All about tinplates [microform] : Great Britain's monopoly in the manufacture of tinplates for the American market

MASTER NEGATIVE # COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DIVISION BIBLIOGRAPHIC MiCROFORM TARGET ORIGINAL MATERIAL AS FILMED - EXISTING BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD Swank, James Moore, 1832-1914. All about tinplates [microform] : Great Britain's monopoly in the manufacture of tinplates for the American market. Philadelphia : American Iron and Steel Association, [1889] [MICROFILM] OCLC: 38234907 RESTRICTIONS ON USE: Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Libraries. TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA FILVI SIZE; REDUCTION RATIO; /A/ IMAGE PLACEMENT; lA IIB DATE FILMED 3- ''^(o ' INITIALS: TRACKING # : 3i^n FILMED BY PRESERVATION RESOURCES, BETHLEHEM, PA I I I / TARIFF TRACT Xo. 1, 1889. Published by THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION, at No. 261 South Fourth Street, PlIILADELPllIA, where copies of this tract may be had for distribution. Address .JAMES M. »9ir.4A’A' General Manager. ALL ABOUT TINPLATES, Great Britain’s Monopoly in tlie Mannfactnre of Tin- l)lates for the American 3Iarket. A LETTER TO THE IIOX. WILLIAI\[ B. ALLISON. Office of The American Iron and Steel A.ssociatiox, No. 201 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia, December 10, 1888. Hon. AVilliam B. Allison, Chairman Sub-Committee on Tariff Revision of the Committee on Finance of the United States Senate. De.ar Sir : In behalf of the American Iron and Steel Associa- tion the following statement of facts is respectfully submitted con- cerning the causes which have thus far prevented the establishment of a tinplate industry in the LTiited States. TINPLATES DESCRIBED. Tinplates are thin sheets of iron or steel which have been coated with tin by dipping them in a bath of that metal. Terne plates are sheets of iron or steel Avhich have been coated in a similar man- ner with an alloy of tin and lead. From 95 to 98 per cent, of the total weight of a box or bundle of tinplates is composed of iron or steel. Terne plates average over 90 per cent, of iron or steel. As compared with tinplates very few terne plates are manufactured. Both products are popularly known as tinplates, and in what we shall here say of tinplates the popular use of the word will be ob- served unless otherwise indicated. By virtue of its large population the United States is not only a large consumer of tinplates for culinary and other domestic jnir- poses and for the uses of the dairy, but it also makes greater use of tinplates for roofing and canning purjioses than any other country. The thiune.st sheets are generally used for cans, and the thicker sheets are used for other purposes. We consume more tinplates than all the rest of the world. great bkitaim s monopoly in the GI eat BRITAIN MONOPOLIZES THE MANUFACTURE OF TINPLATES. Nearly all the tinplates of coiiiinerce are manufactured in Great B] itaiu, and the greater part of the tinplates of that country are pr iduced in South Wales. The quantity annually manufactured in other countries is so small that it exerts but very little influence OL either the total supply or the market price of this commodity. X. >t one box of tinplates or terne plates is made in the United St ites, all our supply being obtained abroad. The production of tinplates in Great Britain has rapidly increas- ed in recent years, caused chiefly by the increasiid demand for them fo in the United States. In 1865 there were 47 tinplate works in G eat Britain, and in January, 1888, there were 87. The produc- ti( n of tinplates in Great Britain in 1887 was 424,773 gross tons, of which 354,773 tons were exported and 70,000 tons were retained fo • home consumption. In round numbers, five-sixths of the whole (ji antity produced was exported. An English statistician shows tint, reducing the tons exported to boxes averaging 128 pounds in weight, there were exported in 1887 a total of 6,207,388 boxes, of which the United States took 526,367 boxes, or nearly three- fo irths of the whole quantity exported and nearly two-thirds of ths whole quantity jiroduced in Great Britain in that year. The exports of tinplates from Great Britain to the United States In ve increased from 1,931,128 boxes in 1878 to 4,526,367 lioxes in U 87 — a jieriod of ten years. OTK ENORMOUS PAYMENTS TO GREAT BRITAIN FOR TINPLATES. The following table shows the quantities of tinplates imported iu;o the United States from all countries in each calendar year fr )m 1871 to 1887, with their foreign values. Years. Gross Values. Years. Values. tons. 1 1 tons. 18 n 82,969 $9,946,373 1880 158,049 $16,478,110 85,629 1 0,893,450 1881 : 183,005 14,886,907 18 T8 97,1 77 14,240,868 1882 213,987 17,975,161 1814 1 79,778 13,057,6.58 1883 221,233 18,156,773 18 /5 91,054 12,098,885 1884 216,181 16,858,650 19 ja 89,946 9,416,816 1885 228,596 15,991,152 1877 ' 112,479 10,679,028 1886 257’S22 17,504,976 1818 ' 107,864 9,069,967 1887 283,836 18,699,145 1819 ' 1.54,250 13,227,659 The total quantity of tinplates imported into our country in thase seventeen years was 2,663,855 gross tons, and the total for- t MANUFACTURE OF TINPLATES. 