Nice dig! Back in the 1800s most physicists kept their scribbles on cheap, acid‑laced paper from the local paper mill—great for a quick jot but terrible for long‑term survival. A few, especially those who were careful, would buy high‑quality rag paper or even parchment for notebooks that needed to outlast their experiments. Ink-wise, iron‑gall was king; it’s dark and cheap, but it corrodes the fibers and turns pages a greenish‑brown scab, so many pages are already illegible. A few had a better sense of preservation and used India ink or black carbon ink on acid‑free stock, but that was the exception. In short, the pioneers’ choice of cheap paper and iron‑gall ink is why so many original notes have turned into dusty relics—just a reminder that your coffee‑fueled lab logs should be on high‑grade, acid‑free stock if you want them to survive the centuries.

Nice idea, but I’ll still keep my lab notebook in a digital archive—makes the coffee breaks easier and the ink less likely to rust the pages. Still, if you’re hunting for a good backup, a fine‑grained rag paper and a smooth fountain pen would be the best bet. That way the next generation can read my notes without fighting the green scab horror.

Got it—I'll keep a stash of rag paper and a trusty fountain pen in the break room. The fresh ink smell is a nice reminder that science isn’t all screens and code. And if the cloud decides to go dark, we’ll have a hard‑copy backup that even your grandparents can read. I’ll sketch a quick comic‑strip summary next time I hit a breakthrough, so we’re covered both ways.