370 On the maniifaclur'mg Tin Plate, 



fitrutnent in the whole affair, until it was was perfected — and a 

 Cornish miner, a protestant, who had been banished out of 

 England for his religion, found out the tin in Saxony — both 

 which persons proved instruments of great wealth to that duke 

 and country*." 



Notwithstanding Mr. Yarranton had so completely introduced 

 the knowledge of making tin-plate into this country, I do not 

 find that any manufacture of that article was established in these 

 kingdoms until some time between the years 1720 and 1730, 

 which must have been long after Mr. Yarranton's death. The 

 first establishment of this kind was, I believe, fixed in Monmouth- 

 shire, where it continued to flourish many years f. 



About the time that this manufactory was established, the 

 amiable and intelligent M. Reaumur, to whom the French are 

 indebted for a new mode of graduating the thermometer, and for 

 many discoveries and improvements in the arts J, — undertook to 

 discover the method of making tin plates for the French people. 

 This eminent man, whose mind was cast in a mould very similar 

 to that of Mr. Yarranton, but who possessed more science, never 

 relinquished any thing which he imdertook; and accordingly, not- 

 withstanding the innumerable difficulties which he had to encoun- 

 ter, at length succeeded in acquiring such a knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of the manufacture, as enabled him to instruct several peo- 

 ple in the vicinity of Paris, in an art which, until then, had never 

 been practised in that country. 



Soon after the time of which I am speaking, several siniilar 

 manufactories were erected in Great Britain ; and now the esta- 

 blishments of this nature are so numerous and extensive in many 

 parts of these kingdoms, that the riianufacture of tin-plate is be- 

 come of great national importance, and more than one hundred 

 thousand boxes of these plates are annually exported. 



January 12, 1818. 



* Saxony is only separated from Bohemia by a chain of mountains called 

 the Erzegeberg; which in German signifies hills that contain mines. 



t Upon further inquiry, I find that this was at the town of Ponty Pool j 

 and it is remarkable, that after the lapse of nearly 100 years the manufacture 

 has recently been re-established at the same town, on a very extensive scale. 



X It was Mons. Reaumur who was the means of introducing into France 

 the methods of making porcelain ; for when Francis d'Entrocolles, who had 

 resided many years ir China as a Christian Missionary, sent to France spe- 

 cimens of the materials used by the Chinese in their porcelain, M. Reaumur 

 immediately instituted a series of experiments to discover the method of 

 imitating their productions, and in the years 1727 and 1729 communicate^ 

 the result of his researches to the Academy of Sciences ; and his two mcr 

 moirs were published by the Society in their Transactions. 



LXII. Ac- 