3 eign value of these importations was 8242,181,578. In addition to this sum our people paid freights and duties. It will be seen that the consumption of tinplates in the United States has greatly increased in the seventeen years mentioned, and from the statements already made it further appears that Great Britain has supplied jiractically all the tinplates we have required. Her tinplate industry and her iron and steel industries have been greatly benefited by our rapidly developed demand for her tinplates. W'HERE TIN IS OBTAINED. Tin itself, with which iron and steel sheets are coated, is obtained chiefly from Cornwall in England, from the Malayan peninsula and neighboring islands in the Straits of Malacca, and from Australia. The supjily of tin which Great Britain obtains from Cornwall is far from sufficient to meet her wants, and she is consequently a large importer of tin from the East Indies and Australia. Indeed a large ]>art of the Cornwall supply is annually exported to other countries in the form of block tin, imjiorted tin being regarded as superior to that of Cornwall for coating iron or steel sheets. An English authority states that Cornish tin *‘is not so fluid, not so soft, and will not cover so large a surface of jilate ” as imported tin. The production of tin in the East Indies is largelv in the hands of the Dutch Government. We give herewith the official statement of the production of tin in' Cornwall for the nine vears ended December 31, 1887. Dressed Metallic Dressed Metallic Years. tin ore. tin. Years. tin ore. tin. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. 1879 1880 1881 1882 1888 The following table shows the shipments of metallic tin from the Straits and Australia during the five years ended May 31, 1885. Shipments. Straits to London Australia to London.. Straits to America.... Australia to America Straits to Holland 1881. Tons. 1882. Tons. 1883. Tons. 18.^. Tons. 1885. Tons. 4,665 5,280 7,343 10,969 13,982 8,832 8,930 9,167 8,842 8,204 6,509 7,395 6,072 6,345 3,010 828 1,177 1,763 850 800 7,928 7,840 6,398 7, .543 6,160 14,665 9,532 1884 15,117 9,574 13,737 8,918 188.5 14,376 9,331 12,898 8,615 1886 14,232 9,312 14,170 14,469 9,300 9,307 1887 14,189 9,282 4 GREAT Britain’s monopoly in the W e have given the latest statistics of the })roductiou of tin for a series of vears whicli are at hand. It will lie seen that in the ni le years from 1879 to 1887 the supply of tin from Cornwall was vi tually stationary, with a declining tendency, being about 9,000 to IS annually, while from 1881 to 1885 the production of the East Indies increased more than twenty-one per cent. The East India sh pments to London increased threefold in the five years last men- ti( ned, and in each of the last two years these shipments were lar- ger than the total supply obtained from Cornwall. In 1885 the CO nbined shipments of tin from the East Indies and Australia to al countries aggregated more than three times the quantity ob- ta ned from Cornwall. In 1887 Cornwall produced 9,282 tons of til , which was a slight decrease upon the quantity produced in ary year since 1881. There is no probability of an increase in the arnual production of tin in Cornwall. In the same year Great B] itain imported 25,918 tons from the East Indies and Australia, part of which was, however, re-exported to other countries. The W( rld’s production of tin in 1885 was about 45,000 tons. TIN IN THE UNITED STATES. fin has been found in small quantities in various parts of the U lited States. In the Black Hills of Dakoia Territorv it has 4. be?n found in sufficiently large quantities to justify the expectation th it this country can in the near future supply a large part of the do inestic demand for this article. The most recent and at the same til le authentic information we have obtained concerning the tin de- ])odts of the Black Hills is contained in a letter which we received onlv a few months a2:o from a gentleman whose intellifirence and trustworthiness we unhesitatino-lv indorse. He savs : ‘ I have just returned from Dakota, having spent a week’s vaca- ticn in the Black Hills investigating the tin deposits there. The m neral wealth of that region is simply wonderful. From what I sa V there I am convince(l that the production ol‘ tin in commercial <pi intities is merely a (question of time, perluqis of months only. I lersonally examined great deposits of tin ore, the black tin or ca ^siterite being visible in the rock on all sides. The Harney Peak Cc mpany have a large mill ready to put in ojieration as soon as tl.oy raise some money to begin on the scale contemplated. Their pr ipertv is unquestionably valuable. I went through some of their mi lies. At one place I picked up some tin-liearing rock, took it to a lilacksmith shop, had it pounded uji, then panned to get the cas- sit -rite separated, and afterwards put the latter into a crucible and it nto the blacksmith’s tire, and in half an hour I had a beautiful L MANUFACTURK OF TINl’LATKS. button of tin, which is said by (.’liicago experts to be of the best quality.” But, if this country should never produce tin in commercial (quantities, it is now a large importer of block tin for various me- cbanical purjioses, and if it should conclude to engage in