FOOTNOTES
[503] [Tin-stone however occurs in Spain and Portugal; and Watson, in his Chemical Essays, states that Spain furnished the ancients with considerable quantities of tin.]
[504] Native tin never, or at any rate, very rarely occurs. In the year 1765 a piece was supposed to be found, of which an account may be seen in the Phil. Trans. vol. lvi. p. 35, and vol. lix. p. 47. But the truth of this was denied by most mineralogists, such for example as Jars in Mémoires de l’Acad. à Paris, année 1770, p. 540. Soon after the above-mentioned piece of tin was found in Cornwall, some dealers in minerals sold similar pieces to amateurs at a very dear rate; but all these had been taken from roasting-places, where the tin exudes; and very often what is supposed to be tin is only exuded bismuth, as is proved by some specimens in my collection.
I shall here observe, that it may not be improper, in the history of tin, to show that it was believed more than two hundred years ago that this metal was found in a native state.
[505] Having requested Professor Tychsen, to whose profound knowledge of Oriental history, languages, and literature I have been already indebted for much assistance, to point out the grounds on which bedil is considered to be our tin, I received the following answer, with permission to insert it in this place.
“Bedil, בדיל, according to the most probable derivation, means the separated. It may therefore, consistent with etymology, be what Pliny calls stannum, not tin, but lead from which the silver has not been sufficiently separated. The passage in Isaiah, chap. i. ver. 25, appears to afford a confirmation, because the word there is put in the plural, equivalent to scoriæ, as something separated by fusion.
“Others derive bedil from the meaning of the Arabic word بدل badal, that is, substitutum, succedaneum. In this case indeed it might mean tin, which may be readily confounded with silver.
“The questions, why bedil has been translated tin, and how old this explanation may be, are answered by another: Is κασσίτερος tin? If this be admitted, the explanation is as old as the Greek version of the seventy interpreters, who in most passages, Ezekiel, chap. xxii. ver. 18 and 20, and chap. xxvii. ver. 12, express it by the word κασσίτερος. In the last-mentioned passage, tin and iron have exchanged places. The Targumists also call it tin; and some, with the Samaritan translation, use the Greek word, but corrupted into kasteron, kastira. It is also the usual Jewish explanation, that bedil means tin, as oferet does lead.
“In the oldest passage, however, where bedil occurs, that is in Numbers, chap. xxxi. ver. 22, the Seventy translate it by μόλιβος, lead, and the Vulgate by plumbum, and vice versâ, the Seventy for oferet put κασσίτερος, and the Vulgate stannum. This, as the oldest explanation which the Latin translator found already in the Septuagint, is particularly worthy of notice. According to it, one might take בדיל, μόλιβος, stannum, for the stannum of Pliny, lead with silver; the gradation of the metals still remains; the κασσίτερος of the Seventy may be tin or real lead. It may have denoted tin and lead together, and perhaps the Seventy placed here κασσίτερος, in order that they might have one metal more for the Hebrew oferet. But from this explanation it would follow that Moses was not acquainted with tin.
“The East has still another name for lead and tin, אנך, anac, which occurs only in Amos, chap. vii. ver. 7 and 8, but is abundant in the Syriac, Chaldaic, and Armenian, and comprehends plumbum, nigrum, and candidum.
“In the Persian tin is named kalai, resâs, arziz, which are all of Arabic, or, like kalai, of Turkish extraction. None of these have any affinity to κασσίτερος and bedil.
“As tin is brought from India, it occurred to me whether the oldest name, like tombak, might not be Malayan. But in the Malayan, tima is the name for tin and lead. Relandi Dissertat. Miscell. iii. p. 65. It would indeed be in vain to look for Asiatic etymologies in regard to κασσίτερος, since, according to the express assertion of Herodotus, the Greeks did not procure tin from Asia, but from the Cassiterides islands. The name may be Phœnician; and though Bochart has not ventured to give any etymology of it, one, in case of necessity, might have been found equally probable as that which he has given of Britannia. But it appears to me more probable that the word is of Celtic extraction, because similar names are found in Britain, such as Cassi, an old British family; Cassivelaunus, a British leader opposed to Cæsar; Cassibelanus, in all probability, the same name in the time of Claudius. Cassi-ter, with the Greek termination ος, seems to be a Celtic compound, the meaning of which might perhaps be found in Pelletier, Bullet, &c.”
[506] Plin. lib. xxxiv. cap. 16, § 47, p. 669.
