Since I’m writing Steampunk and some of my characters are chemists, I have been researching metals and chemical reactions. I was thrilled to find a very old book I had that describes how to make tin. Here are all the methods I found in my book, referenced at the end of this post:
To Tin Iron Without the Aid of Heat
To 1005 quarts water are added 6 ½ pounds rye meal; this mixture is boiled 30 minutes, and next filtered through cloth; to the clear but thickish liquid are added 233 pound pyrophosphate of soda, 37 ½ pounds protochloride of tin in crystals (so-called tin salt), 147 ¼ pounds neutral protochloride of tin, 3 ½ to 4 ounces sulphuric acid; this liquid is placed in well-made wooden troughs, and serve more specially for the tinning of iron and steel wire (previously polished) for the use of carding machines. When, instead of the two salts of tin just named, cyanide of silver and cyanide of potassium are taken, the iron is perfectly silvered.
To Cleanse Iron for Tinning
The metal must be cleansed by immersion in an acid solution; for new metal, this solution should be sulphuric acid and water, but for old metal, muriatic acid and water; next scour with sand, and cleanse well with water.
To Tin Iron
First cleanse as above, then heat the article just hot enough to melt the tin, rub the surface over with a piece of sal-ammoniac, and sprinkle some of the sal-ammoniac in powder over it; then apply the tin and wipe it over evenly with a piece of tow.
Cold Tinning
Rub pure tinfoil and quicksilver together until the amalgam becomes soft and fusible, clean the surface to be tinned with spirits of salt (hydrochloric acid), and—while moist—rub the amalgam on, and then evaporate the quicksilver by heat.
A Copper Pan Tinned
Stolba’s Method of Tinning Copper, Brass, and Iron in the Cold, and without Apparatus. The object to be coated with tin must be entirely free from oxide or rust. It must be carefully cleaned, and care be taken that no grease spots are left; it makes no difference whether the object be cleaned mechanically or chemically. To preparations are requisite for the purpose of tinning. Zinc Powder—the best is that prepared artificially by melting Zinc and pouring it into an iron mortar (see 3312). It can be easily pulverized immediately after solidification; it should be about as fine as writing sand. A solution of protochloride of tin, containing 5 to 10 percent, to which as much pulverized cream of tartar must be added as will go on the point of a knife.
The object to be tinned is moistened with the tin solution, after which it is rubbed hard with the zinc powder. The tinning appears at once. The tin salt is decomposed by the zinc, metallic tin being deposited. When the object tinned is polished brass or copper, it appears as beautiful as if silvered, and retains its lustre for a long time. This method may be used in a laboratory to preserve iron, steel, and copper apparatus from rust; and would become of great importance if the tinning could be made as thick as in the dry way, but this has not as yet been accomplished.
To Tin Copper Tubes
W. Wollweber recommends for still-worms copper tubes tinned inside in the following manner: To a solution of Rochelle salts as a solution of salts of tin is added; a precipitate of stannous tartrate is formed, which is washed and then dissolved in caustic lye. The copper tube, which has first been rinsed with sulphuric acid and then washed, is then filled with the alkaline solution, warmed a little, and touched with a tin rod, which causes the deposition of a coat of metallic tin.
To Tin a Worn Copper Kettle
Cover of Book
A thick coating may be obtained by preparing a tinning solution of zinc dissolved muratic acid, making the solution as thick or heavily charged with zinc as possible, adding a little sal-ammoniac. Clean the inside of the kettle, place it in a charcoal fire until a piece of block tin placed inside melts, then rub the melted tin with some of the tinning solution, quickly on the copper surface, by means of a ball of oakum and a little powdered resin; the tin will readily adhere. Wrought iron and steel may be tinned in the same manner.
Reference
Dick, W. B. (1975). Dick’s Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts & Processes, or How They Did It in the 1870′s. Funk & Wagnall Educ Division; Toronto, Canada.