the man- ufacture of tinplates it could import its suqiply of tin for that pur- pose as easily as Great Britain now imports the eliief part of her sup])ly. Our Government imposes no duty on tin ; it has long been in the free list. WHY THIS COUNTRY HAS NO TINPLATE INDUSTRY. As has been already stated, tinplates are almost entirely comjios- ed of iron or steel sheets, onlv a small fraction of the weight of tin- plates being conqiosed of a coating of tin. The material, mechan- ical, and financial resources of our countrv for the manufacture of iron and steel sheets are not inferior to those possessed by anv other country, not even Great Britain, The inquiry, therefore, naturally arises. Why have we not built up a tinjilate industry as we have built up a great steel-rail industry, or an iron or steel industrv of any kind ? The answer is contained in few words. The intention of G(»n- gress many years ago to impose a sufficiently jirotective duty on tin- ])lates, so that American capital would be encouraged to engage in their manufacture as it has been encouraged to engage in the man- ufacture of other product.®, was thwarted by an erroneous decision of the Treasury Department, which is so well known that it need not be here recited in detail. We refer to the Fessenden decision of 1864, by which a duty of 21 cents per pound on tinplates was changed to an ad valorem rate of 25 per cent. The inju-stice of this erroneous decision has been legalized and continued in force by sulrsequent tariff legislation so anomalous in character that we are at a lo.ss to understand how it could ever have originated or how it could ever have been defended. A tinplate industry has not been developed in this country simply because the cost of pieduction would be greater here than in Great Britain, and this enhanced cost has not been met by a protective duty, although such a duty was clearly enacted in the tariff act of 1864. The present dutv is 1 cent per pound — a revenue duty onlv. OB.IECTIONS TO A PROTECTIVE DUTY ON TINPLATES AN.SWERED. One of the reasons which has been assigned in defense of the unfriendly legislation referred to, and which has built up a great British industiy at the exjiense of our own countrv, is tliat we could GREAT Britain’s moxopoey in the (i not make tinplates, not having mines of tin ore. This argument, as we have shown, does not rest upon any foundation of facts. The pe( [)le, and legislators also, have been grossly deceived on this suh- jec by interested importers of British tinplates. We could coat iro 1 or steel sheets from imported tin lus easily as British tinplate manufacturers now do if we were afforded the ojiportunity. Another reason which has been a.ssigned is that, the tinplate in- dmtry not now having an existence in this country, to increase the dmy on tinplates, and thus start a tinplate industry in our country, wo ild have the effect of enhancing the cost to consumers of the tin- plates which it would be necessary to import for some time to meet the great demand for them. This argument has been frequently am [ sufficiently met by reference to the fact that, even granting the ass imption of our industrial enemies that the duty is added to the ])ri ?e, the increased cost of tinplates in consequence of the imposi- tio 1 of a protective duty on this article could not add one-half of a 0 3iit to the cost of a tin can, nor more than (>ne or two cents to • the cost of a milk ])an, jiail, or bucket. On tin cans exjiorted and ma de from imported tinplates the law now allow s a rebate of nine- ty oer cent, on the duty paid, so that, granting the assumption al- ready referred to, if this provision of law should be continued, (and we do not object to it,) our exporters of canned fruits, vegetables, melts, fish, etc., could not be injured by a protective duty on the material from which their cans are manufactured. 5ut we hold that the effect of a protective duty on tinplates wo dd not even slightly enhance the cost of tinplates to consumers for any considerable length of time. The industry being once es- tal lished, the effect of competition between lionie producers would fro n the start keep the price within rea.sonable bounds, and would in i short time bring it doivn to the present quotations. The effect of protective duties in this country has invariably been to reduce pri2es after the protected industries have been established, and there is no reason known to us why the manufacture of tinplates sh( uld prove to be an exception to this rule. A I ROTECTIVE DUTV ON TINIH.ATES WOUElJ BENEFIT CONSUMERS. ’Vith a tinplate industry once established in lids country, ])rices of dnplates would not only be kejit within reasonable bounds but coi sumers would be guaranteed tinplates of a better quality than thev now frequently receive from Great Britain. Our experience under protective duties has fully demonstrated tliat one of the cer- tain efiects of protecting an industry which has a right to exist on American soil is to put a check upon the adulteration of the jirod- MANUFACTURE OF TINI‘LATES. ) acts of a competing foreign industry. Tin cans which will not spoil their contents or poison those who jiartake of them are greatlv need- ed in this country to-day. Tin roofs