New Britain herald., 1916-03-16
BOLIVIAN TIN IN
 THE UNITED STATES
Me Use More Metal Than Any
 Country in the World

The United States consumes annu- ally more tin than does any other country in the world. In fact, it con- sumeS more than the other five lead ing tin-cOnSuming countries, Germany France, Great Britain, Austria-Hun gary and Belgium combined. By far the greater portion of it goes into the manufacture of tin cans, such as those used in canning tomatoes and other vegeta bles, fruits, salmon and meat products, and it is because of this particular use that the United States has heretofore bought very little of it's tin supply from Bolivia the greatest producer of tin ore in all the Amer icaS.
 Just why the use to which tin is put should have anything to do with the source of the supply is clearly set out in an article in the February num- Der of the Bulletin of the Pan Amer ican Union, Washington, D. C., in which the writer deals with the sub- ject of tin, it's uses, the location of the greatest tin mines in the eastern world and incidentally explains why Bolivian tin has been so little used in the United States and why the new electrolytic refining process will alter
 
 part as follows:
 'BOnVla does not produce tin, but tin ore, not the metal but the min eraI. In the chain between Bolivia and the United States there has been lacking the intermediate links which represent smelting and refining. True, there is some smelling done in Bo- livia, but the metal produced, being unrefined, is not of the quality that the United States demands Tin has many uses, but these may be grouped under three general heads: First as an unalloyed metal; second as an al- Toy with copper, zinc, antimony, lead, and other metals; third, as a plating for iron, steel, copper and other more easily corrOded metals Under the first head tin is used in making certain pharmaceutical and scientific instru- ments, and tin foil. Under the sec Ond it is used in the production of bronzes, gun and bell metal, pewter, the whole group of so called white metals etc, it's use as an alloy being almost unlimited.
 Tt is under the third grouping, tin as plating, that the great bulk of tin imports into the United States finds it's employment. Common tin plate 1 as every one knows, is iron or steel ordinarily the latter, covered with protecting coat of tin. The property 1 which tin has of not furnishing or 1 rather of being in a high degree re- l sistent to the decomposing action of 1 air water and the common acids and 1 a1kalies, is what gives the value to i it's use as a protective coating for tfte easily corroded iron and steel The strength and rigidity of the steel protected by the tin furnishes an al- most ideal material for the fabrica- ton of all kinds of containers.
 Canning Industry F1ourishes. Tt is the development of the can ming industry in the United States which has created the demand for | containers made of tin plate and con- 5equently for tin itself with which to | make the tin plate The United States /, uses in the canning industry, in the l form of containers as much tin plate l as all the remainder of the world combined. According to the Mining World (Chicago), the importation of tin into the United States in 1914 was 41,700 short tone and in 1915 it amounted to 47,835 tons.
 Between the ore in the mine and the~ finished tomato can there are a number of metallurgical, industrial, and economic processes and conditions which must be understood in order to answer the question why Bolivian tin has heretofore not been extensively used in the United States. It is only 3 few years ago when nearly all the