Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-01-09
A SHORT TALK ABOUT TIN.
A USEFUL METAL ACCURATELY DE.
SCRIBED.
Where H. Comes From, and How 10
is Worked into Pans, Kettles, Etc.
Visit TO a Tin Factory

--NlsIt TO n Eln EaCsOTye
M. Quad, in one of his Short Talks
with ''The Boys" says about tin: Save
irc1 there is no other one metal brought
into such general use, and yet YOU may ask
q hundred men hand-running what tin
is, without receiving correct answer.
What is it2 The tin of every day use,
my boy, is mostly what you may call
sheet-iron polished up. These metal
sheets which shine like polished sill
yer are black enough under that sur
face. Every sheet of tin coming into
this country, and most of the tin used in
the world, is shipped from Wales. Corn
wall is the great center, and right there
Providence placed all the material neces-
sary for making the tin of commerce
iron, coal and tin ore.
The iron, after being duly prepared, is
rolled into sheets just the thickness of
the tin you see at the tinsmith's, and is
cut in regular sizes. The tin ore is melt
cd the same as iron, and while it is in a
liquid state the plates of sheet iron are
dipped into it and then run between iron
rollers, which smooth them off. The
plates, ore and rollers must all be
kept hot, and you may believe that this
part of the work is terribly trying on the
men. After the plates pass tho rollers
they are polished by being fed through
another machine, and are then assorted
and made ready for packing.
As to how tin is worked up you prob
ably know all about, having watched
tinsmith at work. But let me tell you
that the days of the tinsmith, so far as
working the tin into household utensils,
oyster cans, tobacco boxes, ETC., are
numbered. Within the past few years
machinery has started to compete with
the soldering iron, and the journeyman
tinker realizes that his days are swiftly
passing. We now have seamless articles
in almost everything, and all of them of
better shape and appearance than can be
made by hand.
Let's take little trip through the De-
troit Stamping company's factory and
post ourselves bit. Here is great room
full of men and women and curious ma
Chinery, but before we go in let us look
into the system of management little.
An enormous quantity of tin must be
used here each week, and without some
careful system to govern all there would
also be an enormous waste. The work,
then, to great extent, is given out by
the piece. A workman is instructed to
make, say, 200 wash boilers. 1t is known
in the office exactly what materials he
will need, and he is given an order
on the keeper of the stock room
for so many sheets of tin, so many of
stamped copper bottoms, so much wire,
so many handles so much solder. When
his lot of boilers is finished his stock is
accounted for to a penny's worth and
there has been no waste.
You may have picked up seamless
pie-tln and wondered how it could be
made in that manner. Here is the
machine which does it. 1t is solid and
compact, and meant to exert great pres
sure. On what may be called the lower
jaw of the machine is fiat iron bed; in
the center OF this is a steel mold, OF, as
you may call it, steel pie-tin. The
sheet of tin to be used is cut to a certain
size, being an inch larger on all sides
than the pie pin. 1t is laid on this steel
mold, and, as the machine works, a steel
head is pressed down into the mold and
turns the tin up on every side. 1t is
taken out an almost perfect pie-tin,
only needing to have the edges pressed
down by another machine to be ready
fer market. While l have been telling
you how the one tin was made the
machine has turned out hundred.
All the salves which you buy of the
druggist are put up in tin boxes. Here
is one of the very few machines in the
United States which make them. The
principle is the same as the other, and as
you realize the economy practised you
can't help but feel astonished. Ask a
tinsmith to make you box to hold two
ounces of salve and he must take his
compass and mark out the top and bot
tom and cut them with his shears. He
must then cut his side pieces, bend them
in machine and use his soldering iron.
1t will take smart workman from
twenty minutes to half an hour to finish
your box, and no matter how handy he
is there will be certain roughness in his
work.
Now watch this machine. A workman
takes a strip of tin cut to certain width
and feeds it in on the mold, the steel
head comes down with a click, ana one
half your box drops to the floor. The
next blow drops the other half, and the
box is made, except that the lower half
is taken in hand by another machine
which mills the edges and prevents the
cover from slipping down too far. This
machine Turns out $500 boxes per day,
with the least possible waste of ma
terial. Fifty tinsmiths could not do its
work.
You may have discovered that wire
is run al ound the edges of the larger ar,
ticles of tinware, such as pals, dish,
pans and boilers. Where these articles
are made of sheet-metal there is no need
of it, but when stamped from tin the
wire is put in to render them sitter and
stronger. The tinsmith measures a piece
from his coil of wires, files it off, and
then bends it ina circle as we'll as he can
by his imperfect machinery The only
way he can straighten a piece of wire is
by hammering, and using his eye as q
guide.
Here is the machine which works
faster than hundred thinkers. The
wire is taken off reel, straig htened, cut
in any length, and bent to any shape de,
sired faster than you can count, and no
mistakes are made.
In the making of cups, kerosene cans,
tea and cotfee-pots, clippers and few
other articles with handles, the solder
ing iron must come into play, but basins,
pans, cups, wash-dishes and pie-tins can
be STAN ped and made ready for market
with rapidity to astonisn you. All the
ware in which seams have had to be