which will la-^it for more than one or two years liefore they fall into holes are also greatlv needed. The London Sfatht, for August 18, 1888, in reviewing the tinplate exports from Great Britain in the first five months of 1888, frank- ly admitted that “a very large ])roj>ortion of the tinplates and sheets ex])orted consisted of a class of goods in the manufacture of which very little or no tin is used, thin iron sheets, mostlv used for roofing purposes in cold climates.” The ])roposition to put tinplates in the free list is calculated to benefit importers only, as consumers could have no guarantee that the price of tinplates would thereby be reduced to them even the tenth ]>art of the duty remitted. The proposition is not one, there- fore, which consumers should for one moment favorablv consid- er. Any appeals which they may have made to Congress to remit this duty have obviously been made under grave misaj)]>rehension. One object of building uj) home industries is to check the greed of foreign producers by placing domestic products in competition with foreign products, but to place tinplates in the free list would simply confirm British manufacturers of tinplates in their possession of our markets, and confirm their present privilege of chaririiur us what prices they please for their products. Build up a tinplate industry here and foreign tinplate manufacturers will be compelled to abate a part of their present profits. CONCLUSION. We respectfully ask your Committee to consider this whole (pies- tion carefully and in the light of the facts which we have briefly submitted, and in tlie light of the crowning consideration that this country is as much entitled to boast a tiii])late industrv as a cotton or woolen industry, a silk industrv, a lead or zinc industrv, or anv other industry. This is what our protective policy ini])lies, and the people of tins country have just decided that they wish this poliev to be continued and its scope extended to embrace avenues of hon- orable emj)loyment which are not now open to them. The ])resent duty on tinplates is solely a revenue duty. It has prevented the e.stablishment of a single tinplate works in the United States, and it has built up in Great Britain, as has lieen shown, a monojioly of our supjih^ of tiujilates. This foreign monopoly has already jiroved to be a great tax on the financial resources of our country. I am. Sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAiSIES M. SWANK, Getieral Miutiu/er. 8 THE LABOR REQUIRED TO PRODUCE TINPLATES. r The Labor Required to Produce Tinplates. The cliief cost of converting iron or steel sheets into tinplates is : n the labor employed in the tinning process. The existing duty of one cent per pound does not at all ajiproxiniate the difierence be ween the labor cost in Great Britain and this country ; hence tin United States makes no tinplates. The following explanation of the labor required in coating iron or steel sheets with tin is taken frcm the ^4 atcrmim Cyclopa’dia. ‘ The plating of sheet iron, to form so-called tiiq)late or sheet tin, foi domestic utensils, etc., is conducted as follows: The thin sheets of iron are cleaned by immersion in dilute sulphuric acid and sub- set uent rubbing with sand and water and washing, after which tin y are annealed by exposure to cherry heat ft>r 1 2 hours in cast- iroti boxes, tightly closed and luted. Imperfect or seriously oxid- ize I plates are rejected. The accepted ones, which are purplish frcm a thin external film of oxide, are polished by being passed cold tlirough rolls, then subjected to a second and less prolonged an lealing, then sorted and cleansed again, and finally taken to the tinning apparatus. After cleansing they will <iuickly rust on ex- po; lire to air, but may be ke])t indefinitely without injury if im- mtrsed in pure water. The tinning apparatus comprises a series of loi g rectangular pots or tanks, with a fire under each. These tanks contain the liquid baths into which the plates are to be plunged. T1 e operation comprises a series of immersions : first into melted gn ;ase, in ivhich the plates are left till all moisture has eyai)orated ; tin n successively into several baths of tin, each of which is purer th: ,n the preceding, so that the sheets ac(}uire a coating first of alloy an 1 finally of pure tin ; then into melted grease again, in which the su])erfluous tin runs off, while the liquid grease prevents a too rajiid coiling and consequent cracking of the surface. As the tin in the fin il tin bath becomes fouled by alloyed iron it is removed to the pmceding tin bath, and from this in turn to the first bath. xVfter tin fnal grease bath, (tallow and palm oil,) vvdiich anneals the ph tes, the edging of tin which usually forms around them is re- nit ved by dipping into melted cast iron, which melts it, so that a (|u ck blow on the i)late causes it to drop off. The plates are at las: rubbed with bran and then with sheepskin to remove grease and dirt, sorted, packed in boxes, and marked to indicate size and qu dity. The sheet iron for tinplates is rolled from the best char- coj 1 or coke bar.” t may be added that there is no mystery in the manufacture of :inplates which the people of this country can not fully