The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1879-05-03
WHAT is TIN WARE?
THE CARE OF 1T.

tdoes not appear to be generally known
that the article so commonly used for
household utensils, for cans, for roofing,
etc, called ''tin, really contains very little
tin, seldom more than one part in forty or
fifty. 1in-pure tins silvery white
metal, and is the lightest and easiest melted
of all the metals in common use; it being
only about ive-eighths as heavy as lead,
and requires only about two-thirds the
heat to melt it. Pure tin is called ''block
tin," but it is rarely used pure, the utensils
said to be made of block tin being alloys
with other metals. Our common tinware
is really tin plata thin piece of iron,
coated with a film of tin. Plates of iron
of the proper size and thickness are secured
with sand and acid. until perfectly clean,
and then dipped several times in melted
tin; coating of tin, of variable thickness,
adheres to the iron.
The object of coating iron with tin in
this manner is to protect the iron from rust
ing. Tin when exposed to the air does
not rust or even tarnish, while iron readily
poes so, but the thin coating of tin COM
pletely protects it. No doubt that many
housekeepers will be ready to assert that
tinware does rust, and they are correct
tin1Vare does rust, but tin itself does not.
So long as the coating of tin is perfect, no
rusting can take place. The knowledge
of the fact that all our tinware is only tin
upon the surface, but that the body is iron,
should lead to greater care in the purchase
and the use of such articles. Aside from
the fact that the iron plate may be good
or bad, there is great difference in the
coating of tin; for cheaper ware, not only
is the tin adulterated with lead, but this
put on in the thinnest possible coating,
various expedients being used to quite
cover the iron and yet make the coating as
thin as possible, mere film or wash.
In this, as in many other cases, the pur-
chaser must rely upon the honesty of the
manufactures, for in this as in silver plate
the bad looks equally well with the good;
the maker of the ware can buy tin plate
on which there are three or four times as
heavy covering of tin as on the cheapest
1t is important to have good ware at the
start. It will be understood that when a
plate of tin is cut, the iron is exposed at
the edges; in making up utensils careful
manufacturers tin these edges, 4. e. cover
them with film of tin. The neglect to
do this is what makes cheap ware show
rusty spots after few days use. With
the best of ware the tin will in time wear
off and expose the iron, but this is often
fastened by improper cleaning.
Some persons, especially help, pride
themselves upon their bright tinware,
which is furiously secured with soap and
sand; one such securing will remove the
timing from cheap ware, and the best
cannot stand many repititions unframed.
Nothing coarser than whiting should be
used upon tinware, unless in the rare cases
when some accident has made it necessa-
nv; care in its use, and the knowledge that
the tin, like beauty, "is but skin deep
that the articles are really iron with..a thin
covering of very soft metal, tin-should
lead to a more economical treatment of
these most useful household conveniences.