T I N 



475 



T I N 



character, the principal consumption is in candlesticks, 

 tea-pots, coffee-bigs^ns, and other vessels for containing 

 liquids. The feet of candlesticks, the bodies of tea-pots, 

 and other articles containing embossed work, are stamped 

 between dies ; and when the shape of the article will not 

 allow it to be stamped in one piece, as in the case of a 

 cylindrical vessel with raised work upon the sides, it is 

 sometimes stamped in halves, which are subsequently fitted 

 and soldered together. Articles approaching the globular 

 form may in like manner be stamped in three or more 

 pieces. In stamping brass, silver, and plated metal the 

 dies must in almost every case be of steel, and the patterns 

 upon them are executed at a very great expense, but in 

 the manufacture of Britannia metal a cheaper process is 

 followed. Plaster casts are produced of the required pat- 

 terns, either from original models or designs, or from ma- 

 nufactured articles of silver, and from these are made 

 moulds or dies of fine hard pig-iron, which, with a very 

 little finishing, form dies fit for stamping so tractable a 

 metal. When very thin, it may even be stamped in dies 

 of brass or of spoon-metal. 



The great facility with which this alloy maybe moulded 

 to any required form is illustrated by the operation termed 

 a ing, by which the bodies of tea-pots with concentric 

 circular swells are usually formed. A wooden chuck or 

 model of so much of the intended vessel as may be slipped 

 off the chuck when completed is fixed in a lathe worked 

 by steam-power, and to this is applied a circular piece of 

 sluvt-metal cut to the proper ize with shears. This is 

 d against the centre of the chuck by a circular piece 

 of wood with a blunt centre-pin ; and as the whole re- 

 volves rapidly, the workman bends the plate over the 

 model-chuck by pressing it with tools of haul wood or 

 polished steel until it is brought into precisely the same 

 form, 'ihc tools are applied at first very gently, so a to 

 avoid crumpling or lacerating the metal ; and such is the 

 dexterity acquired by some workmen, that Holland states 

 that some individuals can spin twenty dozen of these tea- 

 odies in a day. The form is perfected upon a second 

 chuck: and in some cases articles are partially formed by 

 ike in a die previous to the spinning. Spherical ar- 

 ticles are, a* in the case of stamping with dies, usually 

 formed in two or more parts ; but in some instances they 

 ,nde to overlap the model, which is then composed of 

 al segments, that may be taken out of the finished 

 i by removing a centre-piece, in a similar manner to a 

 boot-last. 



Many small vessels, spoons, and other articles are cast in 

 an alloy somewhat harder than that which is roiled into 

 sheets. The facility with which Britannia rnetal may be 

 nil) into any shape and cut in the lathe, as for turning 

 ures and small vessels previously formed by casting, is 

 a great recommendation to the manufacturer. Articles <>r 

 this metal are cleaned from the oil, rosin, and other im- 

 .es acquired during their formation, by boiling in 

 water containing sweet soap; after which they are po- 

 lished, either by hand, or more commonly by the buff and 

 brush set in motion by a steam-engine. The buff is a 

 solid cylinder of wood, resembling a grindstone in form, 

 the rim or periphery of which is covered with buff leather 

 dressed with fine sand from the bed of the river Trent, 

 which, after being dried and sifted, is mixed with oil. The 

 brush is a similar but smaller circle of wood set all round 

 with four (>; li\e lows of briMlcs ; it, as well as the buff, is 

 d with sand and oil, and afterwards for finishing 

 with powdered rotten-stone and oil. The brush is used 

 generally for such articles as from their form cannot he- 

 applied to the buff, and also for all stamped or embossed 

 work. After buffing and brushing, the articles are boiled 

 in a solution of pearlash, and finally hand-brushed and 

 hand-polished by an application of soft soap, a little oil, 

 and powdered rotten-stone. This operation is usually per- 

 formed by fern is found that no instrument can 

 supply an effectual substitute lor a soft hand, which is one 

 of the first requisites inquired into when persons apply for 

 work in this department. 



!n,iiiir>i fif Arts, SfC.; Manufactures in Metal 

 cby Mr. Holland , in Lardners Cabinet Cyclopaedia, vol. 

 iii. ; 'i iiis of the Society of Arts, vol. xlviii., pp. 



24-4-2 is. , 



TIN' TIJADK. The history of the trade in tin com- 

 '* with the very earliest records of commercial i 



Urititih islands. [(JASSITERIDKS ; and Pict. 



