Tin can

“ There is nothing weak or flimsy about a well-made tin can toy. A strip of flat tin is very easily [4] bent; if that same strip of tin is bent at right angles through its whole length, like the angle iron encountered in structural iron work, it will be found to be remarkably stiff. ”

“ But the tin can, made of plated sheet iron, is the vehicle in which kerosene has traveled to every part of the inhabited globe, and which has made it possible for the fisherman, the stockman, the farmer and the horticulturist to deliver their products in a fresh and edible condition wherever there are people who want them. It is an interesting fact that quite three quarters of the annual crop of tin now comes from the East Indies, and is gathered by Chinamen and Malays. The region is probably the most ancient mining district in the world. ”

“ The expense each year of new tin covers or new tin cans is no more than the purchase of new rubbers and the replacement of broken glass jars. Furthermore, one big advantage of tin over glass is that tin cans can be cooled quickly by plunging them into cold water immediately upon removal from the canner, and thus the cooking is stopped at the proper moment. The product is consequently better in form and flavor than when the cooking is prolonged, as it must be in glass jars. Many women like the large openings of cans because they can make better packs than when using narrow-necked jars. ”

“ While the small amount of tin may not be injurious, it gives an undesirable color to many canned articles. Tin cans can not readily be used a second time, while glass with proper care will last indefinitely. ”

“ Not rarely, therefore, the tin-surface is imperfect, perforated or pin-holed. Tin itself is slightly attacked by all acid juices of vegetable or animal substances. With the exception of milk, all human food is slightly acid, and consequently all food that has been preserved in tin canisters contains variable traces of dissolved tin. ”

“ The United States produces less than one-fifth of 1 per cent. of its requirements, and its control of foreign tin resources through mine ownership is negligible. On the other hand, the United States consumes over half the tin of the world, and is the largest manufacturer and distributor of tin products. The tin-mining and smelting industry of the world is dominated by Great Britain.
Tin is used in the manufacture of tin plate, in solder, brass, and many other essential uses, and no satisfactory substitute is available. In war as well as peace, tin cans are as necessary as rifles. ”

“ So I rose up then and said, 'Now, I will make a can fit for this maiden's head.' And I made it out of the rising sun and the falling dew. And now you ask me if it is worth a shilling."
"For all your talk, it is only made of tin, and not such good tin."
"Not good tin! I held it in my hand in the piece before ever the clippers was laid upon it. I bent it and it curved, supple as a young snake. I shook it, and the ripples ran down the length of it like silver waves in a little lake. The strength of the ages was in its voice. It has gathered its power in the womb of the earth. ”

“ I have found it quite possible to make many decorative things from tin cans, and for some years I have made lanterns, candlesticks, sconces and trays of all kinds. The shape of the cans themselves lends them to decoration when assembled by a person having a sense of design and proportion. ”

“ The faithful fellow at once set to work to make me a tin head, and he had just completed it when Nimmie Amee came running up with my old head, which she had stolen from the Witch. But, on reflection, I considered the tin head far superior to the meat one—I am wearing it yet, so you can see its beauty and grace of outline—and the girl agreed with me that a man all made of tin was far more perfect than one formed of different materials. ”

“ Waste of Tin.—Thousands of tons of tin cans are daily thrown in the rubbish heap. It is believed that by treatment of sulphate the tin may be recovered and again utilized. It is a question whether the same amount of money now invested in tin mines, if put to this novel use, would not be the better paying investment. It is estimated that there are two cents’ worth of tin in an average-sized can. Cans could be collected at a cost of fifty cents per hundred, or $5,000 per million. ”

“ I contend moreover that for contouring the filling or restoring the natural shape of the teeth, where there are three walls remaining to the cavity, tin is fully equal to gold, and in some respects even superior; as tin can be secured, where there is very little to hold or retain the filling, better than gold, owing to the ease and greater certainty of its adaptation to the retaining points or edges of the cavity. ”

