Hi,
Your assistance required, please!
The following is a quote from a letter of 1710, concerning the
definitions of varying grades of tin smelted in Cornwall:
We conceive there are more than 3 sorts of Tinn for there is White and
Tuff Tinn
2. Grain Tinn as for all white and Tuff will not break Grain.
3. Glassy Tinn of 2 sorts viz. fine white Glass and that which they call
ranke Glass mixed with Mundique.
5. and Callan Tinn; in fine there are as many sorts of Tinn in our
humble Opinion as there are sorts of Minerall that are found to
Incorporate with it, and the Tin is finer or coarser as the other
Mineral prevail.
The correspondence concerns the transition from the blowing-house and
the blast furnace fired by charcoal, to the smelting house and the
reverberatory furnace, using coal as fuel.
Rather than three definitions, it seems to me the writer is defining
five, of each of a lesser purity. Some of it makes sense, and I am
familiar with the very clear difference between 'black' and 'white' tin.
My dictionary defines 'tuff' as consolidated volcanic ash, not a lot of
sense there, can it therefore, be a corruption of the spelling of
'tough'? 'Break Grain' I understand as meaning the ability of high
quality tin to break into small particles when stuck with a blow from a
hammer. I also understand 'Grain Tin' to derive from alluvial tin, not
mined tin. 'Glassy' I associate with slag, so I assume 'Glassy Tinn' has
a certain amount of slag or other pollutants in its makeup. 'Mundique'
I read as iron pyrites. 'Callan Tinn': I have no idea, I am not even
sure my transcription of the contemporay hand writing is correct!
Am I correct in my guesses? If not can someone correct me, and fill in
the gaps for me.
Many thanks
John S
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