"It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize out of a number of facts which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated. Now, in this case there was not the slightest doubt in my mind from the first that the key of the whole matter must be looked for in the scrap of paper in the dead man's hand" -- Holmes (REIG).

Unless you are an artist or a printer, you may not know the vast amount of variables in both paper and ink. We shall brush merely the surface on each topic.

INSTRUMENTS

Pencils

Before graphite was discovered in 1560, soft metals such as lead were used for writing. When graphite was finally discovered, it was called "black lead;" and the name "lead" had remained in use (leading many to erroneously believe a pencil has lead inside it, not graphite). By 1565, pencils were being fabricated.

Erasers, later added to the pencil, are made of soft rubber.

Most pencils in use today (and those required for school and most bubble tests) are "#2's." Pencils are rated on the softness or hardness of the graphite inside. The "hardest" graphite is a 9H (where "H" stands for "Hard"). Hardness diminishes as the numbers diminish, making a "2H" significantly less "hard" than a 9H. The pencils on the "harder" end of the scale are normally used in drafting, where an architect can make a fine line, expending little graphite with a normal effort. Because the pencil is "hard," it requires more effort to make the graphite come off the pencil and cling to the paper.

The standard HB (Hard Black) is the regular #2 pencil. It falls in the middle of the hardness/softness scale. This is the type of pencil used for general purpose writing.

As we continue to follow the scale to the right, the scale denotes the amount of soft graphite, all the way up to a 9B (B stands for Black), the softest graphite pencil. Usually, only artists use pencils in the extreme "soft" range. With normal effort, a pencil in the 9B range will expend a great deal of graphite, allowing a thick line (as opposed to a very thin line with the same effort if using a 9H pencil).

Note: The numbers in red are the conversion numbers for the standard "American system."

Although it would be hard to tell one individual pencil type from others in its immediate range, a message with an artist's pencil would appear very differently than a message with a drafting pencil.

Pens

Although today's world has rollerballs, ballpoints, and gel pens, we will explore only the types of pen's around until 1938 (the date of the invention of the ballpoint by two Hungarian brothers).

Until the early 1800's, most people used pens which could not hold their own ink, and thus required dipping (such as quill pens). The oldest known pen that could hold its own ink was invented by Monsieur Bion, a Frenchman, in 1702. But starting in the early 1800s, patents for pens with ink systems started appearing on the British and American scenes. The first truly workable fountain pen was designed in 1884 by L.E. Waterman, a New York City insurance salesman. For the next 60 years, this became the predominate writing instrument.

A fountain pen has several parts. The reservoir holds the ink. Around the reservoir is a round barrel, allowing the writer to grip the pen and protecting the ink reservoir at the same time . The round barrel also holds the other parts together, allowing the pen to function as a whole. The nib is the part of the fountain pen which contacts the paper. There are 9 standard nib sizes with three different cuts in the nib tip (straight, oblique, and italic). Finally, the feed controls ink flow from the reservoir (this is often black and is located under the nib) to the nib.

Individuals using the earliest fountain pens filled their reservoirs with eyedroppers; but by 1915, most fountain pens had a soft and flexible rubber sac as a reservoir. To refill the sac, the nib was put into a bottle of ink. An internal plate squeezed the sac flat, and when released, the sac would draw in a fresh supply of ink.

Early fountain pens also usually had gold nibs as early inks caused steel nibs to corrode too quickly. Gold, being too soft, was soon replaced by iridium on the tip of the nib. Nibs were designed to flex as pressure was applied; and it often took 4 months to break in a new nib to an owner's personal writing style. Because of this, people rarely loaned out their fountain pens. Owners could (and often did) have their initials engraved on the clip.

When Mycroft says, a note was "written with a J pen on royal cream paper by a middle-aged man with a weak constitution" (GREE), the "J" is referring to the size or shape of the nib. There are 9 standard nib sizes with three different cuts in the nib tip (straight, oblique, and italic).

Ink

Dip pens used black drawing ink, which is usually waterproof and fade proof. Today, it goes under the names "India", "Japan", "China", "Sumi", or "Bokuju" inks. This type of ink was invented and perfected in China (though it is often called "Indian ink." It was made from a mixture of pine smoke soot, lamp oil, musk, and the gelatin of donkey skin. Artists still use this type of ink for its dark and natural beauty; but if it is used in a fountain pen, it leaves residue which cannot be removed and will quickly ruin the pen.

