[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.