Paper and Printing Recipes A Handy Volume of Practical Recipes, Concerning the Every-Day Business of Stationers, Printers, Binders, and the Kindred Trades

Excerpt

Paper and Printing Recipes.

How to Remove Common Writing Ink From Paper Without Injury to the Print.

Common writing ink may be removed from paper without injury to the print by oxalic acid and lime, carefully washing it in water before restoring it to the volume.

To Render Pencil Notes Indelible.

Pencil notes found in a book, or placed there as annotations, may be rendered indelible by washing them with a soft sponge dipped in warm vellum size or milk.

To Remove Grease Spots from Paper.

Grease may be removed from paper in the following manner: Warm gradually the parts containing the grease, and extract as much as possible of it by applying blotting-paper. Apply to the warm paper with a soft, clean brush, some clear essential oil of turpentine that has been boiled, and then complete the operation by rubbing over a little rectified spirits of wine.

How to Detect Arsenic in Paper.

A simple method for detecting arsenic in paper, cards, etc., is described as follows:—Immerse the suspected paper in strong ammonia on a white plate or saucer; if the ammonia becomes blue, the presence of salt of copper is proved; then drop a crystal of nitrate of silver into the blue liquid, and, if any arsenic be present, the crystal will become coated with yellow arseniate of silver, which will disappear on stirring.

An Ink Restorer.

The process consists in moistening the paper with water and then passing over the lines in writing a brush which has been wet in a solution of sulphide of ammonia. The writing will immediately appear quite dark in color, and this color, in the case of parchment, it will preserve.

Colors for Holding Bronze.

Red and green inks are good colors for holding bronze, when you are not working with size or varnish.

Stencil Ink.

A good and cheap stencil ink in cakes is said to be obtained by mixing lampblack with fine clay, a little gum arabic or dextrine, and enough water to bring the whole to a satisfactory consistence.

Copying Ink to be Used Without Press or Water.

Well mix three pints of jet-black writing ink and one pint of glycerine. This, if used on glazed paper, will not dry for hours, and will yield one or two fair, neat, dry copies, by simple pressure of the hand, in any good letter copy-book. The writing should not be excessively fine, nor the strokes uneven or heavy. To prevent “setting off,” the leaves after copying should be removed by blotting-paper. The copies and the originals are neater than where water is used.

White Ink.

There is really no such article as “white ink.” A true ink is a solution of some substance or combination of substances in liquid. Colored liquids, however, may be prepared with various substances not soluble in the liquids available for writing fluids. A “white ink” may be made by rubbing the finest zinc white, or white lead, with a dilute solution of gum arabic. It must be stirred up whenever the pen or brush is dipped into it.

Purple Hektograph Ink.

To make the purple hektograph ink:—Dissolve 1 part of methyl-violet in 8 parts of water, and add 1 part of glycerine....