306 



TINNING COPPER, &C. 



copper by boiling, that the copper could scarcely be distinguished 

 from silver. * Nay, it appears that the Romans not only used pur 

 tin, but the same mixture of tin and lead, which some of our work- 

 men use at this time in tinning vessels. A mixture of equal parts 

 of tin and lead, they called argentarium ; a mixture of two parts 

 of lead and one of tin, they call tertiarium ; and with equal parts 

 of tertiarium and tin, that is, with two parts of tin and one of lead, 

 they tinned whatever vessels they thought fit. They, moreover, 

 applied silver upon copper, in the same way in which they applied 

 tin upon it ;+ and they used this silvered copper (I do not call it 

 plafed, because copper is plated by a different process) in ortoa. 

 men ting, their carnages, and the harness of their horses, as we now 

 use plated copper ; on this head Pliny observes, and a rigid phi- 

 losopher will apply the observation to ourselves, that such was the 

 luxury of the Romans, that it was then simply reckoned a piece 

 of elegance to consume in the ornaments of coaches, and in the 



was generally applied to tin alone ; but as this metal, when employed simply, 

 will be fmind a very indifferent solder for copper, it is obvious, that the plum* 

 bum album of our poet, and of the Roman coppersmiths in general, must also 

 have included a compound of tin with lead, or some other metal, as well at 

 pure unmixed tin* M. Klaproth, who has paid much attention to numismatic 

 analysi?, has discovered that the coins of Magna Grsecia and Sicily consisted of 

 copper, alloyed with from an eighth to a twelfth part of lead, and half as much 

 of tin. The Roman coins he has at times found to have been formed of pure 

 copper; and occasionally with an alloy of one-fourth, or one-sixth, part of zinc, 

 and a small portion of tin. The ancients were only acquainted with zinc in 

 its ore, which is calamine ; their brass was denominated aurichalcum, and was 

 a compound of calamine and copper. Zinc, as a semi-metal, was not known 

 till its discovery by Albertus Magnus, in the 13th century. According to 

 Aristotle, the Greeks acquired their knowledge of converting copper into 

 bras*, or aurichalcum, from a people who inhabited the borders of the Euxine 

 sea, whom he denominates Mossynseci ; and it is from this word M. Klaproth 

 derives the term messing, which is the German appellation for brass. 



[Editor. 



* Slannum illitum aeneis vails, saporem gratiorum rcddit, et compescit aeru- 

 ginis virus, mirumque, pondus non auget from the copper not being sensibly 

 increased (for Pliny here speaks popularly), we may infer, that the covering 

 of tin which the copper received was very slight, and the art alluded to by 

 Pliny in this place, was probably the same with that of tinning now in use 

 album (scil. plumbum) incoquitur aereis operibus, Galliarum invento, ita ut vix 

 discern! possit ah argento, eaque incoctilia vocant. This description seems 

 to be expressive of the manner of tinning, by putting the copper into melted 

 tin, as is practised in the tinning of iron plates. Plin. Hist. Nat. L. XXXIV. 

 S. XLIII. 



t deinde et argentum incoquere simili modo ccepere equorum maxime 



ornameotii, &c. Id. ib. 



