
How to Make Ink in the Middle Ages - benbreen
http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/20/how-to-make-ink-in-the-middle-ages/
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mynegation
I was always interested how things were done through the various ages of the
civilization. I wish there were some comprehensive book(s) that would describe
how civilization was "bootstrapped", from primitive tools and weapons to
agriculture all the way to at least steam power.

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ant6n
It could make for a good reality/docu tv show; drop 50 engineers and
scientists on a large desert island with many resources, and task them to
rebuild civilization. It would be interesting to see how long it will take to
get the required work just for food acquisition low enough so that one could
engage in the civilization building. It would also be interesting to see
whether there are big shortcuts, things that don't have to be redone.

Oh another thought: In our modern civilization, we require a lot of materials
that cannot be found in the wild. In order to get them, we need to do complex
mining - but to do that, we need simpler mining -- to do that, we first need
some tools -- do make those, we need more basic tools. I kind of wonder what
the shortest chain/tree of prerequisite tools and materials is from the stone
age, to, say, a modern cpu (to make it easier, let's assume availability of
resources is not an issue).

(I feel these thought experiements were kinda spurred by the finale of
Battlestar Galactica, at least in my circle of friends.)

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bsder
> I kind of wonder what the shortest chain/tree of prerequisite tools and
> materials is from the stone age, to, say, a modern cpu

I suspect the chain isn't as long as you think, and you probably spend most of
your time on the last steps.

The _HUGE_ win is steel. You can almost go from stone age to well into the
Industrial Revolution with almost no intermediate steps based on knowledge
alone (blast furnaces date to 1st century AD--the limitation on steel was lack
of chemistry knowledge rather than engineering).

After that you start needing interlocking industrial infrastructure.

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eaevans99
I can't tell if the author is describing Iron Gall ink
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink))
but it's not especially hard to make in small quantities if you have the
ingredients.

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semi-extrinsic
This is indeed a recipe for iron gall ink. Different parts of trees were used
in different locations, but gall nuts were common around the mediterranean,
hence the name. It is, as you say, easy to make, but it can ruin a good
fountain pen due to its corrosiveness.

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afarrell
12 Years a Slave had an interesting bit about how you can make ink by boiling
maple bank, though it was far less thorough than Northup's descriptions of the
agricultural processes for cotton and sugarcane. There should be a sow like
How it's Made, but depicting historical methods.

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sageabilly
The BBC historical documentary series "The Edwardian Farm" had some of this.
It follows a year in the life on a farm set in the Edwardian era and the three
documentarians are a historian and two archeologists. It's really well done
and super interesting.

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deepnet
'Quink' Blue Black ink is dyed blue, the blue dye fades over 20 years or so as
the black iron ink, that is permanent, develops.

The blue dye is necessary as the black takes ~20 years to cure but should
outlast the paper.

It is well worth considering the permanence of your daily ink, many
Universities have tales of lost Professors trying to re-create the now-faded
notes of their youth.

Will your original writing last for hundreds of years ?

Pencil is a potentially very long lasting mark.

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jseliger
Interesting you mention that—I like Pigma Micron pens
([http://www.jetpens.com/search?q=pigma+micron&v=2](http://www.jetpens.com/search?q=pigma+micron&v=2)),
and they claim to be "archival." IIRC, Pilot G2 ink is also supposed to last
for a very, very long time, and it's probably among the most-used pens in the
world.

