Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1877 — ABOUT TIN. [ARTICLE]

ABOUT TIN.

Tlx is not classed among the nrociew inct ils It Is one <ff lite rlld vaWsSc Of the mineral productions of Ute earth, nevertheless. Ils antiquity is jMtyOjjdhe ken of the historian, ball- sineMW Setinniug of recorded time it has t<een used in the arts of peace and war. Tin is one of 1 the products for which Great Britain wasj earliest famous. The Pte•’th tained it them and tnmtporttSHao the ancient cities of IVre 'tiStbn. though it is found in every hoitacboJjin the civilised world, it is - That the eulirc annual product of the world does not exceed 15,000 tonjk It is essential in the manufacture of every description of bronze work, caters into the comKition of great engines of war, and is reflecting surface ot. the mirror; it gives tone to the chqrqji <wme, and no dinner-bell is completer without it ; it is used in the beautiful decorations on the finest vases, and gives lability to die colors that issue’from the dyer’s hands; it is one of the essentials in Inorganic chemistry, and is used as a power for polishing plate and to give whiteness and opacity to enamels. It is a beautiful silvery white metal, with a tinge of yellowish blue, and a high metallic luster. Tne history of thfs useful q»tai is not generally known. Although ‘lt is found in limited quantities in Australia, Malacca, California, Missouri, and in »»(■ places on the Continent trf Europe, yet nine-tenths of all the tin used in the world comes from England. In the little County of Cornwall, which forms the southaesi extremity of England, are located the world-famous tin mines in the old red sandstone, granite and neighbors are silver, lead, cpbalt and aaiiniony, elaleandsoapahu&s Cornwall is full of antiquities, and, together with the tScilly Isles, was the Cassiterides of the Greeks and Phoenicians, butftcontains nothing more remarkable, nor more interesting to the tourist, than its tin mines, the face of the cOuntiy 1 being for the most part barren and rugeed. The importation of tin into the Vhited States has greatly increased during the past five or ten years, si the cstr.blhhment of the vast cominefctdfi liAnaetichK ly-sealed fruits and vegetables, and it has lately received a degree of importance in this city, by reason of the exportation ol meats in sealed eans to thSi Old JVorld, and especially to England and Scotland. One of our largest manufacturing establishments for several years con trolled the exportation of tin dans to the countries in South America, where meats are cured for the markets of the whole world, but now the monopoly ot this trade has been broken bv the growth of the meat ‘ exportation from the-liutcd States. story of a tin-cahis'dhc of peculiar interest. There is but one ore ot tin of any- importance. It is called tin stone, and is cf various colors—black, red, yellow and gray—and it is said that it will, like Hint, strike fire with steel. By refereuce to the authorities on minerals, we learn that the metal is reduced from the ore in much the same manner as si 1 ver and gold. The “ dressing ” of tin ore obtained from the mine is a difficult and delicate operation, fft requires to be stamped to a very fine powder by peculiar machinery before the metallic particles can be effectually separated, and out of a ton of ore taken from the mine, not more than ten pounds of the metal is sometimes obtained, so small, comparatively, is the valuable portion. The ore te, partially purified by repeated washings, but still retains both sulphur and arsenic, and, in order to deprive it of these substances, it is cast into a reverbwatory furnace, where the arsenic is removed by condensation and the sulphur by the igreat heat to which it is subjected. If it contain other extraneous substances they are removed by chemical Jprofcefißes, and then the tin receives a final washing, preparatory to another roasting in a reverberatory furnace, in whice it is mixed with powdered coal and lime, This process resu’ts in destroying everything which fire will burn, and leaves thA purified tin in a molten state, to be drawtt off. like syrup from the pan, in the bottom of the furnace, from which it ia lade let! into molds, to produce ingots and blocks of convenient size. The tin must again undergo a double purifying process, “liquation” and “ poling.” fliis is an interesting process. It consists in moderately healing “ till the tin, owing to its comparatively easy fusibility, mefls and flows into the refining basin, leaving on the hearth of the furnace a residuary alloy of tin with iron and other metals. The tin is then ready for poling. In this operation billets of greenwood are plunged into the melted metal, the disengagement of gas from which produces a constant ebullition, and so causes a scum to rise to the surface, which is easily removed; at the same time impure and dense parts fall to the bottom.” leaving lhe pure tin on the top. Pure tin could not be used for the many purposes to which the tin of .commerce is applied, and, therefore, it will be hreessarv to understand that, tin in plates, such as are used for manufacturing the manifold household utensils, "a very Uyu sheet of iron, coated over Wiflitingly inserting the iron in .a Bath or Tiquiaun. Pure tin is very soft, and is.not very ductile, but it may be exposed to the weather for a long time without becoming corroded. Without the tin-coating, however, the iron sheets would be deprived of almost all of their usefulness; therefore.it is that tin-plate is named tin, as it gives character to the article and renders it valuable. We now find the tin in sheets, packed in bundles, and prepared Io travel to the ends of the earth The Chicago manufacturer finds it stored ia the great wagehouses of Liverpool, from which he orders the desired quantities. Before it is laden on the steamship; the forwarding agent is required by the Customs laws of this country to present a true statement of. the size, weight and value of the tin to the United Steles Consular officer, whose certificate to the coritßhts tff ther mvoice is necessary, that the tin, upon i|s arrival on our shores, may qot « into trouble. This inoffensive voyager does not intend to atop long with us, and will have an active sojourn in this country with scarcely leisure enough to look around tn see whether it likes the place or not. When it is taken out of the hold of the vessel at New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Baltimore, its Consular passport is there to confrent it, and if .the Customs offi-dals and that it agrees with- the description giveh, it is immediately carried to the freight depots of the railroad coming to Chicago. The Government compels it to pay for the privilege of stopping long enough in this country to undergo a change tty manufacture, which will entitle it to return to its native shores, not ia the dark, hold of the vessel, but in a compartment fitted for . special reception, and in which it will receive the tenderest care. At the Cus-tom-House oh the seaboard the tin is required to give a bond to the Government, to the effect that it’will depart from our shores in a certain time, ana another bond

that it will go straight to Chicago, where ft will be again subjected to careful scrutiny, weighed for the purpose of asccr taining whether it has gained in avoirdupois by the ocean voyage, and appraised to ascertain its value. The Government keeps its paternal eye upon our shining visitor from the very moment of its arrival, and after it arrives in Chicago the manufacturer, who is the owner of it, is required to jrivo the Government anothei bond, stipulating that, as he doesn’t intend to keep it in this country, but only desirea to nut it into respectaldetrim to return home, he will return it to the custody of lhe Customs officers after he is through with it. From the mines in Cornwall to the manufactory in Chicago is a long journey, and with all the pounding, washing, roasting and reroasting, melting, rolling, etc., one would think the tin, when it arrives at the final resting-place as a sheet or plate in the warehouse, would be a very valuable article, whereas it casta but about five cents a pound in gold, on the average, the range being from 1 1-10 cents to 7 cents in Liverpool. These tin plates, as stated above, undergo a complete transformation here, and are filleel with meats and vegetables, hermetically sealed, and exported to Hamburg, Liverpool, London, Glasgow and many other cities, and no doubt many of them find their way back to the cots of the Cornwall miners,who,while they delve into the bowels of the earth, or in the shades of bvening gather in groups about the granite ledges and the sandstone cliffs, talk over the long journey of the fruits of t pit labors. As an example of the great increase in the traffic in tin in this city alone, it may be stated that since the first of las. January one establishment alone Jias manufactured and shipped back to the native land more than twenty tons of these tin cans, not including the weight of their contents. Chicago Journal.