General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

I remember, at primary school. They had ink monitors. School did not buy ink, at least not as we know it.

Some powdered pigment was mixed with water, and the ink monitors filled and distributed those little ceramic inkwells to the desks.

They operated a 'protection racket'! If you did not pay up the tuppence, or so, as they demanded, they would give you a contaminated inkwell. Shredded blotting paper mixed up with the ink, so when you tried to write with those crude dip pens, the nib would splutter droplets of ink onto the page, creating a mess for which you would get caned.