added to create permanent ink with a beautiful sheen. Surviving manuscripts written with this ink look as if they were fresh from the pen. But such ink also had a drawback: what was written could only be read after 10-12 hours, and before that the text was colorless.
In 1847, Professor Runge prepared ink from an extract of logwood (sandalwood), which is widespread in the tropics. The sap of this tree contains Chemical substance hematoxylin, which upon oxidation turns into a purple-black pigment. The American version of the ink has become widespread, especially as school ink. The best type of domestic logwood ink was the deep black Pegasus ink.
In 1885, the Saxon teacher Leonhardi made a revolution in the “ink business”. He invented alizarin ink. They were also gall-like, but not colorless-turbid, but intensely blue-green. On paper they faded to deep black. This was achieved using krappa, a product of special processing of the roots of the oriental madder plant. Later, crappies were replaced by synthetic dyes, and ink balls by tannin or gallic acid. However, soon this invention also had a competitor - aniline ink, for example, violet. This is a synthetic dye diluted in water.
There are a great many recipes for invisible (sympathetic) ink. In the past, they were successfully used by spies. There are many methods for this type of secret writing, and they all use secret or "sympathetic" ink - colorless or slightly colored liquids. The messages they write become visible only after heating, treatment with special reagents or in ultraviolet or infrared rays. There are many recipes for such ink. Secret agents of Ivan the Terrible wrote their reports with onion juice. The letters became visible when the paper was heated. Lenin used lemon juice or milk for secret writing. To develop the letter in these cases, it is enough to iron the paper with a hot iron or hold it over the fire for several minutes.
Such ink is still created today. For example, Japan recently released ink that disappears from paper after two days - for temporary notes in the margins of books.
Ink made from milk, lemon, from insects and cabbage soup, from cuttlefish and berries, from gold and silver... Now humanity writes with ink made by chemical means. They are high quality and cheap. Each time gave birth to its own ink, but the demand for it never went away. And it is no coincidence: according to Byron, one drop of ink is enough to arouse thoughts in millions of people.
2. A little about the inkwell
Archaeologists in the ash-covered ancient Roman city of Herculaneum found a clay cup with some dark sediment visible at the bottom. It turned out that this is the oldest inkwell known on earth! For more than a thousand years, “ink” - ordinary soot diluted in oil - dried in it. Quite recently there was a sensation in National Museum Bashkiria. For more than 30 years, the museum held an inkwell from the time of Genghis Khan (13th century). This exhibit was brought to the museum by a peasant. He found a metal vessel darkened with time while plowing the ground. For 30 years, none of the museum employees could attribute this vessel. It was assumed that it had a religious purpose. And then, quite by accident, one of the museum employees saw a rarity on the pages of an archival volume. It turned out that there are only three such inkwells in the world: one is in the collection of Nasser de Khalili, the other is in the Hermitage, and the third is in Iran.
Scientists believe that the decor of the inkwell is similar to the design on the bowl, created in western Iran, and now stored in the Bargello Museum in Florence. The inscription on one of the inkwells similar to the one found turned out to be a wish: fame and prosperity, wealth and happiness, prosperity and prosperity, grace and support.
The scribe wore such an inkwell on a strap around his neck and wrote down the khan’s orders on a silk scroll, dipping a reed stick into the inkwell, which was called “kalam” (compare with the “kalamus” of ancient Rome!). Minerals diluted in water served as ink.
There is a text cast on Genghis Khan's copper inkwell, which has not yet been deciphered.
3. Interesting facts about ink
Among the materials used to prepare ink, a significant proportion were... mushrooms. In wastelands, nitrogen-rich soil, and manure, the coprinus fungus is often found. Its conical caps on a thin stalk rise 20-30 centimeters above the soil surface. They don't exist for long. As they age, coprinuses literally blur, forming a watery mass of intense black color. This is what is used as ink. Such ink was used in France 200 years ago.
In ancient Rome, anyone who dared to steal a bottle of ink from the imperial office was immediately sentenced to death.
Back in the last century great inventor Edison invented ink for the blind. As soon as you wrote a text with them and waited a little, the paper in the places where the letters were written hardened and rose, forming a relief.
The recipe for the ink remains a mystery precious stones" – ruby, sapphire, mother-of-pearl, the secret of which was held in ancient times by the monks of the Mongolian monastery of Erdeni Tzu. The composition of the ink, which Buddhist monks in Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka continue to use, is also unknown to the uninitiated.
