John,
William Pyrce - Minerlogia Cornubiensis 1778
White tin - block tin or purified Tin, brought to its ultimate perfection by
fire.
Grain Tin - The ore of tin that is sometimes dug very rich in the form of grain
or pebbles, or else in larger pieces, composed of many such distinct grains ...
Grain tin is peculiarly produced from stream work, and is worth several
shillings more than mine tin.
Mundick An exceeding ponderous mineral, whitish beautiful and shining but
brittle. Pyrites; marcastite, &c. too well known for description here.
Cal - (It signified in Cornish, cunning, lean). Properaly Gal. A king of iron
gossan stone found in the bryle and backs of lodes, much the colour of old
iron, reckoned a poor brood with tin; therefore it may be so applied because it
improvishes the lode and destroys the fatness of the metal. It is termed
Wolfram by Cronstedt, and defined as kind of manganese.
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It sounds like he is talking about both the metal and the ores
ores. As the inpurities go up (Iron and tungsten in particular) the tin becomes
more brittle (less tough)
White tin is the pure metal, but it is not clear if tuff tin is impure metal or
an ore.
The glassy tin sounds like mined tin in quartz with or
without sulphide minerals.
Callan an ore with a high concentration of iron-manganese or tungsten minerals,
clearly Pryce could not distinguish them.
Chris Salter
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