The following indestructible ink has been tried and recommended : shell lac, 2 ounces; borax, 1 ounce; distilled or rain water, 18 ounces—boil the whole in a closely-covered tin vessel. stirring it occasionally with a glass rod or a small stick, until the mixture lies become ho mogeneous ; filter, when cold, through a single sheet of blotting paper ; mix the filtered solution, which will be about 19 fluid ounces, with 1 ounce of mucilage of gum arabic, prepared by dissolving 1 ounce of water, and add pulverized in digo and lamp-black, ad libitum. Boil the whole again in a covered vessel, and stir the fluid well to effect the complete solution and admixture of the gum ara bic; stir it occasionally while it is cool ing; and after it has remained undis turbed for two or three hours, that the excess of indigo and lamp-black may subside, bottle it for use. The above ink, for documentary purposes, is in valuable, being, under all ordinary eumstances, indestructible: it is alsopar ticularly well adapted for the use of the laboratory. Five drops of kreosote added to a pint of ordinary ink will effectually prevent its becoming mouldy.
Vanadate of ammonia treated with galls affords a good and permanent black which flows freely from the pen, it re sists the action of chlorine and is not ob literated by acids or alkalies. Whenever the metal vanadium will be found more plentiful this combination will form the best ink. Perhaps the Lake Superior copper may have its vanadium turned to advantage in this way.
Ink for Lithographers.--White soap 25 parts, white wax 25 parts, mutton suet 6 parts, lamp black 6 parts, shellac 10 parts, mastic 10 parts ; mix with heat and pro ceed as for lithographic ink.
Sympathetic Ink.—The best is a solution of munate of cobalt.
Copyin,g Ink.—Gum arabic 240 grains, Spanish liquorice 20 grains, water 720 grains, dissolve ; then add the solution gradually in a mortar to 60 grains of lampblack previously moistened with a teaspoonful of sherry ; when well mixed strain through coarse muslin.
Saxon Blue Ink, is a solution of sul phate of indigo, used by dyers, weakened down to proper tint. A better kind of blue ink is made by rubbing together oz. of best Prussian blue, (that recently made is best), oxalic acid 2 drachms, and 1 pint of water ; filter, when well mixed. This has a beautiful tint.
Printer's Ink. See under that head. INULINE, is a substance first extract ed from the root of the Inula-Hellenium, or Elecampane. It is white and pulveru lent Pike starch ; and differs from this substance chiefly because its solution, when it cools, lets fall the inuline un changed in powder, whereas starch re mains dissolved in the cold, as a jelly or paste.
Inuline is obtained by boiling the root sliced in 3 or 4 times its weight of water, and setting the strained decoction aside till it cools, when the pulverulent inuline precipitates. It exists also in the roots of colchicum and pellitory..