Nature and Art, January 1, 1£G7.] 
ON TIN. 
17 
the plates to the roof of the treasury at Atreus, in 
Mycenae, and of the instruments found in the tombs 
of ancient Egypt. 
The bronze coins and ornaments found by us 
during our researches amongst the ruins of the 
“ House of Lamachus,” in the ancient Chersonesus, 
are almost identical in composition with the tools 
and instruments discovered at Thebes ; whilst the 
weapons of war and the chase, brought to light on 
opening the tumuli, with which many of the 
hills and breezy downs of England are covered, 
contain the same formula. 
The Saxons do not appear to have taken a stand 
in Cornwall until the reign of Athelstan ; and but 
little interest was taken in mining either by them 
or the Danes, and no great impetus seems to have 
been given to it until after the Norman conquest. A 
great portion of the trade was then conducted by 
the Jews, who, no doubt, contrived to enrich 
themselves almost as much as the Phoenicians had 
done in their day. King John appears to have 
interested himself in the welfare of the tin miners, 
and to have granted charters for the better regula- 
tion of mining operations. Edward I. seems to 
have aided in confirming some of the measures 
instituted by John, which led to the separation of 
the Devonshire from the Cornish miners. 
The leaden seal of the ancient tinners of Corn- 
wall, found in a field near Bath, and now in the 
museum of the Royal College of Mines, in Jenny n 
Street, was probably of this period ; and from both 
sides being exactly alike, it has been surmised that 
it was struck with a view to its attachment to some 
important charter relating to tin mining. The two 
figures represent “tinners,” one with a pick and 
the other a shovel, working in their stream work ; 
the running water being indicated by the lion’s head 
between them (not an unusual emblem amongst the 
old gem cutters). The legend may be thus ren- 
dered,— ^-S’COM-VNITATIS STANGNATO : 
CORNYBIE. No medal or seal like it is, so far as 
we have been able to ascertain, in existence ; and 
how it should have found its way to the vicinity of 
Bath is a problem open to the curious for solution. 
As time passed on discoveries continued to be made, 
and more extensive subterranean workings con- 
ducted. Regular lodes of tin, associated with other 
metals, were from time to time discovered, and the 
extraction and treatment of their products 
gradually improved on ; and although other coun- 
tries possessed tin mines, its exportation continued 
to be considerable. Yet, strange to say, all the 
so-called tin plates (which in reality are only 
thin iron sheets dipped in molten tin), used in this 
kingdom up to 1665, were sent from Bohemia or 
Saxony ; and although about this time an attempt 
was made to introduce the manufacture regularly, 
and one Andrew Tarranton, who was sent abroad 
for the purpose, succeeded perfectly in discovering 
the process, and manufacturing many thousands of 
plates on his return, superior to those imported, 
yet no manufactory was established until between 
1720 and 1730, when the first was put in opera- 
tion at Pontypool, in Monmouthshire. 
ii. 
The thin sheets of iron, after being rendered 
perfectly clean and free from adhering oxides, by 
diluted acids and bran water, are dipped in molten 
tallow, and then plunged into a bath of fused tin, 
which adheres to and completely covers them. Tin 
is a most important ingredient in the manufacture 
of pewter, gun-metal, bronze, (fee. A vast number 
of small wares, such as hooks, handies for pots, 
tacks, &c., are coated with tin to preserve them 
from rusting. Tacks are tinned by first cleansing 
them in diluted acid, then placing them with frag- 
ments of the metal and sal ammoniac in an earthen- 
ware bottle over a strong charcoal fire. On the 
coating of tin being complete, they are washed and 
finally dried in hot sawdust or bran. Nearly all 
the cooking utensils throughout the East are of 
copper, and it is requisite, in order to avoid the 
unwholesome qualities of that metal, to tin their 
interiors. 
This is done by first rubbing the surface bright, 
then heating it over the fire, and when sufficiently 
hot rubbing the fused tin with powdered resin 
quickly and evenly over it ; a handful of cotton or 
linen rag forms a convenient rubber. A mineral 
known as wolfram is often found associated with 
the ores of tin, and from its gravity and peculiar 
character, being a double tungstate of manganese 
and iron, great difficulty was experienced by metal- 
lurgists in separating it. Mr. Oxland at last solved 
the difficulty by treating the ores in the furnace 
with carbonate of soda. A chemical change at once 
took place. The tungstic acid seized on the soda 
and formed a tungstate of soda, valuable as a 
mordant or fixer of dyes, whilst carbonic acid was 
set free, and the scoria or slag carried off the 
other elements of the objectionable compound ; so 
chemistry steps in to aid the arts. There are a 
great number of sources now from which tin is 
obtained, amongst which may be mentioned Banca, 
the trade of which colony belongs to the Dutch, 
Chile, Mexico, Australia, Spain, Bohemia, (fee., (fee. 
The mountain ranges between Galicia and Portugal 
are exceedingly rich in the ores of tin, only needing 
commercial energy and capital to render them highly 
remunerative. Many of the names relating to tin 
and its treatment have been handed down from 
very remote ages to the present day. The lord or 
landowner’s dues are still spoken of by those con- 
nected with tin mining, as his dish, from a dishful 
of ore, out of every sixth or eighth (according to 
agreement), measured from the pile of ore, being- 
laid aside for his benefit. The term. J ews ’ house tin, 
applied to the masses of roughly smelted metal 
occasionally discovered by the miners in old 
workings, was first given from the Jews having in 
early ages the supervision of the furnaces. The tin 
coinage, as it was called from the French word com, 
a corner , consisted in the chipping off of one corner 
from each block of metal for assay, before the arms 
of the Duke of Cornwall were stanqied on them ; up 
to 1858, a duty of four shillings per cwt. was levied 
as a royalty due to the duke. This inconvenient 
and troublesopie custom was abolished during the 
present reign, and a perpetual annuity, grounded on 
c 