When you read about old methods of obtaining ink, it seems that they were invented by big gourmands. They didn’t add anything to the ink! Honey and molasses, blueberries and elderberries, milk and eggs, kvass and yogurt, even sour cabbage soup.
Among the ancient inhabitants Central Asia They also had their secrets. Once upon a time, books and manuscripts were found in the caves of the Mangishlak Peninsula. Scientists have discovered that the ink they are written with contains sugar and millet.
It is interesting that to this day the best black paint is prepared from soot obtained by burning grape seeds.
4. Ink recipes
The inks currently used can be divided into two groups. The biggest and important group form black ink containing tannic acid. Ink of the second group does not contain tannic acids.
The first group of inks is still the most commonly used and, moreover, the cheapest. They are prepared mainly from tannic and gallic acids or from substances containing tannin. The preparation of this ink is based on the property of an aqueous extract of tannins to form tannic acid iron with iron salts, which is a coloring agent. By using gum arabic as a thickener, the coloring matter remains in a fine distribution of the liquid.
4.1. Ink from ink nuts
For the preparation of ordinary stationery or school ink by infusing or drawing on cold water take:
3 parts ink nuts (galls),
2 parts iron sulfate,
2 parts gum arabic (acacia resin),
60 parts water.
The nut is ground into powder and poured into a glass bottle and doused with water. In another vessel, dissolve iron sulfate and gum arabic separately. The infusion of the nut should stand for several days until the water removes all the tannin from it, while the vitriol and gum arabic completely dissolve within a few hours. Both solutions are poured together, mixed well and, after allowing to stand for a day or two, carefully drained to separate the liquid from the sediment.
4.2. Chestnut ink
Boil 200g of green chestnut peel in 1 liter of water for several hours, filter the broth and mix with iron sulfate and alum.
4.3. Elderberry ink
100g of ripe black elderberry berries are crushed and the juice is squeezed out. 2g of alum and 5g of iron sulfate are dissolved in 5g of vinegar. And add this solution to the juice of the berries.
4.4. Walnut peel ink
100g of green walnut peel is boiled in 400g of water, 4g of iron sulfate and 4g of alum. The results are durable and beautiful ink.
4.5. Tannin ink
Tannin - 2.44 g, gallic acid - 0.77 g, ferrous sulfate - 3 g, gum arabic - 1 g, hydrochloric acid - 0.25 g, carbolic acid - 0.1 g, water 100 ml. Dissolve the ingredients in water with frequent stirring.
4.6. Alizarin stationery ink
1st solution (ink nuts – 600g, boiled water – 2l)
2nd solution (indigo powder - 40g, sulfuric acid 50% 200g0
The indigo is placed in a glazed clay pot and watered with sulfuric acid, then allowed to settle for 24 hours and carefully added little by little 2 liters of boiled water, 90 g of clean iron filings finely ground in a porcelain mortar and 60 g of chalk. The resulting liquid is filtered and the filtered first solution is poured into it. This ink produces a green color on paper that dries to an intense blue-black color.
4.7. Alizarin ink according to Leonhardi
3.5 g of ink nuts crushed into large grains and 250 g of maroon root are left to stand for several days with 10 l warm water; filter, replenish the evaporated water with new water and add 100 g of indigo solution, 433 g of ferrous sulfate and 166 g of vinegar-iron salt solution while shaking. The liquid is left to stand quietly for 8-10 days and then drained into the sediment.
A solution of acetic iron salt is prepared by treating 2 wt. parts of iron wire, turning or other shavings or sawdust, 20 wt. tsp wood vinegar.
4.8. Aniline ink
1.3 g of paratolluidine is dissolved in 7.7 g of aniline, after which 15 g of diluted hydrochloric acid and 15 g of gum arabic are added to the solution. The resulting composition is thoroughly mixed and dissolved in a separate container in 20 g of heated distilled water, 2.6 g of copper chloride, 2 g table salt, 1.3 g of ammonium chloride and 1.3 g of Berthollet salt, after which 11 g of gum arabic are added to this solution. Before use, mix equal parts of both solutions.
5. Experiment
I was very interested in the possibility of making ancient ink myself, and I decided to conduct an experiment to create it. From the above list of ink recipes, the one made from ink nuts seemed the most interesting to me.
We collected ink nuts in the forest, collected cherry resin, which we decided to replace gum arabic, and bought iron sulfate. They crushed the ink nuts, put them in a glass jar, filled them with cold water and let them sit for several days. In another bowl, iron sulfate was diluted and cherry resin was dissolved. Then all the solutions were mixed and we got wonderful ink that you can write with. The experiment was a success!
