I am proud to say that I am old enough that I was (for one term!) an ink monitor for grade 6. That is, I had the duty of arriving in class early and had to fill up all the ink wells from a big glass bottle. There was a special apron in the cupboard with the big glass bottle, and I had to wear it during the task. I doubt that apron had ever been washed as it was stiff enough to crackle and was completely covered in spilled ink.