Chap. 30.] [ 175 ] 



CHAP. XXX. 



TIN. 



Ctutral Properties of Tin.' Granulated Tit. Natural Hilary o/?'^-;. 

 Its Union with the Acids, Ufe of Tin in improving tht red Djes. 

 Smoaking Liquor of Libaijius.'Aurum Muji-vum. Combinations 

 of Tin with other Metals. Different Species of Pewter. -Piatj. 

 Application of Tin in dying* Ufe in Medicine. 



TIN, when its furface is frefh, is bright, and with 

 refped to whitenefs holds a middle place between 

 lead and filver. Tin is the lighteft of all metals, being 

 only about feven times heavier than water. It pro- 

 duces a cracking noife when it is bent, though it yields 

 cafily. It is very foft, and, probably from this caufe, 

 it is Scarcely at all fonorous. It is confiderabjy mal- 

 leable, and may be reduced beneath the hammer into 

 laminae thinner than the leaves of paper (commonly 

 known by the name of tin folV) which are of great 

 life in feveral arts, particularly the foiling of looking 

 glaffes. Its degree of toughnefs is fuch, that a wire 

 of tin of the tenth of an inch in diameter fupports 

 a weight of forty-nine pounds and an half without 

 breaking. 



Tin is the moft fufible of metals, and melts at a 

 little above the heat of .400, which is long before it 

 becomes red hot. In patting from the fluid to ths 

 folid ftate it remains a ihort time in an intermediate 

 condition, in which it has little more cohefion than 

 \vet fand, and may be broken by a blow of a hammer, 

 or by agitation, into grains. Tin is eafily calcinable 

 in an obicure red heat 3 it at firft forms a grey pellicle j 

 and in a flrong heat it calcines with inflammation into 



a white. 