Most people in the 19th Century use Iron gallotannate inks (or Blue-Black ink) which is made from insect leaf galls. These were often blue which then gradually darkened to black over a period of days; but they could also corrode the paper and the pen. During the 20th Century, soluble aniline dyes took over the fountain pen ink industry, replacing the Blue-Black ink. Fountain pen inks consist of water, soluble dyes, a wetting agent (detergent) to clean the pen and help the ink adhere to oily paper. Modern inks can be used in fountain pens, but they may bleed or fade.

Other types of inks include vibrant vegetable-based inks ink colors - but they tend to take longer to dry. Today, most people use petroleum-based inks (in their ballpoints).

A simple chromatography test for ink can be performed at home. Draw a line on the edge of a piece of filter paper (such as a coffee filter), hang the paper (with the line at the bottom) above a container filled with water. The water should touch the bottom of the paper, below the line. Over time, the water will travel up the paper by capillary action, separating the ink into its component dyes - which can then be analyzed.

In CARD, Holmes notes a message is "done with a broad-pointed pen, probably a J, and with very inferior ink." Inferior ink would likely be any ink that runs, severely fades, or bleeds on the paper in question.

PAPER

20 lb. Bond paper

There are thousands of types of paper. But generally, paper is judged by three characteristics - whiteness (or brightness), texture, and weight. Whiteness refers to the degree to which the paper can evenly reflect white light. Whiteness is measured on a scale of 0 - 100 (where 100 is the brightest). The texture refers to the paper's finish which may vary from smooth to rough. Production processes can include hot or cold press rollers, which can affect the finish.

Common finishes include matte-coated, dull-coated, gloss-coated, antique, vellum, wove, smooth, felt, linen, fiber-added, laid, parchment. (Papers can also be coated on one or both sides with such materials as clay, enamel, etc.). The last characteristic is the paper's weight, which is its heft or thickness. Most weight is measured in pounds (lbs) although today some papers are measured in thickness or points.

The basis weight is the basic weight of a ream (500 sheets which equals 1,000 pages) of paper cut to a given standard size. Standard sizes vary on the type of paper (like bond paper or cover paper). Therefore, 1000 pages of 16 lb bond paper (cut to 17 x 22) will weigh 16 lbs.

Because the standard size of any type of paper determines how heavy 1000 pages (or 500 sheets) will be, 100 LB in newsprint and 100 LB in bond paper will feel very different. The weight of paper often has to do with its stiffness and thickness.

Common basis weights for various grades of paper are:

Book/Text (cut to 25 x 38) - 40, 50, 70, 80, 100, and 120 lbs
Bond (cut to 17 x 22) - 16, 20, 24, 28, and 31 lbs
Cover (cut to 20 x 26) - 50, 60, 65, 80, 90, 100, and 120 lbs
Bristol (cut to 22½ x 28½) - 67, 80, 100, 120, and 140 lbs
Index (cut to 25½ x 30½) - 90, 110, and 140 lbs
Newsprint or Tag (cut to 24 x 36) - 100, 125, 150, and 175 lbs

Printers can also cut paper to various sizes, depending on the purpose. Following are some common paper sizes (in descending size of the cut paper so a folio size is larger than an octavo size):

a folio size (a printers sheet folded into once, making two leaves or 4 pages)
a quarto size (a printers sheet folded twice, making 4 leaves or 8 pages)
an octavo size (a printers sheet folded three times, making 8 leaves or 16 pages)

Cotton paper is paper that has scrap cotton cloth mixed with the pulp fibers during manufacturing. It is also known as ragged paper or cotton rag. Rag content can vary from 20 - 100%. The more cotton in the paper, the more expensive the paper, the more durable the paper, and the less the paper will be affected by the process of yellowing. So, the more cotton, the better. Cotton content is often listed as part of a watermark within the paper.

Watermarks, besides giving cotton content, identify the paper's printer. Holmes would have looked for watermarks on any type of paper he was trying to identify. The amount of cotton content would easily tell him the cost of the paper (and thus, an estimate of the wealth of the buyer).

A watermark

Holmes notices "several pages of foolscap" in CARD. Foolscap is inexpensive writing paper (13½" x 17"). It originated around 1700 and was originally imprinted with the watermark of a fool's cap (hence the name).

Sources for this article were Covington Innovations (ink) True Art (paper),and the "New Annotated Sherlock Holmes."