Inks
A lot of ink was made at dye and paint factories as they used many of the same pigments, in the case of the paint works the powdered pigments were more finely ground and they used a different 'vehicle' liquid (often water).
Inks pre-date paper but their development has been a long slow business. Writing inks are solutions of a colourant in water, usually also containing a small quantity of tannic or gallic acid (made by allowing mould to grow on solutions of tannin or by boiling the latter with acids or caustic soda). Early inks used materials such as soot and the dark purple 'ink' recovered from squid (sepia).
Indian Ink or China Ink dates back a long way and it arrived in Europe in about 1650 in the form of dry sticks. These were made of soot mixed with gum and formed into sticks which are then dried. Soot, also called 'carbon black' or 'lamp black', was shipped in cloth sacks on the railways up to the 1940's and would be associated with a lot of black staining in the loading area.
A Mr. Waterman developed the capillary feed fountain pen in the 1880's but the inks were not of consistent quality, they either clogged or blotted and it was not until the development of Quink Ink in 1931 that a really reliable fountain pen became available.
More specialised inks are required for some printing processes, the Rotogravure system uses resinous colours dissolved in a solvent, the ink dries when the solvent evaporates. Xylene, recovered from coal tar, is used in printing inks, paints and varnishes. Also from the coal tar distiller we got anthracene oil and naphthaline oil, used in mothballs and also for making dyes. These coal tar derived oils were supplied in barrels and later in steel drums.
Printing inks are similar to paints in that they use pigments, for letter press and offset lithography these pigments are carried in linseed oil which oxidises in air. Old style newsprint inks used a mineral oil base which doesn't dry as such but is simply absorbed into the paper. Prior to the introduction of modern printing methods in the 1980's one of the duties of a Gentlemen's Gentleman was to iron the newspaper, which soaked the oil deeper into the paper so it did not come off on the chaps hands over breakfast.
The old 'Linotype' printing system used for printing newspapers books and other large runs had individual lead lettering laid up by a large machine and wrapped round the rollers. 'New technology' printing uses a photographic process to produce raised detail on plastic sheets, these are wrapped round rollers for the print run. The inks used for the new print systems are air-drying and do not come off on your hands.
British national newspapers were virtually all printed in London, Manchester or Glasgow up to the late 1980's and up to about 1988 they were then distributed by rail on special services setting off in the very early hours of the morning. Since then road transport, often owned by the same company as the newspaper, has progressively taken over.
The inks used for ink-jet computer printers are today a major aspect of the ink business, however these fast drying fine-pigment inks are distinctly 'high tech' and are mainly produced by dye manufacturers who have the necessary chemical expertise.
Modelling an Ink Works
Notable British Ink Manufacturing Companies
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