ON METALS. 271

G. Yes. How is it done?

L. By melting the tin, and spreading it upon the
surface of the copper, which is first lightly pitched
over, in order to make the tin adhere.

ff, But what are the vessels made at the tinman’s ?
Are they not called tin ?

ZL. 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 afterwards 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.

G. What—is not that real silvering P

Z. No. The pins, which are made of brass wire,
after being pointed and headed, are boiled in 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.

H, That is as clever as what you told us of the
gilding of buttons.

7. It is. Another purpose for which great quan-
tities of tm 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 a degree of excel-
lence, as to look almost as well as silver.

G. [can just remember a long row of pewter plates
at my grandmother’s.

T. You may. In her time, all the plates and
dishes for the table were made of pewter; and a hand-
some 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 earthen-
ware and china; and pewter is employed for little, but
the worms of stills, and barber’s basins, and porter-
pots. But a good deal is still exported. ‘T'n is also