The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-02-21
WESTMINSTER MD, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1891.
TIN.
From the Popular Science Monthly.

|
few, except men of science and metallur
gists, are acquainted with, is one of tn,
most precious and most interesting metals
After gold and silver, it is intrinsically tn,
most precious of those in use 1t is nearly
of the same color and almost as bright a.
silver, but has less resistance and is less
valuable When warmed by friction it has
pronounced odor and taste When it il
bent the arrangement of the crystals Of
which IFS mass is formed causes it, without
any fracture taking place, to emit peculiar
sound which metallurgists call its cry, and
by means of which an expert can nearly
determine its degree of purity. The places
where tin is produced are few, scattered
sparsely over the surface Of the globe, and
it disguises itself under the form of black
ish mineral, which, to the profane eye,
gives no sign of the treasure that is within
it.
OuG VI lllC llClltot stS Ntli iiibot
tin mining districts is in the Malay Penin-
sula the Golden ChersOnesus of the an
clients. The name of the province, Perak,
signifies silver, but is peculiarly the PROV
ince of tin. The use of tin dates from ex-
treme antiquity. Homer mentions it as
kdssteros, in the descriptions of the arms
of his heroes. Herodotus speaks of the
British Islands as the KdSSiterileS The
Phenieians obtained the tin which they fur
nished to the ancient world chiefly from
those islands, but partly also from Gaul
and the Iberian Peninsula. Before the
Phenicians and the Greeks, however, the
Chaldeans knew this metal under the name
of kastira. The most ancient document in
which mention of it has been found is
probably hymn to the fire, which NJ. OPP
pert has translated from the Acadian Ian
guage, tongue the knowledge of which
has been recently revived from cuneiform
documents Tin was designated in them,
5000 years ago, as dndh'".
The Biblical text in the book of Num-
bers in which Moses names tin in the emu
meration of metals is therefore compara-
lively modern, FOR it is of 1900 years later
date than the hymn to the fire. Even
IL al =, H.,
tian statuette in bronze (an alloy of TIM of
the age of the pyramids, or 5000 years b.
G. Let us return to our own age, and see
what is the present annual production of
tin. In a recent book on the Industries of
the Netherlands NJ. De Ramaix gives as
the production of the Dutch East Indies
10000 tons, of Cornwall 5000 tons and of
Australia 1000 tons, in all $4,000. These
figures show that the English mines have
fallen off since the days of the Phenicians,
when Cornwall was the principal centre of
production. They have been left behind
by the Dutch East Indies, and will soon
be oyertaken by Australia. If the number,
1000 tons, given as the present production
of its mines, is not exaggerated.
Saxony and Bohemia, which still figure
in the cyclopedias as sources Of tin, are not
mentioned in NJ de Ramaix' S estimate. A
graver omission is that of the Malaccan
mines, which have mentioned as the most
ancient, and also perhaps the most prOduc-
tive. According to Mr.. Patrick Doyle's
Tin Mining in Larut London, 1870, the
Malay States of the Malaccan Peninsula
exported to Penang in 1877, in round
numbers. $500 tons of tin, and the Siamese
States of the same country 1000 tons, max
ing $500 tons in ALL From personal infor-
nation, I estimate the expectation from the
single Malay State of Perak, in 1881, at
6139 tons. The production of the PENN
sua having grown steadily since 1876, |
believe can assert that it now takes the
lead among tin-producing countries, and
that the worlds total present annual pro-
duction of this metal is not less than 49,,
600 tons. Yet this production is hardly
sufficient to supply the needs of existing
industry, for the price of tin, before the
crash in copper, by which it was also af-
fected, had reached the high figure of $500
a ton.