The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-12-26
PAPER AND INK.
Their Writing Materials Were Crude, but
the Romans Wrote Charming Letters.

Their Writing Materials Were Crude, bus
the Romans Wrote Charming Letters.
Although the writing materials of
the ancient Romans were crude
enough, when compared with elegant
stationery of to-day, they wrote charm
ing letters and books whose fame will
live forever. There was no haste in
epistolary efforts in those days; writ
ing was serious business and involved
an amount of preparation favorable to
thought. The materials used as paper
We're of three kinds: the rind of plant
or tree called papyrus, parchment
made of skins, and wooden tablets,
covered with wax. Pieces of the thin
rind of the papyrus were joined to-
gether when damp, pressed, dried in
the sun and rubbed until smooth
Long rolls of sheets pasted together
were sold. Some rolls of papv-
rus sheets nearly fifty yards in
length are now preserved in one
or two museums in Europe. When
book was finished, stick was fastened
to the last sheet and all the sheets
were rolled together in a way similar
to that In which we roll our maps. The
name of the book was written in red
ink on piece of papyrus which was
attached to the roll. The second kind
of paper or parchment was made from
the skins of sheep and goats. The
hair was taken off and the skin made
smooth by the use of pumice. A re-
marl1a BILE fact in connection with writ
ing on parchment was that the an
clients often used the same piece twice
or even three times. They did this by
rubbing or washing the writing off.
The third kind of writing material
was the waXen Ia blet, used for almost
any purpose, but chiefly in writing
letters and making notes and by
schoolboys for writing exercises or
working out problems. The tablets
were made of wood, generally beech,
fir or citron wood, covered on one sid.
with wax. In order to prevent the
wax of one piece from rubbing against
that of the other when they fastened
two pieces together with wire, they
left a rim around the wood. The wire
fastening the backs of the ia blets
served as hinge. When a writer had
finished his letter he placed the ablets
together, bound them with a strong
string. tied this into a knot, placed
wax upon the knot and stamped it with
his signet-ring. The ink used by the
Romans was of various kinds When
they used paper made from papyrus
they wrote with ink composed of lamp
black and gum. With parchment they
used mixture of gum and oak
gals. Sometimes they made an ink
by boiling the dregs of wine. 1t is
said that occasionally they used as ink
the black fluid emitted by the cutie
fish. Ovid tells us that people occa-
sionallv wrote with fresh milk, and
that the characters could be seen only
when coal-dust was sprinkled upon the
paper. Single and double ink stands.
the latter for ink Of two kinds, some
round in shape, others heXagonal, with
covers, were found at Pompeii. Pens
were made from a reed of nearly the
same shape as our old-time quill pen.
1T was split like our pens and so had
the name ''cloven-footed. Certain
Asiatic people use this reed even now
With the waXen tablets a sharp iron
instrument called stilus was in use.
One end was sbarpened for scratching
on the wax: the other end was fiat and
was used as an eraser -Waverly Maya
zine