WRITING MATERIALS

Questioned Documents
Definition of Terms
ANACHRONISM – It refers to something
wrong in time and in place. This means that the
forger has trouble matching the paper, ink, or
writing materials to the exact date it was supposed
to have been written.

PAPER – These are sheets of interlaced

fibers - usually cellulose fibers from plants, but
sometimes from cloth rags or other fibrous
materials, that is formed by pulping the fibers and
causing to felt, or mat, to form a solid surface.
Definition of Terms
WATERMARK - Certain papers are
marked with a translucent design, a watermarks
impressed in them during the course of their
manufacture.

WRITING MATERIALS – Any material used

primarily for writing or recording such as papers,
cardboard, board papers, Morocco paper, etc.

WHAT IS THE COMMON QUESTION ON

PAPER?
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
PAPYRUS - This came into use about 3,500 B.C. -
people of Egypt.  Palestine, Syria, and Southern
Europe used the pith (soft spongy tissue of the stem) of
the sedge (grass-like herb) CYPERUS PAPYRUS to
make a writing material known as PAPYRUS.
PARCHMENT - writing material made from skin of
animals primarily of sheep, calves or goats - was
probably developed in the Middle East more or less
contemporaneously with papyrus. It came into wide use
only in the 2nd century B.C. in the city of PERGAMUM
in ANATOLIA.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
DEVELOPMENT OF PAPER MANUFACTURING
 It is widely claimed that invention of paper
is generally attributed to a Chinese court
official, CAI LUN (TSAI LUN), in about A.D.
105. He is the first to succeed in making
paper from vegetable fibers, tree barks
(mulberry tree), rags, old fish nettings.
 The art of papermaking was kept secret for
500 years; the Japanese acquired it in the 7th
century A.D.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
DEVELOPMENT OF PAPER MANUFACTURING
 In A.D. 751, the Arab city of Samarkand
was  attacked  by marauding  Chinese
and some Chinese  taken  as  prisoners
 were skilled  in papermaking and were
forced by the city Governor  to build
 and  operate a paper mill and
Samarkand soon  became the
papermaking center of the Arab world.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
DEVELOPMENT OF PAPER MANUFACTURING
Knowledge of papermaking traveled
westward, spreading throughout the Middle
East, the Moorish invasion of Spain led to
the invention (A.D. 1150) or erection of the
first European paper mill, at JATIVA,
province of VALENCIA.

Note: For additional reference, read

files on Word Dox.
TRACING THE AGE OF PAPER
(DOCUMENT)
The age of the document may be estimated
from paper. Four cases were reported by Lucas
where the age of the document was established
from the compositor/composition of the paper.
In one of these cases, a document dated 1213
A.H.  (A.D. 1798) was found to be written on
paper composed entirely of chemically prepared
wood cellulose. Considering that this type of
paper was not introduced not until about 60 years
later, the document is obviously a fake one.
 WATERMARKS
• It is a term for a figure or design
incorporated into paper during its
manufacture and appearing lighter than the
rest of the sheet when viewed in transmitted
light. The earliest way of identifying the date
of manufacture of the paper is by the
WATERMARK - a brand put on the paper by
the manufacturers
 DISCOLORATION
One way of tracing the age of the
paper is through the observance of the changes in
its physical characteristics partic­
ularly DISCOLORATION. Naturally, a paper will
discolor after a passage of time due to numerous
environmental factors such as moisture,
temperature, dust, etc. In case of papers out of
wood pulp, they start to discolor at edges from 2 to
3 years. While RUG-SHIP QUALITY papers, they
are very old before discoloration starts.
WRITING
INSTRUMENTS
Questioned Documents
Questioned Documents
DEFINITION OF TERMS
FLEXIBILITY OF PEN POINT - One quality of the
nib pen is its pliability. This quality varies which different
pens and can be measured by the amount of pressure
necessary to cause a spreading of the nibs or a given
degree of shading.
FOUNTAIN PEN - A fountain pen is a modern nib
which contains a reservoir of ink in a specially designed
chamber. After complete filling the pen is capable of
writing a number of pages without refilling.
INK - is a fluid or viscous marking material used for
writing or printing.
 DEFINITION OF TERMS
PEN - A tool for writing or drawing with a colored fluid,
such as ink; or a writing instrument used to apply inks to the
paper is a pen. It came from the Latin word "PENNA", meaning
feather.
PEN NIBS - The tow divisions or points which from the
writing portion of a pen are its nibs.
QUILL PENS - It is a hollow, horny part of large
feather usually from goose and was used for writing on
parchment.  Poland, Germany, Russia, and the Netherlands
were the largest producers of quill.
WRITING INSTRUMENTS (WRITING IMPLEMENTS) - Writing
Implements, manual devices used to make alphanumeric marks
on or in a surface.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
REED PENS/SWAMP REED
It came from especially selected
water grasses found in Egypt, Armenia and along the
shores of the Persian Gulf, were prepared by leaving them
under dung heaps for several months.