So, if, suddenly, we find ourselves on a desert island on which oak trees grow and we have a piece of rusty iron and a piece of paper at hand, we can always send it via bottle mail to our mom and dad and the most best friends news.
Conclusion
After conducting research, I learned a lot of new and interesting information about ink, various types and how to obtain them. In addition, I confirmed my hypothesis that you can make real ink yourself at home. In the future I would like to do work with sympathetic (invisible) ink.
I hope that after my talk you will be able to make your own ink and will have more respect for it because ink has a long history and plays a huge role in our daily lives.
According to Wikipedia, ink is a liquid dye used to create images using various tools. They came up with the idea of using ink for writing a very long time ago, although they were significantly different from modern ones created using advanced technologies.
What people used for writing: coal, graphite, and finally, ink, thanks to which we are able to read ancient manuscripts. Unfortunately, it is now impossible to find out exactly what recipes the ancient ink was made from. It is only clear that their basis was plant-based.
Ancient ink, starting from the 15th century, is divided into boiled and iron. Both one and the other were made from plants rich in tannins. The raw materials were alder and oak bark, blueberries, and ink nuts. Surely everyone has seen these same ink nuts (galls), but few people know that they are called that. These are spherical growths on oak leaves. To prepare iron ink, galls or oak bark were infused in an acidic solution, in warm place. Iron filings were added to the solution. The infusion process was long, up to 30 days. For thickness, gum (cherry resin) was added to the ink.
And the boiled ink was indeed boiled. By boiling, an extract was obtained from the bark, which was mixed with buckthorn berry juice. This ink was inferior to iron ink, it was less durable and not as bright, while iron ink was not afraid of moisture and faded little. Sometimes these inks were mixed.
In addition to ink, mushroom ink was also used for writing. The coprinus mushroom grows in wasteland, manure, and soil rich in nitrogen. As it ages, this mushroom does not dry out like all other mushrooms, but spreads into a watery mass of rich black color. This mass was used as ink. They were used in France 200 years ago.
Modern inks are complex in composition and include from 4 to 16 components, depending on the type of ink. Impossible modern world imagine without a ballpoint pen and without a printer. Can I split the ink for mine? inkjet printer into two main types: water-based ink and pigment ink. Not only the clarity and color of photographs or documents, but also the durability of the printing device itself depends on the quality of the ink used in printing.
Since ancient times, people have tried to preserve knowledge passed on from generation to generation. The first ancient scientists created unique systems of symbols and signs in order to convey to their descendants the centuries-old wisdom of their ancestors. When inventing these symbols and signs, scientists were faced with the same inevitable question. And where and with what should they be applied so that they do not wear off over time and, disappearing, bury with them the history and knowledge of an entire people, leaving nothing for the next generations?
In the “pre-paper” period, humanity used almost everything that came to hand and was processed in some way as a “writing” material capable of storing information for many centuries: stone, clay, papyrus, copper and lead sheets, palm leaves ‚ cotton and silk fabrics, wood, bone, bamboo, tortoise shells, parchment, wax, birch bark. And, in the end, the most perfect way to transmit and store information was invented by the Chinese, who created paper.
All kinds of tools were used for writing: metal tools, wooden sticks, bone, brushes, goose and crow feathers, ballpoint and fountain pens, lead and graphite pencils. They wrote on the wax with a specially designed stick - a style.
The following “paints” were used: ink, red clay, ink, varnish, silver and gold paints. They did not hesitate to use blood: history knows of cases when books were written in blood.
Each of the above items is a unique monument of its era, having its own original history of origin and use.
The history of ink.
The recipe for the most ancient ink has not survived to this day. Modern science it is only known that the Egyptians wrote their papyri with a mixture of soot and oil. The Chinese also used a similar composition.
Ink came to Europe much later, around 111 BC. they began to be used in Ancient Rome and Greece.
Red “court” ink was made from purple and cinnabar (a red mineral) in Ancient Rome, which could only be used to write state documents. An imperial decree was even issued prohibiting the use of red ink outside the walls of the imperial palace under penalty of death. Purple ink was guarded by special guards. However, this is not surprising, because the process of extracting purple was expensive and labor-intensive. At the first stage of obtaining the “royal” paint, hundreds of thousands and millions of shells were collected. Evidence of this major destruction of invertebrates can be seen in the “shell mountain” in southern Italy, consisting entirely of the shells of the mollusk Brandaris. The next stage was the extraction of mollusk bodies from the shells. The invertebrate bodies were then placed in salt water. At the third stage, they were left in the sun for four days and then boiled. As a result, only one gram of paint was obtained from every ten brutally tortured mollusks! The method of preparing “court” ink became known in the 19th century thanks to the German chemist P. Friedke, who reproduced the ancient purple. A meticulous German scientist processed 12 thousand shellfish, collecting 1.2 grams of them. precious paint. According to a rough estimate in those distant times, 1 kg. The purple was supposed to cost 45 thousand gold marks. So only high-flying people could afford to write with such ink, while carefully saving every milligram of precious purple.
