The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1916-03-09
BOLIVIAN TIN IN THE U. S.

The United States consumes annu-
ally more tin than does any other
country in the world In fact, 1t
consumes more than the other
five leading tin-consuming coun'
tries, Germany, France, Great Brit
ain, Austria Hungary, and Belgium
combined. BY far the greater por-
ton of it goes into the manufacture
of tin cans, such as those used in
canning tomatoes ard other Vegeta-
bles, fruits, salmon, and meat prod
ucts: and it is because of this par
ticular use that the United States has
heretofore bought very little of its
tin supply from Bolivia, the greatest
producer Of tin ore in all the Ameri.
cas-.
Bolivia does not produce tin, but tin
ore, not the metal but the mineral. .
In the chain between Bolivia and the
United States there has been lack.CS
the intermediate links which repre-
sent smelling and refining. True,
there is some smelling done in 30
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
10y with copper, zinc, antimOny, lead
and other metals; third, as a plating
for iron, steel, copper and other more
easily cOrrOdCd metals. Under the
FIRST head tin is used in making GER
tain pharmaceutical and scientific in
struments. and tin foil. Under the
second it is used in the production of
brCnzes, gun and bell metal, pewter,
the whole group OF SO called white
metals, etc, its use as an alloy being
almost unlimited.
1t is under the third grouping, tin
as plating, that the great bulk of tin
imports into the United States finds
its employment Common tin plate
as every one knows, is iron or steel,
ordinarily the latter, covered with a
protecting coat OF tin. The property
which tin has of not furnishing or
rather Of being in q high degree re
sistant to the dccompOsing action OF
air, water, ard the common acids and
alkalis, is what gives the value to it's
use as a protective coating for the
easily corroded iron and steel. The
strength and rigidity of the steel pro,
teCted by the tin furnishes an almost
ideal material for the fabrication OF
all kinds of containers.
Between the ore in the mine and
the finished tomato can there are d
number of metallurgical, Industrial
and economic processes and condi-
tons which must be understood in or
der to answer the question why Bo
livian tin has heretofore not been eX
tensively used in the United States
1t is only a few years ago when
nearly all the tin plate used here was
imported from Europe, principally
from Great Britain. The develop,
ment of the iron and steel industry
has changed this condition, 50 that
at present little or no tin plate is
imported. This country now MAKES
all it's plates and imports the tin wlCb
which to cover them. Now tin pro,
duced from Bolivian ore by the for
mer methods of smelling contains
Impurities which render it less suit.
able for tin plating than the tin from
the ore of the Straits. One of the
impurities which make it unsuitable
for plating is iron, and from this i'm.
purity the Straits tin is free. Feru-
ginous tin, even though the iron cor
tent be. exceeding small, will not
readily adhere TO steel and iron
plates. Hence the United states was
to use the East Indian tin.
But the arts progress. Recently adj
vances have been made in the indus
try OF tin refining and smelling Elec-
tricity is reyolutionizing tin refining
tin is almost chemically
pure tin. Analyses show 1898 per
cent pure, produced from metal only
80 per cent tin. Bolivian tin can be
refined by the electrolytic process.
The American Smleting and Refining
Company has recently completed at
Perth Amboy, New Jersey, a plant
Tor the smelling of tin ores and con
and the electrolytic rein
ng OF tin, and now the United States
will doubtless prove valuable mar.
ret for the Bolivian product.
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