Table of fibre and ink readings

SAMPLES AND READINGS. Bench 41. All samples consumed in testing. Nothing retained.

F1. Fibre, leaf 4, lower margin, 2 mm. Flax, well beaten, no cotton. Gelatine size present.

F2. Fibre, leaf 40, lower margin, 2 mm. As F1. No distinguishable difference.

F3. Fibre, leaf 76, lower margin, 2 mm. As F1. No distinguishable difference.

F4. Fibre, the endleaf at the tail, 3 mm. Flax with a proportion of cotton. Not the same stock as F1 to F3. Consistent with the reback.

I1. Ink, leaf 12, from a stroke terminal. Iron gall, high vitriol, characteristic haloing at the verso.

I2. Ink, leaf 71, from a stroke terminal. Iron gall. The reading is not distinguishable from I1 within the limits of the method.

Remark, entered 2 November. The two inks that the eye separates are not separated by the test. This means the test is not fine enough, or the eye is wrong, or the difference is one of hand and not of ink. I incline to the third and cannot demonstrate it. The samples are gone; the question cannot be put again to this volume.

Remark, entered the same day. Six samples were planned and six were taken. A seventh was proposed, from the spine lining, and refused by the owner. I record the refusal because a reader in fifty years will otherwise think I did not think of it.