acquire, once made tinplates in this country of the best quality. THE MANUFACTURE OF TINPLATE.s IN THE UNITED STATFI.S, The Manufacture of Tinplates in the United States. The following statements are taken from a ]>aper by James i\I. Swank, General ^Manager of the American Iron and Steel A,sso- ciation, prepared and published in the summer of 1880. A new use of steel in this country, which is soon to lie estab- lished, is the manufacture of tinplates, our supply of which is now ivhollv imported. Tinplates are sheets of iron or steel which have been coated with tin or with a mixture of tin and lead. Some of the tinplates which we import are still made of iron sheets, but the tendency abroad is to use .steel sheets exclusively in the manu- facture of tinplates. The tinplate industry of this country will be wholly an outgrowth of our steel industry. The Illinois Steel ('ompany, the largest manufacturer of steel not only in this country but in the world, has announced its intention tu engage in the manufacture of tinplates as soon as Congress increases the duty on this article, which it is expected to do next winter. Objection has been made to an increase of the duty on tinplates upon the ground that this country does not produce block tin, which is essential to their manufacture. We think that it will lie found upon examination that there is no force whatever in this ob- jection. We can easily import all the block tin that we may need for tinjilates. We now import large quantities for other purposes. Block tin is free of duty. It is not an unusual circumstance for a country which is largely engaged in the manufacture of metals to imjiort its raw materials in large part, if not wholly, from other countries. Our magniiicent Bessemer steel industry has always been de})endent ui)on foreign countries for its sup|)ly, in whole or in part, of spiegeleisen and fer- ro-manganese. When we commenced the manufacture of Bessemer steel we were wholly dependent upon foreign countries for our sup- ])ly of spiegelei,sen. The Bessemer steel industry of our great in- diLstrial rival. Great Britain, is still more dej)endent upon foreign countries for its sujiply of raw materials than we are. One-half of the iron ore which is used in the manutacture of Be.ssemer ]>ig iron and spiegeleisen in that country is imported from fspain, Elba, and other countries. Upon this subject Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, a very high English authority, made the following statement in re- ply to a tocist at the annual meeting of the Wolverhampton Cham- ber of Commerce, on Wednesday, January 30, 1889. “When the so-called Black Country first began to make iron it was nece.ssary that the ores and the coal should be found in juxta- position, but now the more rapid communication possible l)etween centres of the country had lesvsened this necessity, ami we were in 10 'JHE MANUFACTriiE OF TINPLATES IX THE EXITED STATES. presence of very changed conditions of things. Of all the ges which had taken place the most important was the intro- ion of the Bessemer converter. The improvements in steam gation enabled us to import large quantities of foreign ores. for these importations steel at the present time would have been st a luxury in. England. As a result of this interchange of acts the price of steel had been reduced. It was now possible md to Bilbao, 1,000 miles away, and bring over ore for the ufacture of steel rails, which could be produced at much less the price of iron rails made from Cleveland ironstone, which almost at the gates of the Cleveland rolling mills. And the ity of the steel rails was twice that of the iron rails.” lustrations of the jiropriety of sending to other countries for pply of tin to enable us to engage in the manufacture of tin- ?s need not be conhued to industries which embrace the metals . The. great cotton industry of Great Britain was wholly built rom supplies of raw cotton drawn at first from India and af- ards from the United States, Egypt, and other countries. Its ■’ supply has long come from the United States. Our own try is a large producer of woolen goods and carpets, but it de- I a jiart of its supply of both the coarser and the finer qualities ool from Australia, South America, and other countries. We ilso largely engaged in the manufacture of silk goods, but all raw silk we consume is imported from Asiatic and Europe- ountries. Dyes for all textile goods we import largely from r countries. We are large importers of hides to be used in manufacture of leather, and of various raw materials to be in the manufacture of chemicals and other manufactured uav: But alnu proc to s mar thai lav (}ua II a SI j)lat onh 4 up i terv chie com rive of V the an I othe the usee pro( It proi do 1 in c vest nets. is not, therefore, a valid or even a plausible objection to the osition to establish a tinplate industry in this country that wo ot have among our native resources a supply of tin to be used )ating iron and steel plates. It may be found, upon further in- gation, that we possess an ample supply of this raw material ; IS already been sufficiently demonstrated that we possess in the k Hills of Dakota at least a partial supplyq which is in process ivelopment. But, if it should be necessary' for us to import our e supply of tin before we could establish a tinplate industry on ■rican soil, there exists no commercial or metallurgical reason we should not do this. If Great Britain can make tinplates imjiorted tin we can certainly do the same. If our own coun- :-ould successfullv establish a Bessemer steel industrv bv de- *• %. *■ ing wholly upon foreign countries for a supjily of spiegeleisen THE MAXEFACTUKE OF TIXPLATES IX TIlU EXITED STATES. 