" 'I can tell you at once upon seeing an old document the character of the ink that was used in the writing, and I have seen many old papers over a hundred years of age in which the writing was as clear as the day it was made, simply because a good writing ink was used. On the other hand writing made with cheap aniline ink may under certain circumstances fade out within a year, and in a book which is much handled is almost certain to be rubbed out in time.
" 'It has frequently happened that in the course of litigation, especially over real estate, that old records made with poor inks have been produced which the court refused to accept as evidence, thereby depriving some citizen of his rights. At the present time many officials in this state, in fact, the majority of them, are using these cheap and worthless inks and the records they are making will be of little or no value in a few years.
" 'It is to put a stop to this abuse that the present bill has been drawn up, and there is no argument which can be raised against it.' "It appears that there was one, however, as the bill failed to pass for the stated reason that it came under the head of "class" legislation. The great state and city of New York with costly and magnificent depositories continue to place in them, for safe-keeping, valuable records and other ink-written instruments which will become illegible before the present century comes to an end.
Professor Lehner, a German chemist, in 1890 published a treatise "Die Tinten-Fabrikation," which has been translated and added to by Dr. Brannt, of Philadelphia, editor of "The Techno-Chemical Receipt-Book," who remarks:
"The lack of a recent treatise in the English language containing detailed descriptions of the raw materials and receipts for the preparation of Inks, and the apparent necessity, as shown by frequent inquiries, for such a volume, were the considerations which led to the preparation of The Manufacture of Ink."This work compiles a great number of formulas, and rather favors the views of the chemist Dr. Bostock respecting the iron and gall inks. The book possesses value for reference purposes to the manufacturer.
Auguste Peret, author of "The Manufacture of Ink,"1891, has put together a lot of excellent material relative to ink-making and valuable for reference purposes.
The late Dr. William E. Hagan of Troy, New York, in 1894 issued his book, "Disputed Hand-writing."He devotes two chapters to the discussion of ancient and modern inks and their chemistry. He has been kind enough to quote the writer as the first to remove ink in open court with chemicals in order to determine the existence of pencil writing beneath the ink.
The pencil being carbon was not affected thereby and with the subsequent restoration of the bleached ink by the use of the correct re-agent.
In the same year Dr. Persifor Frazer of Philadelphia published his "Manual of the Study of Documents."A few pages are given to the study of inks, and a part thereof is devoted to the researches of Carre, Hager, Baudrimont, Tarry, Chevallier and Lassaigne, to determine suspected forgeries. The chapter on "the sequence in crossed lines," where he indicates his method of determining which of two crossed ink lines was written first, is both original and a real contribution to science.
Alfred H. Allen, F. C. S., of England, perhaps the highest authority on the subject of tannins, dyes and coloring matters in his "Commercial Organic Analysis,"revised and edited by Professor J. Merritt Mathews of Pennsylvania, edition of 1900, devotes eight pages to the subject of the "Examination of Ink Marks." He says:
"Ordinary writing ink was formerly always made from a decoction of galls, to which green vitriol was added. Of late, the composition of writing inks has become far less constant, aniline and other dyes being frequently employed, and other metallic salts substituted for the ferrous-sulphate formerly invariably used. The best black ink is a tanno-gallate of iron, obtained by adding an infusion of nut-galls to a solution of ferrous-sulphate (copperas)."
In 1897 the author in a paper read before the New York State Bar Association at Albany, entitled "APlea for the Preservation of the Public Records," discussed the question of the stability of inks and their phenomena and took occasion to make recommendations as to their constitution and future methods of employment. A vote of thanks was adopted and the association referred the paper to the Committee on Law Reform, where no doubt it still slumbers.
