The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-11-18
ABOUT TIN,


more valuable than gold and tin more
valuable than silver. The tin cups that
garnish the corner-cupboards of every
cabin are as indispensable to the kitchens
of the wealthy as to the homes of the
humble. Throughout all our land there
is no household without its various uten-
sils and vessels of tin. And yet, not
withstanding its universally of use, in
all our land, we, as yet. produce no tin;
nor do we even manufacture the plates
from which our utensils of tin are made.
The common use of tin is older than
any historic date. Inasmuch as it con-
stitutes the ingredients of bronze it must
have been in use during the remote era
known as the "bronzc age" before the
use of iron had become known and when
weapons of war as we'll as domestic uten-
sis were made of bronze, a compound of
copper and tin. The pliabiily of tin in
the hands of rude workmen made it
probably the earliest metal known to
human use. The ancient Hebrew Pro-
phets make mention of lands abounding
in silver, iron and tin.
The ancient founders of the great CON-
mercial cities of Tyre and Sidon, the
Canaanites, whom Joshua, after seventeen
years of warfare, could not "utterly
drive out" and known to history as
PhGnicians, were among the earliest dis
coverers and chief distributors of tin in
its application to the useful arts. Their
maritime enterprise, after leading them
through the whole length of the Med
iterranean, brought them out upon the
Atlantic, whose European coasts they ex-
plored as far north as to Ireland, to which
they gave the name of Hibernia, mean
ing "the uttermost limit of land"
In the course of these voyages of ex-
ploration, those Tyrian mariners, "whose
merchants were princes" discovered
what is now known as Cornwall on the
coast of the present British Isles; and
there they found the great mines of tin,
which have ever since formed the princi-
pal source of supply of this useful metal
TO the commercial world.
TO the principal island of this group
those Ph@nicians gave the name of
B'ratanak, meaning "a land of tin" as
characterizing their discovery of this
metal on the coast of Cornwall. And
from this appellation, B'rat'nak, given
by those ancient Canaanites to that
island, the modern poetic name for Eng
land, Britannia, is derived and which is
also the common name for the compound
metal "britannia," of which block tin is
the chief constituent.
Strabo makes mention of these Britain
mic Isles, which, he says Gin times past
were known to the Phenicians only, who
traded with them for tin, lead and
skins" But the Greeks, who always
translated foreign proper names into the
equivalents of their own language, called
these Britannia Isles the Cassiterides,
from the Greek word KAssITERos, mean
ing tin. So that the British, or Britannia
Isles, from both the Greek and Phenician
etymology, signify "the land of tin."
And the land of tin Britannia has ever
since remained. For, though tin has
been found to exist to some extent in
Saxony, in Malacca and the Malayan
Peninsula, and recently in Australia,
where is found an oxide of tin known IS
cassitcrite (from the Greek word above
mentioned). still the worlds supply of
tin has been almost entirely derived from
the tin mines Of Cornwall, discovered and
worked by those ancient Canaanites from
Tyre and Sidon probably before Moses
was born.
Astounding as our country is in min
eral productions of almost every kind, it
is misfortune that we have not as yet
been able to add to the list any mine Of
tin. Inasmuch as in other countries
where tin is found it is found grouped
with silver, iron and lead, it would seem
not improbable that we would yet dis.
cover this valuable metal among our min.
eral depo-its of concurrent character
Indeed, it has been recently announced
that a deposit of tin has been discovered
r in the mineral region of New Mexico
, Should this be confirmed, such a mine
would be of more value than a mine Of
silver of equal extent.
The amount of money we send abroad
to England for our supply of tin is some
thing enormous. From the British Trade
Reports we discover that from 1868 in
elusive we have imported from that land
of tin seventeen millions of boxes of tin.
plate, making almost eight hundred and
, forty-six thousand tons, at cost of $1l5,
040,7l7. This averages nearly $11 ,0O0,
: 600 annually. If those possible mines Of
tin in New Mexico should at some time
supply this demand, we could keep those