11 surelv we could meet with equal success in establishing a tinjdate industry, even if compelled to rely wholly on foreign countries for a supply of tin to coat the iron or steel sheets we know so well how to make. The onlv other objection which may be urged against the estab- lishment of a tinplate industry in our country is liased upon the theorv that an increase of the duty, which is necessary* if the in- dustrv is to {rain with us even a foothold, would add to the cost of tinplates to consumers. This objection is well answered by our ex- perience in establishing the steel-rail iudusti-y with the hel]) of a sufficient duty. This experience is associated with an intcre.sting incident that iroes back to the verv beginning of that industry in this country. In the debate in the House of Rejiresentatives in 1870, on the tariff bill which fixed the duty* on steel rails at 828 a ton, the Hon. Samuel S. Marshall, of Illinois, exjiressed great fear that the pro- posed duty would be so high that it would to a large extent cut off the importation of foreign steel rails, thus de])riving our railroad companies of the o})])ortunity to buy* the steel rails that they would need, e.reept the few made in this country, and which are sold at an oiornious cost.’' At the time this speech was delivered, in June, 1870, steel rails were selling in this country at 8110 a ton, and the average price at which they* were sold during the whole of the year 1870 was $106.75. The duty of $28 took effect on January 1, 1871, and it did not produce any of the evil effects predicted for it bv Mr. Marshall. On the contrary it wonderfully increas- ed the ]troduetion of steel rails at home, so that in 1887 we made twice as main* as Great Britain, and it so reduced their jirice that evei;v steel rail made in the United States since Mr. Mar- shall’s speech was delivered has cost our railroad companies an average of less than $44 a ton, whereas the price was $110 a ton in 1870. The present duty is $17 a ton, and the present price is only $28, and steel rails have been sold as low as $26, or lower than the duty of 1870. A new and important industry was establish- ed in this country, domestic competition with foreign steel-rail makers in the manufacture of steel rails for American railroads was created, and this conqietition reduced jirices. The facilities which we possess for the manufacture of tiiqilates certainly* warrant the expectation, in the light ot tiie above expe- rience, that, if the tinplate industry should be established in this (‘OLintry*, the price ot tinplates would in a very short time be re- duced in.stead of being increased. That their (piality would be improved if made at home there can not be the slightest doubt. 12 now TINPLATES ARE MADE IN OREA'l BRITAIN. How Tinplates are Made in Great Britain. he Editor of The Bulletin of The American Iron and Steel Association. )ear Sir : In comjiliance with your reijiiest for a description of manner in which tinplates are made in Great Britain I take asnre in sendin<i you the followino: information. 'harcoal iron is no longer used in the manufacture of tinplate.^, I the (juantity of puddled bars now used for this i>urpose is also y limited. The bulk of the finer and better qualities of plates ow made of open-hearth steel, and nearly all the cheaper grades made of low-carbon Bessemer steel. We ivill, therefore, deal y with our subject from the bars of iron or steel (which in tin Is are generally called “tin bars”) to the finished plates, n the first place we haye the bar, deliyered from the bar mill, eral feet long, about seyen inches wide, and from one-half to -eighths of an inch thick, rolled according to the size of the tes required at so many pounds per foot. The bar is taken and ared into the rc(piired lengths, say about lb inches, which would gh about 11) })Ouuds to the piece. This would be the length of >ar re<juired to produce sheets 14 inches by 20 inches in size. i bar ivould eyentually be rolled into 10 sheets of this size, 112 Tich sheets forming a box, and weighing when tinned about 108 nds. diis piece of bar iron, lb inches long, is phned in a reyerbera- furnace, heated to redness, put through the chilled rolls, and ed into what is termed “thick.” It is then reheated and rolled “singles” until reduced in thickne-ss .so as to be easily doubled, ■r which it is doubled, reheated, and rolled, three times in suc- fion. By this time it will be .seen that the 19-pound bar is eight ets in thickness. In this shape it is rolled until each sheet is need to the re(piired length and thickne.ss. The whole mass is t taken and sheared into two parts and the rough edges taken haye then eight sheets in each part adhering yery closely ^ther. Girls are generally employed to open or separate these teks,” as they are called, which they do with small hatchets, pro- ing their hands with hand-leathers. The plates are now termed ack plates.” 