“ Tin can toys were invented after a fruitless search of the toy shops for a large tin locomotive. I had a long can in my shop at home that I thought could be very easily worked up into a toy locomotive boiler by adding a few fittings, such as a piece of tin rolled up into the form of a smokestack. Part of a small can could be used for a steam dome, or I could use the top part of a certain tooth-powder can, the distributor top of which would look very much like a whistle. A cocoa tin came in very handy for a cab, and a thumb-tack box served for a headlight. ”

“ To have formed up a hood of this sort from a plain sheet of metal would have taken far more skill than the average tinker is likely to possess, but you have it ready made in the can, and this is the whole idea of tin can toy building.
Less than half of a rectangular two-quart can used for a certain cooking oil makes up into a truck body so like the bodies on the real trucks that it would be difficult to find or make one more like them. ”

“ For the preparation of chemically pure tin two methods are employed. (1) Commercially pure tin is treated with nitric acid, which converts the tin proper into an insoluble hydrate of SnO 2 , while the copper, iron, &c., become nitrates ; the oxide is washed first with dilute nitric acid, then with water, and is lastly dried and reduced by fusion with black flux or cyanide of potassium. (2) A solution of pure stannous chloride in very dilute hydrochloric acid is reduced with a galvanic current. According to Stolba, beautiful crystals of pure tin can be obtained as follows. ”

“ To discover pin-holes or any leaks in a tin can, immerse it in boiling water after sealing and if there is any bubbling from the can, you may rest assured it needs resealing.
Swells in tin cans are caused by insufficient sterilization. The action of bacteria causes gas to form in the can and as a result there is a bulging at either end. If left alone long enough the cans will explode. Watch carefully all bulging cans and use them first. Sometimes a slight bulge occurs when a can has been filled too full. ”

“ Tin-plate is consumed in enormous quantities for the manufacture of the tin cans in which preserved meat, fish, fruit, biscuits, cigarettes and numerous other products are packed, and also for the household utensils of various kinds made by the tinsmitli or silversmith; terne-plates, which began to be produced in England about the middle of the 10th century. are widely employed in America for roofing purposes. ”

“ It is true that canned foods may be rendered unfit for use by improper handling of the product before packing and that decomposition may occur after canning, owing to insufficient processing, improper sealing or the use of leaky containers. This condition, however, is no more likely to be encountered in foods put up in tin than in products canned in other types of containers. You run no more danger of poison from your own tin-canned products than from tin-canned food bought at the store. ”

“ Select a good bright, clean can about 21⁄2 inches in diameter; a baking powder can or a small soup can will do.
Tin cans are usually made up in two ways. One method is to solder on flanged ends, such as condensed or evaporated milk cans, and the other method is to roll the edges of the can together at each end, using no solder. When looked at closely, the two different types of can are easily told apart. A rolled rim can should be used for the biscuit cutter as it is stronger than the can with the soldered ends. ”

“ The ordinary tin cans, made in the form of a cylinder, with an orifice in the top large enough to admit whatever you would preserve, will last ten years, with careful usage, and they are so simple that no mistakes need be made. ”

“ In opening a packing case lined with tin, care should be taken to cut the edges as clean as possible, for not only are ragged points liable to tear the hands very disagreeably, but if you wish to make use of the tin in any other manner, it is of great importance that it should be kept quite clean, flat, and free from unsightly wrinkles ”

“ I dare say there are advantages about tin; it may be knocked about, is always ready at hand, is light, and stores in small compass; for rough travel, doubtless, it is admirable, and, were we to make long portages, would be better than china. After all, the taste of tin must be more apparent than real; the metal cannot come off, or it would dissolve; and how, then, can it give a taste? The pots are large, but a man wants a good, long drink, whether of tea or brandy, when exhausted with hard work{86} or exposure. ”

“ To have a man with a tin box in his hand tell me he had been looking for me for thirteen years longer than I had lived, and then to have him add that it was not, however, me as myself that he wanted, was amusing in a sense, and yet I could not help feeling that it would be a relief to know that the tin box did hold a drinking-cup, and not dynamite. ”

