ANECDOTE BY RICHARDSON:


THE origin of Ink belongs to an era following the
invention of writing. When the development of that
art had advanced beyond the age of stone inscription
or clay tablet, some material for marking with the
reed and the brush was necessary. It was not difficult
to obtain black or colored mixtures for this purpose.
With their advent, forty centuries or more ago, begins
the genesis of ink.

The colored inks of antiquity included the use of a
variety of dyes and pigmentary colors, typical of those
employed in the ancient art of dyeing, in which the
Egyptians excelled and still thought by many to be
one of the lost arts. The Bible and alleged contemporary
and later literature make frequent mention of
black and many colors of brilliant hues.

In tracing the arts of handwriting and dyeing,
some definite facts are to be predicated as to the most
remote history of ink.

The Hebrew word for ink is deyo, so called from its
blackness. As primitively prepared for ritualistic purposes
and for a continuing period of more than two
thousand years, it was a simple mixture of powdered
charcoal or soot with water, to which gum was sometimes
added.