236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Let us return to our own age, and see what is the present 

 annual production of tin. In a recent book on the Industries of 

 the Netherlands, M. de Ramaix gives as the production of the 

 Dutch East Indies, ten thousand tons ; of Cornwall, eight thou- 

 sand tons ; and of Australia, seven thousand tons ; in all, twenty- 

 five thousand tons. These figures show that the English mines 

 have fallen off since the days of the Phoenicians, when Cornwall 

 was the principal center of production. They have been left be- 

 hind by the Dutch East Indies, and will soon be overtaken by 

 Australia, if the number, seven thousand tons, given as the pres- 

 ent production of its mines, is not exaggerated. Saxony and Bo- 

 hemia, which still figure in the cyclopaedias as sources of tin, are 

 not mentioned in M. de Ramaix's estimate. A graver omission is 

 that of the Malaccan mines, which I have mentioned as the most 

 ancient, and also perhaps the most productive. According to 

 Mr. Patrick Doyle's Tin-Mining in Larut (London, 1879) the Ma- 

 lay states of the Malaccan Peninsula exported to Penang in 1877, 

 in round numbers, 2,500 tons of tin, and the Siamese states of the 

 same country, 7,000 tons, making 9,500 tons in all. From per- 

 sonal information, I estimate the exportation from the single Ma- 

 lay state of Perak, in 1881, at 6,139 tons. The production of the 

 peninsula having grown steadily since 1876, I believe I can as- 

 sert that it now takes the lead among tin-producing countries, 

 and that the world's total present annual production of this metal 

 is not less than 45,000 tons.* 



Yet this production is hardly sufficient to supply the needs of 

 existing industry, for the price of tin before the crash in copper, 

 by which it was also affected, had reached the high figure of $800 

 a ton. This is because, while the applications of the metal have 

 varied much at different periods, it has always been applied to 

 numerous uses. There is hardly a house so humble that has not 

 its utensils of tin- ware. Wherever woman has advanced beyond 

 the crystal of the fountains, of which Seneca boasts, we are sure 

 to find, if not a looking-glass, a mirror ; and there is hardly a 

 country so savage that European glasses silvered with the amal- 

 gam of tin have not reached it. It is used in all the applications 

 of soldering, in tin - foil for wrapping preserved foods, and in 

 printing-types. Some of the uses which our forefathers made of 

 it are matters of much interest. 



In the middle ages tin passed from the Gauls to the Merovin- 

 gian Franks ; and, according to Gregory of Tours, basilicas were 

 roofed and tombs were covered with it. It was extensively used 



* I believe that these figures understate the facts. In a book on the Political Geogra- 

 phy and Economical Situation of the Malay Peninsula, in 1888, published by the French 

 Minister of Public Instruction, M. de La Croix gives the production of the peninsula, from 

 official documents, as over 24,000 tons, or more than half that of the entire globe. 



