Both the parchment and the papyrus were written upon, by Romans, Greeks and Hebrews, with pens made of small reeds, dipped in a fluid composed of carbon, (not dissolved, but) held in a state of suspension by an oil or a solution of gum.
The letters were originally painted on the surface of the papyrus, parchment, board, or other material so employed—the ink not being imbibed or absorbed by the substance on which it was shed, but remaining on the surface, capable of being removed by washing, scraping, rubbing, or any similar process. The surface thus cleansed was then in a state to receive a new inscription; so that erasions and inscriptions might be indefinitely repeated upon it, as upon a modern sign-board.
Modern Ink, on the contrary, leaves its marks upon paper, parchment, &c., by penetrating the material to such a depth that it cannot be erased (mechanically) without the removal or destruction of the surface which it has tinged. Chemical agency, as of various acids, chlorine and its compounds, is generally employed, therefore, to discharge the color from modern writing-ink-marks. Carbon, in all its common forms, (charcoal, bituminous coal, anthracite, jet, plumbago, lignite, ivory-black, lamp-black