Equally expensive were inks made using gold and silver. The “silver bible” was written in silver ink on red parchment, created more than one and a half thousand years ago and kept today at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Due to the complex production technology and high cost, which was primarily due to high quality paints (fabrics dyed purple could not fade for 200 years) “court” ink was not widely used. A completely different type of ink has become popular in use. At first it wasblack paint used for writing and painting. Ancient Roman artists made ink from fruit seeds, soft wood, grapevines, charcoal and bone charcoal. Even today, the best black paint is considered to be paint made from soot obtained by burning grape seeds.
Several centuries later, black paint was replaced by ink made from a decoction of the bark of tanning plants. IN Ancient Rus'“writing” paint was prepared from soot and gum (cherry glue) diluted in water. It was called “smoked” ink. IN XV century appeared new way for obtaining paint, widely used by ancient Russian chroniclers - “boiled” ink. Oak, ash, alder bark was placed in an iron or clay vessel and boiled, then the water remaining after cooking was poured into another vessel and heated again, adding more bark along the way. Iron wrapped in cloth was added to the resulting mixture and stirred lightly. On the third day, the “boiled” ink was ready for writing. In the 16th century, “iron” ink began to be made in Rus', which is still used today. For “iron” ink, galls (spherical growths often found on oak leaves) or bark were infused in a warm place in an acidic solution (kvass, vinegar, sour cabbage soup) and iron filings were always added. The preparation process lasted a long time, sometimes reaching up to a month. To make the ink thicker and adhere better to the paper, cherry glue - gum - was added to it. Unlike “boiled” ink, “iron” ink did not fade so much and was moisture resistant. Sometimes both of these types were mixed with each other. Around the same time, the hardworking Russians mastered another recipe: ink made from pine nuts. This was the name given to painful growths on oak leaves. Cherry glue was added to the soaked growths, then honey and hop brew.
In the 18th century, iron sulfate appeared in place of the “glands,” which sharply increased the speed of preparing ink, which in Rus' began to be called “good ink.”
As a material for preparing paint, we used…. mushrooms. In France, 200 years ago, ink was made from a fungus called coprinus. This fungus was included in the ink composition due to its properties: as it ages, coprinus literally blurs, turning into a watery mass of intense black color.
In 1847, Professor Runge decided to prepare ink from an extract of sandalwood (logwood) growing in tropical forests. The sap of this tree contains the chemical hematoxylin, which when oxidized turns into a purple-black pigment. This ink option has become widespread, especially in the school environment. The deep black Pegasus paint was considered the best type of logwood ink.
Several exotic ink recipes have survived to this day: chestnut ink - from a decoction of the peel of green chestnuts, elderberry - from ripe elderberries, even walnut and blueberry - from the peel of walnuts and from juicy blueberries.
In 1938, the Hungarian artist, sculptor and journalist L. Biro and his brother received a patent for the invention of a ballpoint pen, in which ink was supplied to the writing ball using piston pressure. Later in Austria, liquid ink was replaced with ink paste. main feature which, unlike its predecessor, is that it dries quickly when exposed to air. This is how the first ballpoint pen appeared and the history of endless methods of preparing ink ended, giving way to a more convenient “writing” accessory.
The recipe for the most ancient ink has not been preserved, but it is known that the Egyptians wrote their papyri with a mixture of soot and oil. The ancient Chinese used a similar composition.
Ink appeared in Europe much later, when - it is not known exactly, but in the 111th century BC. e. ink was already used in Greece and Rome.
