PROFESSOR TRAILL ON THE COMPOSITION OF A NEW WRITING-INK. 423 



Pliny, and Dioscorides. Vitruvius describes particularly the mode of making 

 the carbonaceous matter, by a process very similar to that which we employ for 

 the manufacture of lamp-black. A furnace was prepared, having flues opening 

 into a condensing chamber ; resin was burnt in the furnace, and the smoke was 

 carefully condensed in the chamber : this material, mixed with gum, was the 

 writing-atramentum employed by the Romans.* Pliny gives a similar, though 

 less minute account ; f and Dioscorides expressly informs us that the /iEJ^a" used 

 in viTiting was formed of soot of torches or of resin, mixed with one part of gum 

 for every three parts of the cai-bon.t A finer sort of ink, he says, was manufac- 



* The atramentum described by Vitruvius, Pliny, and Dioscorides, was employed both as 

 writing-ink and as a pigment. The account of Vitruvius is as follows : 



" Ingrediar nunc ad ea, quae ex aliis generibus tractationum temperaturis commutata respiciunt 

 colorum proprietates : et primum exponam de atramento, cujus usus in operibus magnas habet neces- 

 sitates, ut sint notae, quemadmodum praeparentur certis nationibus artificiorum ad id temperaturae . 

 Namque sedificatur locus uti Laconicum, et expolitur marmore subtiliter, et laevigatur. Ante id fit For- 

 nacula, habens in Laconicum nares, et ejus praefurnium magna diligentia comprimitur, ne flamma extra 

 dissipetur : in fornace resina collocatur. Hanc autem ignis potestas urendo cogit eraittere per nares 

 intra Laconicum fuliginem, quEe circa parietem, et earner! curvaturam adhaerescit, inde coUecta passim 

 coraponitur ex gummi subacto ad usum atramenti Librarii : reliqua tectores glutinum adraiscentes in 

 parietibus utuntur. Sin autem eae copiae non fuerint paratse, ita necessitatibus erint administrandum, 

 ne expectatione morse res retineantur. Sarmenta aut tedae schidiae comburantur ; cum erunt carbones, 

 extinguantur. Deinde in mortario cum glutino tereantur, ita erit atramentum tectoribus non invenustum. 

 Non minus si fsex vini arefacta, et cocta in fornace fuerit, et ea contrita cum glutino in opere inducetur, 

 per quam atramenti suavem efficiet colorem ; et quo magis ex meliore vino parabitur, non modo atra- 

 menti, sed etiam Indici colorem dabit imitari." Lib. vii. chap. x. Ex ed. Venet. folio, 1567, cum 

 commentario Danielis Barbati, p. 246. 



The Laconicum means a species of condensing chamber, of an hemispherical shape, placed near the 

 furnace, for receiving and condensing the smoke. Atramentum Librarii et Scriptorum is writing-ink. 

 Gluten, or glue, was prepared from the ears or genitals of bulls in ancient times. Indicum, perhaps indigo. 



•f Pliny is very explicit on this subject : 



" Fit enim et fiiligine pluribus modis, resina vel pice exustis. Propter quod ofEcinas etiam aedifi- 



care, fumura non emittentes." " Adulteratur Fornacum Balnearumque fuligine quo ad volumina 



scribenda utuntur." 



\ Dioscorides, in the last chapter of Lib. v. jrs^i 'tahj 'Ut^ijch;, describes the composition of ink, 

 and gives the proportions of the ingredients : 



" The ink with which we write is compounded of the soot of torches. For every three ounces of 

 soot, one of gum is to be added. It is also made from the soot of resin, and also from the material 

 called painters' black [ksu tJ? ■rr^cu^nfiittji l^uy^x^ixvn AiTfioXm). Of this black it is proper to take one 

 mina, half a litra of gum, of ox glue and of/losferri (p/^xXxxtSou) each half an ounce." 



The painter's black is described in a former chapter as a soot collected in the chimneys of workers 

 in glass (wAs^yua*). The Jlosferri is, from his description of its colour and other qualities, evidently a 

 sulphate of iron. We here, then, may trace the probable step which led to the use of inks composed of 

 iron ; and may observe also, that the mixture of carbon with salts of iron is not a recent proposition 

 for the composition of ink. 



VOL. XVI. PART II. 3 Q 



