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A History of the Tin Trade

Abstract

THE author, who is well known as one of the largest manufacturers of tin plates, and also as having introduced into this country the French method of decorating tinplates by lithographic printing, has in this, volume collected numerous interesting facts in connection with the early history of the manufacture in South Wales, and, what is of more value, has reprinted those parts of the scarce work of Andrew Yarranton, “England's Greatness,” 1677, that refer to his journey into Saxony for the purpose of learning the method of tinning sheet-iron. With these are associated extracts from other not very well known works, translations of the accounts of tin-plate making published at various times in the last century by Réaumur, Diderot (in the “Encyclopédic”) and Jars, and those of Parkes, 1818, and Ebenezer Rogers, 1857, the latter from the Transactions of the South Wales Institute of Engineers. No notice, however, is taken of the, later and more complete account published in Percy's, “Iron and Steel.” An introductory chapter on the metallurgy of tin, and a subsequent one on the modern Inaniifacture of tin plate, are exceedingly feeble. The former is derived from such sources of information as Dodd's “Manufactures in Metal” and the “Beauties of Eiigland and Wales,” and the latter, though, containing matter that may interest those who are acquainted with the details of the process, will not convey much informatioa to those who arenoti The final portion of the volume deals with economic details and statistics; the latter of some elaboration, but from four to six years after date, and the prices in different European seats of manufacture are represented by prices current in 1872–73–74. There are several curious errors which can scarcely have been expected to be found, as, for instance, the “Lamb and Flag” brand on tin ingots is said to be the stamp of the Duchy of Cornwall; vitriol is the fume given off by heated sulphur; and the refinery in the tin-plate forge is only a melting-furnace. Altogether the author treats the South Wales forge process, one of the most subtle and delicate in the whole range of iron metallurgy, somewhat scantily.

A History of the Tin Trade.

P. W.

Flower

By. (London: George Bell and Sons, 1880.)

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B., H. A History of the Tin Trade . Nature 21, 345–346 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/021345a0

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