History of England, vol. i., pp. 91-95.] We shall only 

 notice this trade as it has existed within the last two cen- 

 turies. Davenant gives some interesting information con- 

 cerning it soon after the middle of the seventeenth century. 

 In 1003 our exports of tin to all foreign countries amounted 

 to 153 tons; in 1669 to 240 tons; in the three years of 

 peace, from 1698 to 1700, on an average to 1297 tons' ; and 

 in the ten years of war, from 1700 to 1710, on an average to 

 1094 tons. In these last ten years the annual purchases of 

 the Dutch amounted to 300 tons, of the estimated value of 

 21,374^. Davenant accounts for the great increase in thu 

 exportation as follows : ' All our neighbours,' says he, ' as 

 well as ourselves, have increased in the luxurious way of 

 living ; such who heretofore were content with pewter are 

 now served in plate ; and such as made use of trenchers, 

 wooden platters, and earthenware, will now have pewter ; 

 all which is visible within forty years, and has occasioned 

 this great call of a commodity almost peculiar to us.' But 

 the produce of the mines more than kept pace with the in- 

 creased demand ; and when Davenant wrote, Queen Anne 

 had between 4000 and 5000 tons of tin on hand, a quantity 

 equal to four or five years' consumption. 'As the case 

 stands at present,' he adds,~< Holland is the great, magazine 

 for tin : the necessities of such as have it upon their hands, 

 either in merchandize or security, drive it thither, and the 

 Dutch set what price they please upon this rich product of 

 England, to the damage of the public.' He proposed that 

 a thousand tons of the dead stock should be coined into 

 tin half-pence and farthings. The produce of the mines 

 went on increasing, and the accumulation to which Dave- 

 nant alludes is only about a year's produce of the mines at 

 present. 



In the ' Journal of the Statistical Society of London ' 

 (vol. ii., part iv.), there is a valuable paper, by Joseph 

 Carne, Esq., on the ' Statistics of the Tin-Mines in Corn- 

 wall, and of the Consumption of Tin in Great Britain,' from 

 which we borrow some of the following statements. From 

 17"<!) to 1785 the produce of the mines varied from 2273 

 tons, the lowest amount, to 3005 tons, which was the 

 great est quantity in any one year : the average production 

 for this period was 2757 tons, and the average price 64*. Qii. 

 per cwt. From 1789 to 1816 the annual average quantity 

 was 2875 tons, at 79*. M. per cwt. From 1817 to 1&37 

 inclusive, the annual average was 4211 tons, and the aver- 

 age price paid to the tinner was 73.*. the cwt. In 1787 

 Banca tin was imported into this country' for the first time, 

 and the price of Cornish tin soon fell to 58s. the cwt., 

 and would have declined still further if a new market had 

 not been opened. It appeal's that the purser of an India- 

 m%n, who took some tin from the Molucca islands to 

 China in 1787, found the speculation so profitable that the 

 East India Company were induced to direct their atten- 

 tion to the trade, and the Company shortly entered into 

 arrangements with the Cornish tinners for an annual sup- 

 ply. The purchases of the Company were made at low 

 prices, but the tinners were indemnified by the artificial 

 scarcity which raised prices in the home market. At first 

 the Company paid only 68/. 13.. 4J, the ton, delivered on 

 board in London ; in 1792 they gave "ill. ; and on the re- 

 newal of the Company's charter they agreed to purchase 

 800 tons annually at 75/., and offered to take half as much 

 more at 68/. 13s. 4d. In 1809 the difference between the 

 prices paid by the Company and the prices in the home 

 market was so great that the tinners refused to supply the 

 Company, and their exports ceased; but in 1811 they 

 agreed to pay 78/., and in 1812, 80/. per ton. The con- 

 nection finally ceased in 1817, as the supply of the home 

 market had become more profitable. 



The gradual increase in the consumption of tin in Great 

 Britain is shown in the following table : 



Periods. Annual Avevaerr. 



1783 to 1790 920 tons. 





1791 to 1800 754 



1800 to 1810 1118 



1811 to 1820 1600 



1821 to 1830 2616 



1830 to 1837 3303 



Until 1838 all the Cornish tin paid a duty of 4.?. per 

 120 Ibs. to the duchy of Cornwall, which, with the fees, 

 was equivalent to 5s. This duty is now abolished. About 

 10,000 men, women, and children are supposed to be em- 

 ployed in the Cornish mires. 



From 1783 to 1790 the proportion of British tinexported 



3P2 



