$74 
Tin, 
ture of lead and silver, yet the same author tells us, in the 
same place, that white lead {plumbum album ) , by which 
It is universally allowed our tin is meant, was so incorpo- 
rated with copper by boiling, that the copper could scarce- 
ly be distinguised from silver.* Nay, it appears that 
the Romans not only used pure tin, but the same mix- 
ture of tin and lead, which some of our workmen 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 ;f 
and they used this silvered copper (I do not call it plated, 
because copper is plated by a different process) in orna- 
menting their carnages, and the harness of their horses, 
* Stannum illitum aeneis vasis, saporem gratiorem reddit, et 
compescit seruginis virus, mirumque, pondas non auget — from 
the weight of 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 tin- 
ning now in use— album (scil. plumbum) incoquitur aereis operibus, 
Galliarum invento, ita ut vix discern! possit ab argento, eaque in~ 
coctilia 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 coepere e quo- 
rum maximc ornamentis, &c. Id. ib. 
To the preceding authorities I add that many utensils of copper 
plated with silver, have been found at Herculaneum. M. Beaume 
presented the Academy of Sciences with a plate of copper coated 
with silver (double d’argent) found in the Bourbonnois near Chen- 
telles. On the border in relief was executed a sacrifice to Bac- 
chus. Encyclop. quto. Tom. 6. p. 406. T. C 0 
