The arrival of the printing press made the written word far more widespread than ever before, and its use for printing bibles has been cited as a major influence of the Reformation, since more people could read the word of God themselves rather than rely on books owned only by religious leaders.
But printing was still very much in the hands of an elite few. It wasn't until the advent of the typewriter in the s that the ability to print became viable for business communication, and this required yet another development in ink. The Hansen Writing Ball typewriter was invented in and went into mass production in , followed by models from a number of other manufacturers. In most cases, typewriters relied on an ink-soaked ribbon of cloth.
The pigmented ink was designed to stay moist on the ribbon through the addition of castor oil, but it would dry once it contacted paper. Later designs, in particular IBM's Selectric typewriter, used ribbons of pigment-coated polymer tape.
In both cases, the impact of the type transfers the ink to the paper. Computerised printing has led to yet more development in the types of ink. The daisywheel printers of the late s and s used a similar impact system to a typewriter, and the dot-matrix printer generalised this by providing an array of metal rods that recreated the shape of the letter.
The laser printer, however, uses an electrostatic system to transfer its ink. The toner used needs to be attracted to the charged areas of the imaging drum. Originally this was made from a combination of carbon powder mixed with iron oxide and sugar, but later a polymer mix was used instead. The fuser melts the toner particles so they bond with the paper.
Alongside solvent, aqueous, UV-curable and dye-sublimation inks were also produced. With an inkjet, minute particles of ink are sprayed onto the paper, directed by magnetised plates. The dots are smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Ink is typically colored, but the very first inks used charcoal or soot from the fire as the main pigment, hence why most of the early written works found were written in black ink. Charcoal was also a relatively inexpensive and easy to find pigment, whereas pigments for other colors were quite rare.
The carrier or vessel is what the pigment is blended with in order to transfer it to the medium. While this solution has to be some sort of liquid, oil-based vessels work better for binding the pigment to the medium. Pens with reservoirs were known since 10th century but were not widely used. In 17th century, inventor Daniel Schwenter made a pen made from two quills that held the ink inside instead of being dipped into inkwell. End of the 19th century saw also the first ballpoint pen which was, when modernized, even more practical and cheaper than fountain pen.
The first fiber or felt-tipped pen was invented in Japan in s and it later developed into marker pen and highlighter which work on the similar principle. After that, in the s, was invented rollerball pen, which is similar to ballpoint pen but uses water-based inks while ballpoint uses oil-based.
Ink is as old as pen and maybe even older. Chinese knew about ink in 23rd century BC. It was then shaped into sticks and dried, before use it was dipped in water and made ready for writing. Chinese inventor Tien- Lcheu was the one who made the ink by mixing soot from pine trees and lamp oils.
Gelatin was also used with this mixture. The black writing ink gained popularity by B. Nutgalls, iron salts and gum were also added to this recipe and it became the standard formula for the writing ink for a number of years.
This was made of burnt bones, tar and other substances.
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