Page:The History of Ink.djvu/27

Rh are very popular. On well-made and high-priced paper, and with gold pens, such inks, if prepared by good chemists, may ultimately prove worthy of the high esteem in which they are held; but their absolute and unchangeable durability is yet to be tested by experience, before they can be safely employed for writings of permanent value, and relied on for use in making records designed for preservation and reference during a long course of years.

There is a compound of bichromate of potash and extract of logwood, which forms a very cheap and convenient writing fluid. Dr. Ure pronounces it “a vile dye.” Yet it may have its utilities, in localities remote from the centres of civilization and commerce,—as in the new settlements in western America, in Australia, &c., and for travelers in Africa, in the Arctic and other barbarous or uninhabited regions. The following is the best formula which can be given for this compound; and we present it on the highest chemical authority:—“Take Bichromate of potash, 1-4 oz.—Extract of logwood 1 oz.—Boiling water, 1 gallon.”

We have taken the trouble to give this prescription or formula, because some quacks have been peddling it all over the country, at all sorts of prices, varying (according to the credulity and liberality of purchasers)