Correction!

In an earlier post I wrote about the gritty material that we have on many of our documents and I had assumed it was in the ink that they used at that time period.  While at the Priesthood Restoration visitors center I mentioned to our guide that we have a grit on our documents and wondered what it was.  She said that she probably could solve the mystery when we get over to the Joseph Smith home.  Sure enough on the translation table was a ceramic jar much like a salt shaker with holes on top and inside of it is what they call pounce.  After Oliver would write on the paper he would shake the pounce over the document to dry up any ink that might smear and then pour the remainder of the sand back into the ceramic container.  When I got home I googled pounce and sure enough that is exactly what we have on our documents.  

Here is what Wikipedia said--

Pounce ultimately derives from the Latin for pumice via the old French word "ponce". It is a fine powder, most often made from powdered cuttle fish bone that was used both to dry ink and to sprinkle on a rough writing surface to make it smooth enough for writing. This last was certainly needed if the paper came "unsized", that is lacking the thin gelatinous material used to fill the surface of the paper and make it smooth enough for writing with a quill or a steel nib.

The pounce or sand is gently sprinkled all over the writing on the paper. When using a quill or a steel nib, and with inks that are made up to match those typically in use during the 18th or 19th centuries, and provided the pen has been used with the fine strokes typical of handwriting of that period, the handwriting will be sufficiently dry within 10 seconds to allow the paper to be folded without blotting. Gently vibrating the paper whilst the pounce or sand is on it ensures that little or no pounce or sand sticks to the handwriting and excess sand or pounce is shaken off before folding the paper.

In the 19th century the pounce pots or sanders often had a shallow dish round the top so that pounce or sand could be returned to the pot and reused. The process is very effective for quickly drying ink, and although blotting paper has been available since Tudor times, pounce or sand continued to be used throughout the nineteenth century because it was often cheaper.

I love discovering new things!