'he plates are next sent to he ])ickled, that i.s, immer.sed in ted dilute sulphuric acid. This ]>rocess is now generally done the aid of patent pickling machines, among which are Hutch- fs, INIorris’s, Lewis’s, Hyde’s, and others. The |)lates are placed i cradle or receptacle, which is lifted by hydraulic power and pped down into a tank containing the acid. The cradle is 1 given a revolving or other motion to make the li(piid rush now TINPLATES ARE MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. between the sheets. After being subjected to the action of the acid for some time the cradle is again lifted by the hydraulic power and dropped into another tank containing an ample supjily of clean Avater only, the cradle revolving as in the acid tank, so that the water may rush between the sheets and wash away all trace of the acid. When taken out the plates are bright and clean. They are then placed in clo.sed iron annealing pots and subjected to a bright-red heat in an annealing furnace for from 12 to 24 hours. The next j)rocess is to pa.ss the plates through cold rolls three, four, or more times, as may be deemed necessary. This is called cold rolling. These rolls are highly polished, and must be set very accurately in order to give the ])lates a perfectly flat .set and a well polished surface. After this rolling the plates are again an- nealed, at a lower temperature than the first time, as their surfaces would be damaged by fhe slightest degree of sticking or adhering together. Then they are again pickled, as before, excepting that the liquid is much weaker, after Avhich they are ]daced in a trough, thromrh Avhich a stream of clear water flows continually. They are then taken in hand singly, and, if nece.ssary, scoured Avith sand and hemp in pads before being delivered to the “tinman.” Now comes the last proce.ss. The sheets are iron or steel so far. They nexf reach the tin house, and are placed in a trough of clean Avater ready for the tinman, Avho takes them up singly and ])uts them in a grea.se pot, containing palm oil, to soak. After being there a .short time the tinman places the sheets in a large iron ]iot. containing molten tin, with a covering of i)alm oil. When the tin- man has performed his part the plates are handed over to the “ Avashman,” Avhose pot contains more molten tin. After they have soaked a little Avhile in his pot he rai.ses them Avith tongs on to the “hob” as he requires them, brushes the surface of each side of the sheet, and, after again dip})ing them into a pot containing molten tin, they are sent through rolls Avhich Avork in a large pot contain- ing }>alm oil. A boy, called tbe “ riser,” noAv lifts the sheets and places them in a bunch, and then hands them over to a young woman, Avho rubs them in bins or boxes of bran, one after the oth- er, Avhich takes off fhe grease. Anofher young Avoman, called a “duster,” gives them another rubbing Avith a skin duster, after AA'hich fbey are taken to the assorting room. Here they are care- fully inspected, and all good plates are cla.ssed as “perfects” and defective plates as “ wasters.” They are next counted by young Avomen and made up into boxes, that is, in piles or bundles of a number of .sheets for each box, according to quality. SECRETARY Ei:sSEXDEN’s TINPLATE DECISION. SECRETARY FESSENDEN’s TINPLATE DECISION The boxers or packers uow take charge of them, and pack them in o elm boxes, which are marked by branding irons, as per order, anil hnally place them in the freight car, to be forwarded to their va lions destinations. We have here described what is known as the “palm-oil })rocess.” Ti e principal feature of what is called the “acid-tlux process” is th it, in place of palm oil covering the molten tin, an acid flux is uskI, being made by a mixture of zinc, hydro-chlorate, and wa- te . All the best plates, however, are still made by the palm-oil jiDcess. Very Truly Yours, John Jarrett, Secretary of the American Turned Plate Ar:sociation. ^irrsiuKon, May 11, 1889. Secretary Fessenden’s Tinplate Decision. Frc in The Bulletin of The American Iron and Steel ^Vssociatioii, .May 22, 1889. The sole reason m Iiv a tinplate industry was not long ago estali- lislied in this country and developed as kindred industries have be 311 mav be traced to an absurd construction by the Treasury D''partment of the language of the tariff' act of 1864. In that ac. Congress ]dainly provided that a duty of ‘21 cents per pound sh mid be levied on imported tinplates, M'hich duty would have lie 311 sufficiently protective to enable this country to engage in th ‘ manufacture of tinplates. The language of the act was as fol lows : ‘ On tin plates, and iron galvanized or coated with any metal bv eh ctric batteries or otherwise, two cents and a half per pound.” The above phraseology and punctuation would mean to the sini- ph-st understanding that tinplates, as well as galvanized iron, etc., niLst pay a duty of 21 cents per pound. But the Hon. William Pi 4 Fessenden, who was then Secretary of the Treasury, unlaw- fu ly construed the above clear and plain clause as follows