flying twigs

Paper and ink in 19th Century Britain were made from different materials compared to today. Paper was made from materials that would be impossible to use today due to supply limitations.

In 19th century Britain paper was made by hand. Today, gigantic paper machines roll out paper at eighty feet per minute. A watery slurry goes in at one end, and with high speed drying and pressing, paper comes out the other end seconds later.

Nowadays, newsprint and mass produced books are made from wood pulp. In the 19th century, paper made from cotton rags. But there isn’t enough cotton to satisfy demand today, which is why paper is made from wood pulp.

Cotton is chemically neutral. Wood pulp is acidic because it contains lignin – and over time acid turns paper yellow and weakens it. You see this in old books our newspapers before people realised the damage the lignin was doing to the paper.

To stop the acid in wood pulp destroying it, manufacturers ‘buffer’ the slurry with alkaline chemicals. That slows down the destruction but it doesn’t stop it completely. Oxygen in the air reacts with the paper. Sunlight, heat, and humidity speed up the destruction.

If you want to keep paper in good condition, keep it in low humidity, at moderate temperature, without exposure to sunlight.

For example, you may have a poster on the wall or books in a bookcase. Keep them away from direct sunlight. And keep them in a smoke free room, because tobacco smoke degrades paper.

Low humidity is easy to achieve in Britain, but it’s a serious problem in places where there’s high humidity.

The Rag and Bone Man

Of course art paper is still made in the traditional way from traditional materials, which means cotton rags.

Back in the 19th century in Britain, the rag and bone man came around the streets on a horse and cart. He would call out that he wanted to buy old rags. When he had enough, he sold the rags to paper makers. The rag and bone man died out as a job in the 1960s when cheap mass-produced clothes from artificial materials came in.

The rag and bone man collected bones as well, and sold the bones to farmers to grind down to make bone meal fertiliser. He also sold the bone to paper makers who extracted the gelatine. And to ink makers and to joiners who used to it make adhesives. Also to photographic supplies companies to use in making photographic film.

In case you are wondering, in North America and Australia they spell the word gelatin. In Europe and Asia they spell it gelatine. Either way, it’s the same thing.

So now we get to 19th century ink and paper and how they made them.

Making Paper

The first step was to clean and shred the rags. Then mix the shredded rags with water to make a thin, watery slurry. It was so thin and watery you could hardly believe it could be made into paper. But it was. The paper maker spread the slurry over a fine mesh and pressed it as it was drying.

Then he sized the paper by covering it with a thin coat of gelatine. Sizing stops ink from soaking into the paper too much.

So we have paper, and now we need ink.

Ink

The most common ingredient of ink in the 19th century was oak galls, which form on oak trees. They are the tree’s response to the larvae deposited in the tree by the oak gall wasp.

Oak galls are full of tannin, and mixed with ferrous sulphate and Gum Arabic they made a good ink. When first applied, the ink is pale grey. In a short time it turns black. But the process doesn’t stop there and a drawback of oak gall ink was that over time the ink turned brown because the tannin in oak galls is acidic. And that can damage the paper.

Oak gall ink has been used since Roman Times. And writers used it everywhere until the 20th century, including for the Magna Carta and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Making Oak Gall Ink

The first step to making the ink is to collect oak galls from oak trees. So you probably wonder how common they are and what they look like. Look for them on oak twigs. They look like little apples, and inside the gall, the larvae of the wasp feed on the tree. And you will also find tiny oak galls on the underside of oak leaves. In fact, look there first, and if you see them then it’s a good clue that with a bit of hunting you will find bigger oak galls on oak twigs.

Dry them, then crush them to a powder and add ferrous sulphate. You can buy ferrous sulphate from the big online stores, in case you might think it is difficult to find. Then add gum arabic to bind the ink and make it thicker so if flows more easily. And that is it. Just remember that when you write with it it will be a very pale grey. Then over a short time it darkens to almost black.

Modern Ink

Nowadays, writing ink is made dyes or pigments dissolved in water or other solvents, with added resins or polymers to improve adhesion and flow. Modern inks often include preservatives to prevent microbial growth and surfactants to control surface tension for smoother writing. And many inks are formulated to be environmentally friendly, with non-toxic materials.

As a side note, read this about printing illustrations and photographs using pigment inks and water soluble dyes. The technological advances have changed short-run digital printing to the point that it is easy to produce superior products. With pigment inks, printers can make prints and posters that will remain vibrant for a century or more.

Jane Austen And 19th Century Ink And Paper

Jane Austen’s novels feature people who write letters. It was one of Austen’s ways of showing a person’s character and how they behaved in relationships.

And unintentionally she gives us a window onto the world of the early nineteenth century letters, ink and paper.

Here are some descriptions from her novels:

In Pride and Prejudice we read about Mr. Darcy’s Letter to Elizabeth Bennet. Thus he writes: “Be not alarmed, madam, on receiving this letter, by the apprehension of its containing any repetition of those sentiments or renewal of those offers which were last night so disgusting to you.”

What a neat way of protesting that he had no feelings for the heroine. Every word speaks to its contrary.

And in return, we read about Elizabeth’s reaction. “She read with an eagerness which hardly left her power of comprehension, and from impatience of knowing what the next sentence might bring, was incapable of attending to the sense of the one before her eyes.”

One can feel the rapid heart beat, and the emotion in the game of ‘find a suitable partner’.

What Else?

In Sense and Sensibility. Marianne Dashwood’s Letters to Willoughby shows her independence. Accordingly we read that “She could never be deceived as to the real state of her own feelings by the affectation of indifference in others.”

What an independent mind, unswayed by the reactions of others. Is that a desirable trait? Can it lead to such independence that such a person is hard to please, and will not ‘swing with the majority’? It is an open question.

The list in Jane Austen’s novels goes on. In Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park. And Jane is the pre-eminent writer of the period on the matter of social interaction.

19th century ink and paper significantly influenced society, as seen in historical literature. These materials shaped communication and social interactions of the time. Follow this link to read more about The Art of Correspondence: Letters, Envelopes, and Stamps.