DEFINITION.
The word ink has been variously defined by lexicographers, cyclopaedists and chemists; but the following terms may be taken as fully expressing the common qualities, and essential specific characteristics of all substances included under the name.
Ink is a colored liquid employed in making lines, characters or figures on surfaces capable of retaining the marks so made. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, (vol. xii., p. 382, 1856,) gives the following definition: ink.—The term ink is usually restricted to the fluid employed in writing with a pen. Other kinds of ink are indicated by a second word, such as red ink, Indian ink, marking ink, sympathetic ink, printers' ink, etc. Common ink is, however, sometimes distinguished as writing ink.
As to color,—black is and has always been preferred in ordinary uses. For ornamental purposes and for occasionally useful distinctions, various other tints have been and are adopted—as blue, red, green, purple, violet, yellow—and so on, according to the fancy of the maker, or purchaser, or consumer.
The substance employed to receive and preserve the marks thus made is now
