The Democratic advocate., 1878-02-09
Our 0lio.
HISTORY OF TIN.

An English paper has recently given a
very interesting history Of the metal tin.
From il we take the following facts:
In Numbers XXI, %, Moses mentions
gold, silver, iron, lead and tin. The He
brew equivalent of this word is Bedil. It
occurs in three other places in the Hebrew
Scriptures. Once in Ezekiel XVI, ~,
where Bedil is mentioned with silver, iron
and copper, as an article of Tyrian COM
meree, once in Zechariah ", 10, where
the plummet Of the builder is said to be
Of Bedil stone; and once in Isaiah /, 25.
where the word seems to mean Stag or
scoria. The Greek and Latin equivalents
of Bedil are Cassiteros and Stannum. IL
is nearly certain that these words, where
they occur in the translations of the Bible,
do not mean tin, but white, heavy alloy
of lead and silver. Pliny, in his History
of the World, describes the process of
smelling lead as it was carried on in his
time A. d. or 81. Two kinds Of lead
we're then known. One was made by sim
ply heating the ore, which at once gave
good marketable product. This was called
Ilumbum Nigrum (black Iead). The other
kind was made from q different ore by
more complex process The ore was
stamped, washed, roasted, made into a
paste with water, and then fused in a fur
mace. The first fusion gave a regulus,
which was called Stannum. This Stan
mum was fused a second time on hearth
of ashes, and two products were obtained.
One, metallic, was Argentum OF silver; the
other, non-metallic, was called galena or
molybdena. This galena, separated and
again fused, yielded lead or PIumbum Nj
grum. 1t is quite clear that Pliny here
describes the preparation of lead and silver
from an argentiferous ore And we may
also learn that Stsnnum is an alloy Of the
two metals 1t is well known that the
ancients did not regard the presence of
small quantities Of silver in lead; so that
the product Of the first process, described
as good marketable lead, probably con-
tanned sufficient silver to repay extraction
By modern processes. Although Bedil
and Stannum at first only meant this lead
and silver alloy, yet very early in our era
they became to mean what we now call
tin. Pliny tells that cessiteros was plum
bum candidum, that is, white lead. At
the time Pliny wrote, this was the name
given to tin. II is, therefore probable that
the Greeks, when tin was first introduced,
considered it as only variety Of the older
and better known alloy.
From Stannum, the French, Germans,
Dutch and English have all borrowed their
names for the metal In old French tin
was Estain; later it was changed to Etain;
the German is Zinn pronounced tsin D;
the Dutch is like the English. Stannum
itself is said to be derived from the same
word as the English stone, but this is very
doubtful.
The first tin we hear of is called Tyrian
aEd Kettle. The Tyrians we're the i'm
porters, and the ancient Britons or Kelts
the manufacturers, and hence the names
of both were given to the product.
We do not know when tin was first
mined in England. 1t certainly was
marketable product long before the Romans
came, but further than this cannot be de-
termined.
The Latin authors tell us that they oh.
tanned this metal not only from Britain
and the Cassiterides (Which were, perhaps,
the Sicily Isles, but also from Spain,
Portugal, Galatia, and the Hesperides
probably the Canaries). 1t is said that
tin was worked in Spain before the inva-
sion of the Moors in A. d. Ill, but that
the works ceased during their occupation.
We first hear of the Bohemian tin works
IN the thirteenth century Matthew Paris,
the English historian and monk (died
l259), tells us that Cornishman, having
committed a murder, fed to Germany
While there, in 124l he discovered tin,
and so laid the foundation of the Saxon
mines. This is rather apocryphal, and We
are told by another writer that tin mine
had been discovered and worked in Ger
many in the year ll46 In the thirteenth
century so much tin was raised in Ger
many that it was brought to England aud
sold so cheaply as to seriously affect the
pocket of Richard, Earl of Cornwall.
In the sixteenth century East Indian tin
began to attract attention. 1t was first
exported from Malaeca, but now chiefly
comes from Banca. 1t is recorded that
in l776 the Chinese were working the
Bauca mines for the King of Palimbang
The latter gentleman sold the metal to the
Dutch East India Company at about SO
shillings per cwt., netting profit of nearly
200 per cent. Most of the tin produced
there went to China and India, but in I77S
the Company sent 100000 pounds to Eu-
rope.
Tin ore has now been found in Corn
wall, ireland, Bohemia, Saxony, Green
land, Sweden, Finland, the East Indies,
Australia, Bolivia, the United States, and
Mexico 1t only occurs in quantity at a
few Of the places, and is still a rare metal.
Tin has been put to u great variety of
uses, and its sphere of usefulness is still
extending Homer and Hesiod tell us it
was used for adorning the armor, weapons
and dresses of the heroes. The Lapland
women in the seventeenth century used tc
on1hroidar thar drasoe. 1, II g., l.. Il