in a letter addressed to Hiram Barney, Collector of the Port of Yew Y( rk, an official copy of which letter we herewith append : Tre.asuky Department, Offici: of the Secretary, Washington, D. C., July 22, 1864. Hii AM Barney, Esq., Collector, New York. 5Ir: Your letter of the 12th instant is received, requesting to be instructed in writing in relation to the proper construction of the lai guage of the second paragraph on the 9th jiage of the printed taiiff'of June 30th, i864, viz.: “On tin plates, and iron galvanized or coated with any metal by electric batteries or otherwise, two cei ts and a half per pound.” V / r. It would appear that an error of punctuation has been made by some one ; most probably by the clerk mIio engrossed that part of the act. If the comma which is inserted after the word “])lates” be omitted, and a comma placed after the w'ord “iron” the true sen.se will be had, which unquestionably is, that the tin plates, as Avell as the iron, must be galvanized or coated with any metal by elec- tric batteries or otherwise in order to bring them Avithin this pro- vision. 1 am able from the part which I took personally in the framing of this provision to speak with confidence as to the intent of it, and have no hesitation in saying that it was not contemplated by Con- gress to make any addition to the rate of dutv prescribed by previ- uus tariff acts on ordinary tin plates. I am A^ery Respectfully, W. P. Fessenden, Secretary of the Treasury. The Secretary, therefore, gravely removed a comma trom where it ought to be to where it ought not to be in order to show that tin- plates, which were then wholly made of sheet iron coated with tin, must be again coated with some other metal in order to bring them within the meaning of the tariff' provision we have quoted. He thus succeeded in making the chief object of the clau.se to be the protection by a high duty of galvanized tinplate-^, an article which did not then and does not now exist. Air. Fessenden then applied to tinplates another clau.se in the tariff' act which does not describe “tinplates” at all, because tin- plates are not tin in plates, but are sheet-iron or sheet-steel plates coated with tin. This clause read as follows : “Tin in sheets or plates, terne and taggers’ tin, 25 per centum ad valorem.’' The result of this blundering, if it can be called nothing worse, was that the duty of 21 cents per })ound, which the tariff' act of 1864 clearly intended to impo.se, and which would have amounted to about 82.80 on the average box of tinplates, was changed to 25 per cent, ad valorem, which, as tinplates in 1864 sold in London at 26s. 4d., afforded a protection of only SI. 60 per box. The latter dutv was still further reduced in 1872 to 15 per cent, ad valorem. In 1874 the duty was made specific at Ij^ cents per pound, and in 1883 this duty was reduced to 1 cent per pound, which is the pres- ent rate. As a protective duty it is wholly inadequate, as is proved hx the fact that this country does not make one box of tinplates. Since the people of this country have come to understand this tin- plate question they expect, with great unanimity, the next Congress to re.store the duty which Secretary Fessenden ignored. ]b THE VALUE OF A HOME TINPLATE INDUSTRY. The Value of a Home Tinplate Industry. On the basis of careful calculations, made in the spring of 1888 by Mr. William Weihe, President, and Mr. William Martin, Secretary, of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel ^V^orkers of the United States, the 283,836 gi’oss tons of tinplates I'hich we imported in the calendar year 1887 represented in A 'ages paid British workingmen over $10,000,000. If this quan- tity of tinplates had been made in this country the American standard of wages would have given our workingmen for this v'ork about $23,000,000. This vast sum of money, representing D'ages only, Avould not be retained in one industry but would be ( istributed among many industries. The iron-ore miners would 1 le called upon to produce nearly another million tons of iron ore. "''he limestone quarrymen would be required to produce over t 00,000 tons more of limestone. The coal miners and coke pro- ( ucers would be asked for an additional 2,000,000 tons of coal i nd coke. The blast furnacemen would be required to smelt ^ 00,000 tons more of pig iron. The lead miners and smelters H'ould have a market for another 5,500,000 ])Ounds of lehd. The ( attle raisers and meat packers would be called on to furnish a large part of the 13,000,000 pounds of the tallow and palm oil lequired. The chemical workers would have a market for nearly 0,000,000 pounds more of sulphuric acid ; and the lumbermen D’ould be called on for an additional 12,000,000 feet of lumber. " "he production of all the articles above mentioned which are re- paired in the tinplate manufacture would necessarily create an ^cth'e demand for many otlier products, such as fire-brick, clay, 1 Libricants, hemp, etc., but the extent of which can not easily be (stimated. At least 35,000 workingmen could be given employ- iient in this country to fully supply the demand of the United i 'tates for tinplates. The farmers would be called upon to supply them with breadstuffs and ju'ovisions. •3/2 H V