“ When fresh canned, there is usually very little dissolved tin, but in old goods the amount may be comparatively large. The tin used for the can is occasionally of poor quality and may contain some arsenic, which also is dissolved. The occasional use of canned goods preserved in tin is not objectionable, but they should not be used continually if it can be avoided. ”

“ It is not necessary to get the can red hot in order to melt the solder.
Fig. 45.
Fig. 46.
When the lid is removed, try to fit it on the other part of the can and it will be found impossible to force the tin into the lid without denting the sides of the can. The rim or flange at the edge of the lid must be enlarged in order to place the lid back on the can. The edge of the sides of the can to be fitted into the lid should be filed with a small flat file to remove the tin raised by the metal shears when cutting around the can. ”

“ Is tin foil poisonous? If not, why are our brethren so reluctant to use it? Is it nauseous? If not, why not employ it? Will it not preserve the teeth when properly used? Then why not encourage the use of it? Does its name signify one too common in the eyes of the people, on account of its daily use in the tin shops, or do patients murmur when the fee is announced, because it is nothing but tin? Is it not better than amalgam, although the patient may believe it less [20] costly? Eleven good plugs, twenty-nine years old, in one mouth demonstrates that tin will last as long as gold in many cases. ”

“ There are, as might be expected, many analogies between the mining of tin and the mining of lead. The processes were very similar, and the laws governing the workers had much in common, but it is in the case of the Stannaries that we find the full development of the 'free miner,' so far as England is concerned. Certain initial differences in the methods employed are observable owing to the form in which tin is obtained. Tin, like other metals, exists in veins or lodes embedded in the rock at various depths ”

“ Harm is far more likely to come to us from noxious gases in the air we breathe than from foreign substances in the food we eat.
But whence come the much less minute amounts of tin--still harmless, be it remembered--which have been stated to be occasionally present in canned foods? They come from the minute particles of metal chipped off from the tin sheets in the operations of cutting, bending, or hammering the parts of the can, or possibly melted off in the operations necessary for the soldering together of the joints of the can. Some may, perhaps, be cut, off by the knife in opening a can. ”

“ However—firstly—all things made of tin to-day are but steel or iron dip and coated with tin.
Tin melts at a comparatively low temperature and is besides affected by acids. That is why baking, stewing, etc. are not to be done with tin utensils plus acid food. The dark rings on baked apples cooked in a tin dish show very plainly what acid and tin do in combination.
In buying tin the criterion is its weight. It is only wise to buy tin ware in the best shops, because small, but out of the way hardware shops can rarely afford to keep on hand the best tinware. ”

“ However, if on boring, the deep ground turns out payable, there should be no difficulty in getting rid of the impurities and dressing the tin up to 70 per cent.”
Mr. L. H. L. Huddart, writing on this subject in his report on the South Juga property, says:
“Sources of the Tin.—The black tin is probably derived from the granite of which it is a rock constituent, and from stockworks in the granite quartz porphyry occurs very similar to the ‘elvans’ in Cornwall. ”

“ I am satisfied that I myself until recently employed more tin than was well. I now use from one-tenth to one-twelfth as much tin as gold, and no disintegration or dissolving away of [76] the tin ever occurs. I fold the two metals together in the usual way of folding gold to form strips, the tin being placed inside the gold. The addition of the tin makes the gold tougher, so that it works more like tin foil. The packing can be done with more ease and certainty; the filling, with the same effort, will be harder, and the edges or margins are stronger and more perfect. ”

“ Not only are the same crystalline forms generally apparent on each cabinet specimen, but even entire veins seem to be productive principally of the same varieties. In the tin-stone of Polgooth near St. Austle, I have rarely seen any other than minute crystals of the form of fig. 66, Pl. 18. That produced by Pednandrae, an extensive tin mine close by the town of Redruth, is almost uniformly of the macle described by fig. 208. Pl. 25. From Huel Fanny mine, which produced tin only in the shallow part of the copper vein, I have never observed any other forms than those described by figs. ”