In Ancient Rome, red “court ink” was made from purple and cinnabar, which was used only for writing state documents. There was even an imperial decree that prohibited the use of red ink outside the imperial court under penalty of death. This ink was guarded by special guards. The process of obtaining purple was very labor-intensive. At first, literally hundreds of thousands, millions of shells were collected. In southern Italy, a “shell mountain” has been preserved, consisting almost entirely of the shells of the mollusk Brandaris. The bodies of the mollusks were removed from the shells and placed in salt water. Then they dried them in the sun for three or four days, then boiled them, and as a result, out of every ten thousand shellfish they received... only one gram of paint! Most likely, this became known after the German chemist P. Friedke reproduced the ancient purple in the 19th century. Having processed 12 thousand shellfish, he extracted 1.5 grams. coloring matter. Approximately 1 kg. The purple was supposed to cost 45 thousand gold marks. Apparently, it was not the brightness and beauty, but the price of the dye that aroused the delight of the courtiers.
No less expensive were inks made using gold and silver. The library of Uppsala University in Sweden houses a “silver bible” that is more than one and a half thousand years old. It is written in silver ink on red parchment.
The complex technology for producing paint and its high quality (fabrics dyed purple did not fade for 200 years) made purple dyes and, accordingly, ink extremely expensive. For obvious reasons, a completely different type of ink has become widespread. At first it was black paint, which was used both in painting and writing. Ancient Roman artists made ink from fruit seeds, grapevines, soft wood, soot, charcoal and bone charcoal. It is interesting that to this day the best black paint is prepared from soot obtained by burning grape seeds.
Centuries later, they began to use ink from a decoction of the bark of tanning plants. The oldest Russian ink recipe is soot with gum (cherry glue), diluted in ordinary water. This is the so-called "smoked ink". The 15th century gave a new recipe - “boiled ink”. Their recipe is as follows: “part of oak bark, another of alder, half of ash and this, put a full vessel of iron or clay and boil with water until the water boils, not all of it, and pour the rest of the water into the upper vessel, and again, pour in water and boil the same, and put on fresh bark and then cook without the bark, and put the tin into the cloth, tie it up, and put in the iron and mesh, and on the third day write.”
In the 16th century, iron ink became known and has retained its significance to this day. This is how they were made in Rus'.
“The first thing is to trim the green alder roots without young moss, and on the fourth day put the bark in a pot and pour water or kvass or yashna wort, and cover the pot with bark and cook in the oven, and it would boil and boil for quite a day until the evening, and put a little bit of iron in the pot, and place the pot completely, wherever the place is cold or warm, and on the third day, pour out the ink. Prepare a kukshin vessel and in it there is enough iron from the fragments of old swords or from a blacksmith, tie it in a plate and let ink wort into the pot ", strain through the plate and pour the kukshin full, and plug the vessel and put it in a secret place for twenty days. That is, it is quick and book ink."
In the 16th century, Russians knew another recipe - with ink nuts - the name given to the white growths on oak leaves. Cherry glue was added to them, soaked, then honey and hop brew.
In the 18th century, iron sulfate appeared instead of “irons,” which sharply increased the speed of preparing ink, which in Rus' began to be called “good ink.”
In 1847, Professor Runge prepared ink from an extract of logwood (sandalwood), which is widespread in the tropics. The sap of this tree contains the chemical hematoxylin, which when oxidized turns into a purple-black pigment. The American version of the ink has become widespread, especially as school ink. The best type of domestic logwood ink was the deep black Pegasus ink.
There are also several exotic ink recipes, including chestnut ink - from a decoction of green chestnut peels, from ripe elderberries and walnut peels. Ink was also made from blueberries. The “Decree on Blueberry Ink” was preserved in a manuscript of the 16th-17th centuries.
Here it is appropriate to recall the lines from D. Defoe’s novel “The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Sailor from York”: “... I took feathers, ink and paper from the ship. I saved them until the last opportunity and, while I had ink, I carefully wrote down everything that happened to me; but when they came out, I had to stop my notes, since I did not know how to make ink and could not think of anything to replace them with." Robinson, therefore, was completely in the dark about the “ink question.” Otherwise, he could have used one of the simple methods of producing this necessary substance, and Robinson was not short of hard work and resourcefulness.
Until relatively recently, the need for ink was enormous. For example, in the Soviet Union in the mid-80s, only the Moscow Artistic Paints Plant produced 1 million per year. bottles of ink for fountain pens, and in total there were 80 such factories in the country!
In 1938, the Hungarian artist, sculptor and journalist L. Biro and his brother (a chemist by profession) received a patent for the design of a pen in which ink was supplied to a writing ball by piston pressure. Later in Austria they replaced liquid ink with its modification - ink paste, which dries quickly when in contact with air. This is how the ballpoint pen appeared and the permanent watch of the greatest and simplest invention of mankind - liquid ink - ended.
Vladimir Georgievich Vasiliev,
Associate Professor of the Department of Automation technological processes TSTU.
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