Ink has a colorful history

"How was ink discovered?" A curious young Schaumburg Township District Library patron wanted to know.

The story of ink starts in many places and reaches back to early times. Historians salute the unknown artisans who experimented and perfected the recipe for ink; the formula they labored over has lasted between the pages of ancient manuscripts for centuries.

Over time, the recipe for ink has been tweaked with a pinch of this and a teaspoon of that, depending on the technology and ingredients available.

In ancient times, the recipe for writing ink was bare bones - literally. It included charred bones to tint the mixture. Gum from the acacia tree was an ingredient in ancient Egyptian and Chinese inks. It binds together the other ingredients and helps the ink adhere to paper, bark or silk. Other ingredients included charcoal or soot taken from the residue of burned lamp oil (called lamp black) and varnish made by melting animal skins and bones. Ink from India, called India ink, was formed into a stick that was mixed with water and applied with a stylus or pen.

In the Middle Ages, two more ingredients were added. One was tannic acid found inside a tree gall - a bump in tree bark caused by parasites. The other was iron salts, which can still be found in inks today. Colors used for lettering ranged from blue-black to green. Charred seashells made a prized purple ink used exclusively by Roman emperors. Brown came from cuttlefish ink; red from crushed bugs called cochineal; white and red were made from lead.

The Mayans and Aztecs also used inks. Sadly, very few books and papers still exist. The majority of their writings were burned in fiery heaps when the conquistadors overthrew their governments in the late 1400s. Three of four existing Mayan codices contain a beautiful ink called Maya blue. No one knows the exact recipe, but scholars believe the blue comes from a mixture of the plant indigo and a special clay. Aztec writing on paper formed from fig trees was embellished with ink made from a mixture of charcoal and mineral dyes.

The invention of the movable type printing press in the 1400s required a new formula for ink that could easily spread across the type plates. Belgium became an international hub for printing and Antwerp's Plantin-Moretus press became the top print shop in Europe. First open in the mid-1500s, the business existed for 300 years, printing books in many languages.

Owner Christoffel Plantin wrote many of the books he printed. One for children suggests their presses were inked with a mixture of turpentine, oil, and lamp black. House records reveal Plantin-Moretus purchased 1,300 pounds of ink between 1563 and 1566. The house, which contains two of the world's oldest printing presses, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is now a museum open to visitors.

Today's printing is completely mechanized. The Daily Herald uses petroleum-based ink mixed with pigments and additives. The newspaper's presses use about 900 pounds of color and black ink daily in 10 to 15 press runs.

Ink used in roller pens is formulated with added chemicals that simulate fats so they won't clog the roller.