[507] The last meaning is found in Pliny, xxxiii. 6, § 31, and xxxiv. 18, § 53:—“Est et molybdæna, quam alio loco galenam vocavimus, vena argenti plumbique communis. Adhærescit et auri et argenti fornacibus; et hanc metallicam vocant.” Here then there are both the significations, first bleyglanz, secondly ofenbruch. The name galena seems to have been borrowed from foreign metallurgic works, perhaps from the Spanish, as was conjectured by Agricola in Bermannus, p. 434. This, at any rate, is more probable than the derivation of Vossius from γέλειν, splendere, especially as the Greeks have not the word galena.
[508] I explain the passage in this manner, but I acknowledge that difficulties still remain. I have however thought that it might perhaps be thus understood; that in the process of fusion, as then used, the galena formed the third part of the weight of the ore or paste, and lead a third part of the galena; though I doubt whether the products of metallic works were then so accurately weighed. I shall leave the reader to determine whether the two explanations of Savot are better. He supposes either that Pliny gives three ways of obtaining lead, namely, from lead ore, argentiferous ore, and galena; or that he says that silver forms a third, lead a third, and slag the remaining third. But if the first opinion be correct, why did Pliny say “Plumbi origo duplex?”
[509] Bermannus, pp. 450, 485.
[510] De Re Metallica, lib. iii. Franc. (1551), 8vo.
[511] De Metallis, cap. 22. Franc. 1606, fol. i. p. 322.
[512] Discours sur les médailles antiques par Louis Savot. Paris, 1627, 4to, ii. 2, p. 48. This work contains valuable information in regard to the mineralogy of the ancients.
[513] In Aldrovandi Musæum Metallicum. Bonon. 1648, fol. p. 181.
[514] J. Jungii Doxoscopia, Hamb. 1662, cap. 5, de metalli speciebus.
[515] I shall here point out a few passages where such vessels are mentioned. Dioscorides, ii. 84, p. 109.—Plin. xxix. 2, § 20; xxx. 5, § 12, and xxx. 7, § 19.—Columella, xii. 41.—Vegetius, i. 16.—Scribonius Largus Composit. Med. Patavii, 1655, 4to, § 230.
[516] Sueton. Vitell. 6, p. 192; where it is said tin, which was of a white colour, was to serve instead of silver.
[517] In the work already quoted, i. cap. 32, p. 64: “Vides stannum Plinio esse quiddam de plumbo nigro, nempe primum fluorem plumbi nigri;” so that when our lead ore is fused, the first part that flows would be the stannum of Pliny. “Et hoc docet Plinius adulterari plumbo candido;” with our tin, and properly considered the stannum of Pliny is merely our halbwerk, of which those cans called halbwerk are made.
Entzel deserves that I should here revive the remembrance of him. He was a native of Salfeld; preacher, pastor Osterhusensis, and a friend of Melancthon, who recommended the book for publication to Egenholf, a bookseller of Frankfort, in a letter dated 1551, in which year it was first printed. It was reprinted at the same place in 1557, and at Basle in 1555, 8vo.
[518] The French letter-founders take four-fifths of lead and one-fifth regulus of antimony; those of Berlin use eleven pounds of antimony, twenty-five of lead, and five of iron. Many add also tin, copper, and brass. [Those of England use three parts of lead and one of antimony.]
[519] Von Hutten-werken, p. 376.
[520] A good account of this manufactory may be found in the Journal für Fabrik, Manufact. Handlung und Mode, 1793. We are told there that the buttons were made of a composition which had a white silver-like colour, and was susceptible of a fine polish. [This was probably some alloy of nickel, one of the principal constituents of German silver.]
[521] Lib. iii. p. 254.
[522] That the merchants, in the oldest periods, endeavoured by false information to conceal the sources of their trade, might be proved by various instances.
[523] Supplementa in Lexica Hebraica p. 151.
[524] The authors here quoted, corresponding to the above letters, are as follows:—
[a] Plinius, xxxiv. 16, p. 668.
[b] Cæsar De Bello Gallico, v. 12.
[c] Aristot. Auscult. Mirab. cap. 51, p. 100.
[d] Galenus De Antidot. i. 8. p. 209. ed. gr. Basil. vol. ii. p. 431.
[e] Plin. iv. 22. p. 630.
[f] Herodot. lib. iii. p. 254. edit. Wess.
[g] Plin. iv. 16, p. 223.
[h] Strabo, lib. iii. p. 219. ed. Almel.
[i] Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1055.
[j] Diodor. Sic. lib. v. p. 347. ed. Wess.
[k] Diod. Sic. lib. v. p. 361.
[l] Stephan. Byzant. v. Tartessus, p. 639.
[m] Dionys. Periegesis, v. 563.
