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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 1
Trade Wrinkles
Trade Wrinkles.
Durable Autographic Ink for Litho Work.—White wax eight ounces, and white soap two or three ounces, melt; when well combined add lampblack, one ounce, mix well and heat it strongly; then add shellac, two ounces; again heat it strongly: stir well together; cool a little and pour it out. With this ink lines may be drawn of the finest to the fullest class without danger of its spreading, and the copy may be kept for years before being transferred. The ink is employed for writing on autographic paper, and is prepared for use by rubbing down with a little water in a saucer, in the same way as common water-color cakes or india-ink. In winter this should be done near a fire, or the saucer should be placed over a basin containing a little warm water. It may be used with either a steel pen or a camel's-hair pencil.
Quick-drying of Printing.—An American contemporary says: Often it is necessary to dry the printings quickly so as to be able to deliver to customers with as little delay as possible. This is especially the case when orders are received for prices current, circulars, &c, on strong printed paper or ordinary writing paper, which takes considerable time to dry by the ordinary process, and which should not be sent out before they are completely dry, as they are likely to be soiled or blotted. Of all means purposed hitherto for speedy drying, the best is, undoubtedly, the use of calcined magnesia, which is dusted lightly on. Calcined magnesia is a little higher priced than other powders used to-day; but this is of no consequence when we consider that the magnesia is far lighter than any of the others. Thus we have in the same weight a far greater quantity. There is also another occasion where we would do well to use magnesia. This is when a bronzed imprint is taken, before a copy is taken with different colors of ink. If we do not take care not to commence with the bronze, before all the other colors are dry, particles of bronze become attached to these colors, and cannot be completely taken away. In thus drying the leaves before applying the bronze, this inconvenience is avoided.
(From the Inland Printer.)
Glycerine as a Dryer.—It may not be generally known that ink will dry very quickly on paper damped with glycerine water. Posters with large and full-faced types will dry in a quarter of an hour, while the drying process, when the printing has been done on paper simply wetted in the ordinary way, will require hours.
Stereotypers' Paste is composed of the following ingredients: Water, flour, starch, gum arabic, alum, and whiting. The best flour and starch are to be used. These foregoing articles, excepting the whiting, are thoroughly mixed, and heated by steam. When the mass is thoroughly homogeneous, sufficient whiting is added to give it stiffness.
Frost-proof Ink.—Aniline black one dram, rub with a mixture of concentrated hydrochloric acid one dram, pure alcohol ten ounces. The deep blue solution obtained is diluted with a hot solution of concentrated glycerine one-and-a-half drams, in four ounces of water. This ink does not injure steel pens, is unaffected by concentrated mineral acids or strong alkalies, and will not freeze at a temperature of 22 or 24 degrees below zero.
Printing on Leather.—A correspondent writes: I want to print or stamp in black upon passbook skiver (uncolored sheep's leather, such as is used to cover passbooks and law books). What can I use that will dry quickly? On former occasions I used regular printers' ink, mixed with a little quick-drying varnish, but it took over a week to dry. Answer.—loz. beeswax, ¼oz. gum arabic, dissolved in sufficient acetic acid to make a thin mucilage; ¼oz. Brown's japan, ½oz. asphaltum varnish. Incorporate with lib wood-cut ink.
Type-Writer Ink.—The ink that is used in inking the indelible ribbon in type-writers, which writes black, but copies a very dark blue, is made as follows: Take vaseline of high boiling point, melt it on a water bath or slow fire, and incorporate by constant stirring as much Prussian blue as it will take up without becoming granular. Remove the mixture from the fire, and, while it is cooling, mix equal parts of petroleum, benzine, and rectified oil of turpentine, in which dissolve the fatty ink, introduced in small quantities, by constant agitation. The volatile solvents should be in such quantity that the fluid ink is of the consistency of fresh oil paint. One secret of success lies in the proper application of the ink to the ribbon. Wind the ribbon on a piece of cardboard, spread on a table several layers of newspapers, then unwind the ribbon in such lengths as may be most convenient, and lay it flat on the paper. Apply the ink, after agitation, by means of a soft brush, and rub it well into the interstices of the ribbon with a stiff toothbrush. Hardly any ink should remain visible on the surface.