India ink

India ink (or Indian ink in British English) is a simple black ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing, especially when inking comic books and comic strips. India ink is also used in medical applications.

Composition

Basic India ink is composed of a variety of fine soot, known as lampblack, combined with water to form a liquid. A binding agent such as gelatin or, more commonly, shellac may be added to make the ink more durable once dried. India ink is commonly sold in bottled form, occasionally in solid form (most commonly, a stick), which must be moistened before use. India ink may be waterproof or non-waterproof.

History

The process of making India ink was known in China as early as the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, during Neolithic China. India ink was first invented in China, although the source of materials to make the carbon pigment in India ink was often traded from India, thus the term India ink was coined.

The traditional Chinese method of making the ink was to grind a mixture of hide glue, carbon black, lampblack, and bone black pigment with a pestle and mortar, then pouring it into a ceramic dish where it could dry. To use the dry mixture, a wet brush would be applied until it reliquified. The manufacture of India ink was well-established by the Cao Wei Dynasty (220–265 AD). Historically the ink used in China were in the form of ink sticks made of lampblack and animal glue.

Indian Ink

Indian Ink is a 1995 play by Tom Stoppard based on his 1991 radio play In the Native State. The stage version of Indian Ink had its first performance at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, and opened at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on February 27, 1995. The production was directed by Peter Wood and designed by Carl Toms. The play had its American premiere in 1999 at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California, directed by Carey Perloff (see 1999 in literature).

Synopsis

In 1930, the year of Gandhi's Salt March, British poet Flora Crewe travels to India for her health. Flora is a thoroughly modern girl who has modeled for Modigliani, hobnobbed with communists, and been accused of obscenity for the racy book A Nymph and Her Muse. In India her portrait is painted by the Indian artist Nirad while she fends off the attentions of a dashing but dimwitted scion of the British Raj. But her bravado hides the knowledge that she is severely ill with tuberculosis.

In the 1980s, American academic Eldon Pike seeks out Flora's younger sister Eleanor to discover the truth about the end of the poet's life — she died in India soon after meeting Nirad. Eleanor, who married an Englishman she met at Flora's grave and became a staunch Tory, reveals little to the scholar, sending him off on a wild goose chase tracing Flora's path through India. But she is more welcoming to Nirad's son Anish, who also comes looking for answers. Eleanor shows Anish a painting by Nirad done partly in a classical Indian style, and partly in the style of Western realism. The painting's erotic symbolism convinces him that his father and Flora were lovers before she died.

Indian Ink (horse)

Indian Ink (foaled 2004) is an Irish-bred British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare who was the highest-rated filly trained in the United Kingdom in 2007. As a two-year-old in 2006, she won three of her seven races, culminating in a victory in the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes. In the following year she was beaten in her first two races, but then defeated a strong international field by six lengths to win the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Throughout her racing career she demonstrated a marked preference for soft ground. At the end of her racing career she was sold for 2,000,000 guineas and retired to stud.

Background

Indian Ink was a chestnut filly with a faint white star bred in Ireland by the County Meath-based Killeen Castle Stud. Her sire, Indian Ridge, and was a sprinter who won the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot in 1989 and later became one of the few successful stallions of modern times to emerge from the Byerley Turk sire-line. His other progeny included the Prix de l'Abbaye winner Namid and the Breeders' Cup Mile winners Ridgewood Pearl and Domedriver. Her dam, Maid of Killeen won one minor race and has also produced the Bahrain Trophy winner Feel Like Dancing.