Tut. No. Tinned ware, as it is properly called, is made of thin iron plates, coated over with tin by dipping them into a vessel full of melted tin. These plates are afterward cut and bent to proper shapes, and the joinings are soldered together with a mixture of tin and other metals. Another similar use of tin is in what is called the silvering of pins.
Geo. What—is not that real silvering?
Tut. No. The pins which are made of brass wire, after being pointed and headed, are boiled in hot water, in which grain-tin is put along with tartar, which is a crust that collects on the inside of wine casks. The tartar dissolves some of the tin, and makes it adhere to the surface of the pins, and thus thousands are covered in an instant.
Har. That is as clever as what you told us of the gilding of buttons!
Tut. It is. Another purpose for which great quantities of tin used to be employed was the making of pewter. The best pewter consists chiefly of tin, with a small mixture of other metals to harden it; and the London pewter was brought to such perfection as to look almost as well as silver.
Geo. I can just remember a long row of pewter plates at my grandmother’s.
Tut. You may. In her time all the plates and dishes for the table were made of pewter, and a handsome range of pewter shelves was thought a capital ornament for a kitchen. At present, this trade is almost come to nothing, through the use of earthenware and china; and pewter is employed for little but the worms of stills, and barbers’ basins, and porter-pots. But a good deal is still exported. Tin is likewise an ingredient in other mixed metals for various purposes, but, on the whole, less of it is used than of the other common metals.
Geo. Is not England more famous for tin than any other country? I have read of the Phoenicians trading here for it in very early times.
Tut. They did; and tin is still a very valuable article of export from England. Much of it is sent as far as China. The tin mines are chiefly in Cornwall, England, and I believe they are the most productive of any in Europe. Very fine tin is also got in the peninsula of Malacca in the East Indies. Well—we have now gone through the metals.
Geo. But you said nothing about a kind of metal called zinc.