It was the first writing tool that had the writing end

slightly frayed like a brush. About 2,000 years B.C.,
this reed pen was first used in NEAR EAST on papyrus and
later on parchment.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
QUILL PEN
Although quill pens can be made from the outer wing feathers of any bird,
those of goose, swan, crow and (later) turkey, were preferred. The earliest
reference (6th century AD) to quill pens was made by the Spanish Theologian
ST. ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, and this tool was the principal writing implement
for nearly 1300 years.
To make a quill pen, a wing feather is first hardened by heating or letting it dry
out gradually. The hardened quill is then cut to a broad edge with a special
pen knife.
The writer had to re-cut the quill pen frequently to maintain its edge. By the
18th century, the width of the edge had diminished and the length of the slit
had increased creating a flexi­ble point that produced thick and thin strokes by
pressure on the point rather than by the angle at which the broad edge
was held.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
STEEL POINT PENS (BRAZEN PENS)
Although pens of bronze may have been known to Romans,
the earliest mention of "BRAZEN PENS" was in 1465. The
16th century Spanish calligrapher JUAN DE YCIAR mentions
brass pens for very large writing in his 1548 writing manual, but
the use of metal pens did not become widespread until the early
part of the 19th century.
The first patented steel pen point was made by the English
engineer BRYAN DONKIN in 1803.
The leading 19th century English pen manufacturers were
WILLIAM JOSEPH GILLOT, WILLIAM MITCHELL, AND
JAMES STEPHEN PERRY.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
FOUNTAIN PENS
In 1884, LEWIS WATERMAN, a New York
insurance agent, patent­ed the first practical FOUNTAIN
PEN containing its own ink reservoir. Waterman
invented a mechanism that fed ink to the pen point by
capillary action, allowing ink to flow evenly while
writing.
By the 1920's, the fountain pen was the chief writing
instrument in the west and remained so until
the introduction of the ball point pen after WORLD
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
BALL POINT PEN
JOHN LOUD, in 1888, patented the first ball point writing
tool.  A ball point pen has in its point a small rotating metal ball
that continually inks itself as it turns.
The ball is set into a tiny socket. In the center of the socket is
a hole that feeds ink to the socket from a long tube (reservoir)
inside the pen.
As early as the 19th century, attempts had been made to
manufacture a pen with a rolling ball tip, but not until 1938 did
Hungarian inventor brothers LADISLAO and GEORG BIRO invent
a viscous, oil-based ink that could be used with such a pen.
Hence, they are attributed for the invention of the first practical
ballpoint pen.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
BALL POINT PEN
Early ball point pens did not write well; they tended to skip, and
the slow-drying oil-based ink smudged easily.  However, the ball-
point pen had several advantages over the fountain pen:
–the ink was waterproof and almost un-erasable;
–the ball point pen could write on many kinds of surfaces;
–could be hold in almost any position for writing; and
–the pressure required to feed the ink was ideal for making
carbon copies.
Ink formulas were improved for smoother flow and faster
drying, and soon the ball-point replaced the fountain pen as the
universal writing tool.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
FIBER TIP PENS
In 1963, fiber tip markers were introduced into the U.S. market
and have since challenged the ball point as the principal writing
implement.
The first practical fiber tip pen was invented by YUKIO HORIE of
Japan in 1962. It was ideally suited to the strokes of Japanese
writing, which is traditionally done with a pointed ink brush.
Unlike its predecessors, the fiber tip pen uses dye as a writing
fluid. As a result, the fiber tip pen can produce a wide range of
colors unavailable in ball point and fountain pen inks. The tip is
made of fine nylon or other synthetic fibers drawn to a point and
fastened to the barrel of the pen. Dye is fed to the point by
elaborate capillary mechanism.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
FELT-TIP MARKERS
-are made of dense natural or artificial
fibers impregnated with a dye. These markers can
be cut to a variety of shapes and sizes, some up to
an inch in width. A modification of the ball point pen
using a liquid dye fed to a metal/plastic ball was
introduced in the U.S. from Japan in 1973.
INKS
Questioned Documents
 COMPOSITION AND
CHARACTERISTICS OF INKS
• Indian Inks • Stamp Pad Inks
• Log wood Inks • Hectograph Inks
• Iron Gallotanate Inks • Typewriter Ribbon Inks
• Fountain Pen Inks • Printing Inks
• Dyestuff Inks • Canceling Inks
• Water Resistant • Skrip Ink -
Writing and Drawing
Inks
• Water Resistant
Writing and Drawing
 INKS
THE EXAMINATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF
INK
THE CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF INK
THE CHROMATOGRAPHIC EXAMINATION
AND SEPARATION OF THE DYESTUFFS IN
THE INK
DETERMINATION OF THE AGE OF THE INK