Historical Context and Uses
Gallic acid is an important component of iron gall ink, the standard European writing and drawing ink from the 12th to 19th century with a history extending to the Roman empire and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) describes his experiments with it and writes that it was used to produce dyes. Galls (also known as oak apples) from oak trees were crushed and mixed with water, producing tannic acid (a macromolecular complex containing gallic acid). It could then be mixed with green vitriol (ferrous sulfate) — obtained by allowing sulfate-saturated water from a spring or mine drainage to evaporate — and gum arabic from acacia trees; this combination of ingredients produced the ink.
Gallic acid was one of the substances used by Angelo Mai (1782–1854), among other early investigators of palimpsests, to clear the top layer of text off and reveal hidden manuscripts underneath. Mai was the first to employ it, but did so "with a heavy hand", often rendering manuscripts too damaged for subsequent study by other researchers.
Gallic acid was first studied by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1786. In 1818 the French chemist and pharmacist Henri Braconnot (1780–1855) devised a simpler method of purifying gallic acid from galls; gallic acid was also studied by the French chemist Théophile-Jules Pelouze (1807–1867), among others.
Early photographers, including Joseph Bancroft Reade (1801–1870) and William Fox Talbot (1800–1877), used gallic acid for developing latent images in calotypes. It has also been used as a coating agent in zincography.
George Washington used gallic acid to communicate with spies during the American Revolutionary War, according to the miniseries America: The Story of Us.
Gallic acid is a component of some pyrotechnic whistle mixtures.
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