2499. Brilliant Bed Ink

2499.    Brilliant Bed Ink. Brazil wood,

2  ounces; muriate of tin, 1/2 drachm; gum-arabic, 1 drachm; boil down in 32 ounces water to one half, and strain.

2500. Good Bed Ink

2500.    Good Bed Ink. Ground Brazil wood, 8 ounces ; vinegar, 10 pints; macerate for 4 or 5 days; boil in a tinned-copper vessel to one half, then add roche alum, 8 ounces; and gum, 3 ounces; dissolve.

2501. Buchner's Carmine Ink

2501.    Buchner's Carmine Ink. Pure carmine, 12 grains; water of ammonia, 3 ounces; dissolve, then add powdered gum, 18 grains; 1/2 drachm of powdered drop lake may be substituted for the carmine where expense is an object. This makes a superb carmine ink.

2502. Fine Bed Ink

2502.    Fine Bed Ink. Cochineal, in powder, 1 ounce; hot water, 1/2 pint; digest, and when quite cold, add spirit of hartshorn, 1/4 pint; or liquor of ammonia, 1 ounce ; dilute with 3 or 4 ounces of water; macerate for a few days longer, then decant the clear. The color of this is very fine.

2503. Redwood's Red Ink

2503.    Redwood's Red Ink. Guaran-cine and liquor of ammonia, of each 1 ounce; distilled water (cold), 1 pint; triturate together in a mortar, filter, and dissolve in the solution gum-arabic 1/2 ounce. (Cooley.)

2504. To Restore Writing Effaced with Chlorine

2504.    To Restore Writing Effaced with Chlorine. Expose it to the vapor of sulphuret of ammonia, or dip it into a solution of the sulphuret. Or: Ferrocyanide of po-tassa, 5 parts; water, 85 parts. Dissolve, and immerse the paper in the fluid, then slightly acidulate the solution with sulphuric or hydrochloric acid. The method found to answer best has been to spread the ferrocyanide thin with a feather or a bit of stick cut to a blunt point. Though the ferrocyanide should occasion no sensible change of color, yet the moment the acid comes upon it, every trace of a letter turns at once to a fine blue, which soon acquires its full intensity, and is beyond comparison stronger than the color of the original trace. If, then, the corner of a bit of blotting paper be carefully and dexterously applied near the letters, so as to imbibe the superfluous liquor, the staining of the parchment may be in a great measure avoided; for it is this superfluous liquor which, absorbing part of the coloring matters from the letters, becomes a dye to whatever it touches. Care must be taken not to bring the blotting-paper in contact with the letters, because the coloring matter is soft whilst wet, and may easily be rubbed off. The acid chiefly employed is the muriatic; but both the sulphuric and nitric succeed very well. They should be so far diluted as not to be liable to corrode the parchment, after which the degree of strength does not seem to be a matter of much nicety.

2505. To make New Writing Look Old

2505.    To make New Writing Look Old. Take 1 drachm saffron, and infuse it into 1/2 pint ink, and warm it over a gentle fire, and it will cause whatever is written with it to turn yellow, and appear as if of many years' standing.