Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-02-18
THE TIN-PlArE sw1ND1E.
Some Information About 1t Prom On,
Who Knows,

tin-plate is taken from the National In
tettigencer of February 9Th. The Ma
tonM intstttgencer is the New York
organ of the provision and meat indus
tries of the United States:
We do not think that in any branch
of business there is such confusion of
facts, which have been perverted in
most cases not from any sense of malice
or from any i'll will, but merely from
want OF better knowledge and expe-
rience, than in those branches of bust
ness which deal in and consume tin
plates. Many think that tin-plates are
originally blocks of tin which are rolled
to a certain gauge and fineness; others,
again, have different ideas, and between
all these, and while friends and enemies
OF the tin-plate consumers and dealers
lose their time and their temper over
scnseless arguments, any plain workman
who has ever been employed in a tin
plate mill could divulge and explain all
that is mysterious about the subject
TEMPLATES are sheets of steel rolled to o
certain gauge and then covered with
tin or terne mixture (The latter
is composition of lead and
tin). Nevertheless a great deal of
darkness and mystery exists to day In
the minds of many about the manufac-
ture of tin-plate in this country. When
we speak about manufacturing tin
plates we do not mean the buying of
foreign plates and dipping them into
bath Of tin or terne. We understand
land il is generally understood in Wales
which is considered the cradle of tin
| plate industry of the world) that the
manufacturing of tin-plates means for
the largest mills to buy the ore, for the
smaller mills to buy the bars and in the
smallest to procure the billets and then
roll out sheets, &C., a process which we
have described more infinitely in pre-
ceding issues. We reiterate that to buy
black plates IN any form and to dip
them in bath of molten metal--tin or
terne-is not, in the true and honest
sense OF the word, manufacturing tin
plates.
The investigations of The Ndtiona,
i'roeisioner on this subject have been
exhaustive enough to commend the at
tention OF the press and the public of
the entire country. Without any bias
irrespective of any political convictions)
we have given whatever information we
had on the subject. The clamor of the
so-called tin plate manufacturers is great
to-day. Their claims arc greater still.
The capacity of their mills is heralded
all over this country, but the actual out
put is not mentioned. None Of those
journals who announce SO loudly that
millions of capital are invested in the
tin-plate industry i'll the United States
to-day will dare to say, as matter of
conviction, that there is one establish
ment which can, in Justice to itself, turn
out enough bright tin-plates to supply
one cannery of moderate size. Let us
be true and honest No "bluffing,"
please We know pretty we'll the
present state of the experiment in the
United States.
The concern which is most advanced,
in our opinion, is the United States Iron
and 'Tin-plate Company of Demmler,
Pa. They have been making tin-plates
of the heavier gauge for more than is
or 20 years. A concern in Cleveland,
more addicted to making noise and
SANDER than to truth, writes that they
can make 1000 boxes day. TIE
National Progisioncr will pay $1,000 to
the poor of the city of Cleveland, O., if
said concern does turn out only half
that quantity per day at present for
commercial purposes, rolling its own
sheets, rolling its own black plates and
can prove its so doing bona fidc.
inquiries have reached us whether
black plates are made in this country,
, and one gentleman writes that he had
seen black plates made with his own
eyes at the Cleveland works of which
we have spoken above. No sensible
man can deny that black plates are
being made in this country, nor will any
one who is in the business and who has
had any experience dare to doubt that
they have been made in this country for
the last 30 or 40 years, in possibly 40 or
90 different mills in different states of
the Union. What are black plates ?
Black plate is only sheet iron. and we
do not question that sheet iron is being
, made in the United States. What we
do question is that any iron of No. 30
gauge, cold rolled picked and annealod,
, Is being turned out and, by being timed,
made into tin plates in the United States.
(Ihis is the gauge which is used by the
canning factores,l Our reason for
questioning this is not that it cannot be
done. That is not the point. There are
any number of mills in this country
which could make this gauge Of iron
plates in very short time BY merely
. adding 10 their plants number OF rolls
and thinning pots. The reason whythev
are not making it is merely this, that
black plates OF this gauge are worth
45c. to Ate. per pound in the United
States, while the English black plate.
I of the same quality are worth IN Eng.
land l.9Oc. per pound, and even with
r the duty added of 1.40c. or l.60c bel
5 pound (according to the kind Of iron
! the English can be brought into this
! country and timed cheaper than tic
American black iron can be made aud
timed. Consequently we know it 10 be
! a positive fact that nearly all the present
= manufacturers and would be manufac
$ turers OF tin plates, small as their num-
a Der IL, in the United States are making
I their tin plates, from imported black
plates, which arc being TIMED
IN imported pots, by imported Wclcl
laborers. We pect in a not very fal
i future to give some positive statistics oi
: the amount in black iron that has beer
+ purchased In this country, of the people
e In the United States who are buviur il
the names Of those whom the imported
: timing machines have been DOUGH
= from, where the latter are being erected
), and by whom the whole business /!
! being done
q Truth crushed to the earth will ris,
/ again, and as certain as the presen
: would-be manufacturers Of tin. plate,
i are deceiying their representatives il
: Congress about their manufacture 81
t tin-plates, and as sure as they know
: that they are doing wrong by concealinl
I. the fact that they arc importing blaoi
: sheets and timing them and making be
/. lieve that these are American sheets (w,
r speak of the lighter gauge, which ar,
i over four. tifihs Of all the tin. ,,intns ,sn.