Tin
is naturally brilliant and polishing makes it even more brilliant.
Bismuth is less brilliant and lead, least brilliant of all. Tin is more
perfect and more valuable than lead and for that reason chemists use
their art to convert lead to tin. Bismuth holds an intermediate
position. All three can be cast with ease. Before the metal takes fire
it melts. None lasts and maintains its true appearance in a large open
vessel but changes in part to litharge, in part to molybdaena. Lead
is soft and can be hammered with ease and made into sheets. Tin is
harder and bismuth the hardest. Tin is tenacious, lead fragile and
bismuth the most fragile. Lead gives no sound, bismuth gives a sound
while tin creaks. Tin is light, lead heavy, and bismuth intermediate in
weight. The vapor of acid produces cerussa from both tin and lead by corrosion. That made from tin is called "spanish white" (album hispanicum) while that made from lead retains the name cerussa.is They make a variety of artificial minium from
lead by burning it and I shall speak about this later. Tin contains
less moisture than lead and for that reason they can make objects with
ease from lead-tin alloys that can be made only with difficulty from
tin-bismuth alloys that contain no lead. Small particles break away
from these objects and often leave them with many holes. They make many
types of goblets that have pleasing tones, plates, dishes, spheres,
vinegar cruets, small drinking cups, salt cellars, various small
vessels such as bowls, wash basins, boat-shaped bowls and pots from
tin-lead alloys and sometimes from tin-bismuth alloys.19
Some important buildings, towers and churches are covered with this
same material as can be seen in a town called Zuicca in Misena. The
bottoms of baths are sometimes covered with it. In the latter case they
first spread a layer of sand and cover this with a floor of boards to
which the metal sheets are fastened. Those intruments of churches that
are called organs are skillfully made from this alloy as well as the
candelabra used in some churches.20
Goblets are rarely made from lead. It is commonly used for bullets and
18 Today the name Spanish white is usually given to bismuth oxide.
19 This refers to pewter.
20 Agrioola makes the following reference to tin in Bermannus, page 450,— Bermannus. "We know that lead which the Greeks call μόλυβδο* is smelted from
galena and pyrite just as tin which the Greeks call κασσίτερο* is smelted from small black pebbles containing white streaks. We have never seen nor heard of it being found pure in veins.
Naevius. "What you call plumbum candidum (tin) both the learned and ignorant today call stannum (an alloy).
Bermannus. "Evidently they have taken the name from the Latin yet it appears to me to be some other material.
Naevius. "You support Pliny's conclusion.
Bermannus.
"Also those of others who believe as I do. But we shall say more about
these others. The black pebbles from which we smelt tin are found of an
exceptional size at Schlackenwald and Irberesdorf, not far from your
home, Naevius. I believe that you have seen these mines.
Naevius. "I recall having seen them.
Bermannus.
"I have been able to observe how they are found, especially in these
two places. . . . They usually occur mixed with other materials,
commonly pyrite