[n] Prisciani Perieg. v. 575.
[o] Avienus Descript. Urbis, v. 743.
[p] Homeri Iliad. xviii. 612.
[q] Iliad. xi. 25.
[r] Iliad. xxiii. 561.
[s] Iliad. xviii. 565, 574.
[t] Hesiod. Scut. Herculis, v. 208.
[u] Aristot. Œconom. lib. ii. p. 594.
[v] Pollux Onomast. p. 1055.
[w] Pomp. Mela, iii. 6, 24, p. 275.
[x] Plin. xxxiii. 5, p. 621.
[y] Plin. xxxiv. 17, § 48, p. 669; and lib. xxxiii. § 45: Optima specula apud majores fuerant Brundisiana stanno et ære mixtis. From a similar mixture the best metallic specula are cast at present.
[525] Borlase’s Antiquities of Cornwall. Ox. 1754, fol. p. 29.
[526] Lib. iv. cap. 22, p. 230.
[527] Minéralogie Homerique, Par. 1790, 8vo. A small treatise much esteemed.
[528] Lib. xi. 24, 25.
[529] See what I have already said, vol. i. p. [472].
[530] Savot, p. 53.—Watson’s Chemical Essays, iv. p. 187.
[531] Schefferi Lapponia, Francof. 1673, 4to, pp. 210, 261, where a figure is given of a Lapland woman drawing threads.
[532] Phil. Trans. 1702, 1703, vol. xxiii. p. 1129.
[533] Phil. Trans. 1759, vol. li. p. 13, where figures of the vessels are given. Whitaker’s Hist. of Manchester, i. p. 306.
[534] Borlase’s Cornwall, p. 30; and his Observations on the Islands of Scilly. Oxf. 1756, 4to.
[535] Natural Hist. of Cornwall, p. 177.
[536] In the Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 394: Ik, yk, ick, a common termination of creeks in Cornwall, as Pordinik, Pradnik.
[537] Dionysii Orbis Descriptio. Londini, 1679, 8vo, p. 220, where Hill’s observations deserve to be read.
[538] Voyages de Chardin. Rouen, 1723, 12mo, iv. 65, where it is expressly said that Persia has no tin, but that it obtains it from India. The same thing is confirmed by Tavernier.
[539] Fortunati Opera. Romæ, 1786, 4to, i. p. 14, lib. i. cap. 8.
[540] Proofs may be found in Dufresne.
[541] Wencesl. Hagec Böhmische Chronik. Nürnb. 1697, fol. p. 53.
[542] For example, Borlase in Natur. Hist.—Speed’s Theatre of Great Britain.—Camden’s Britannia.—Anderson’s Hist. of Commerce, &c.
[543] This metal, however, must have remained long dear; for it is remarked in the Archæologia, vol. iii. p. 154, from an expense-book of the Earls of Northumberland, that vessels of tin, about the year 1500, in consequence of their dearness, had not become common. This is confirmed also by a regulation respecting the household of Henry VIII., printed also in the Archæologia, where it is said, “Officers of the squillery to see all the vessels, as well silver as pewter, be kept and saved from stealing.”
[544] C. Bruschii redivivi Beschreib. des Fichtelberges. Nürnb. 1683.
[545] See Gegenwärtiger Staat von England, Portugal, und Spanien (by Theodore King of Corsica), ii. p. 25.
[546] Narrisch Weisheit, p. 51.
[547] Yarranton’s England’s Improvement by Sea and Land, 1698.
[548] Watson’s Chem. Essays, iv. p. 203.—Anderson’s Commerce.
[549] This is related by Diderot in his article Fer-blanc in the Encyclopédie. That the Fer-blanc of the French is tin plate every one knows; but what are we to understand by ferrum candidum, a hundred talents of which were given as a present to Alexander in India? No commentator has noticed this appellation. In the index, however, to Snakenburg’s Curtius, I find the conjecture that it may mean the ferrum Indicum, which, lib. xvi. § 7. ff de Publicanis, or Digest. xxxix. 4, § 16, 7, is named among the articles liable to pay duty; but some editions in this passage have ebenum Indicum. The reader is referred also to Photii Biblioth. p. 145, where Ctesias relates a fable in regard to Indian iron. Pliny, xxxiv. 14, p. 667, mentions ferrum Sericum, which in his time was considered as the best; but still it may be asked, why is the epithet white applied in particular to the Indian iron? Compare Aristot. de Mirab. Auscult. pp. 96, 426.
[550] Ramusio, fol. i. p. 166. c.
[551] Ib. i. p. m. 317. d.