(1) Supposed likenesses of Timūr are to be found in books and
in the splendid collection of Oriental manuscripts and drawings
in the British Museum. One contained in the Shah Jahān Nāma—a
gorgeous specimen of illuminated Persian manuscript and
exquisite calligraphy—represents a most ordinary, middle-aged
Oriental, with narrow black whisker, fringing the cheek and meeting
the tip of the chin in a scanty, pointed beard; a thin moustache
sweeps in a semicircle from above the upper lip; the eyebrow over
the almond-shaped eye is marked but not bushy. But it were
vain to seek for an expression of genius in the countenance. Another
portrait is included in a set of sketches by native artists, some
of which, taken probably from life, show great care and cleverness.
Timūr is here displayed as a stoutish, long-bodied man,
below the middle-height, in age and feature not unlike the first
portrait, but with thicker and more straggling hair, and distincter,
though not more agreeable character in the facial expression,
yet not a sign of power, genius, or any elements of grandeur or
celebrity. The uncomfortable figure in the Bodleian Library
does not give much help. Sir John Malcolm has been at some
pains to invest his portrait of Timūr with individuality. But an
analysis of his results leaves the reader in more perplexity than
satisfaction at the kind of information imparted, and he reverts
insensibly to the sources from which his instructor has himself
been instructed. (2) As regards plays, in Marlowe’s Tamburlaine
Timūr is described as tall of stature, straightly fashioned, large of
limb, having joints strongly knit, long and sinewy arms, a breadth
of shoulders to “bear old Atlas’s burden,” pale of complexion,
and with “amber hair wrapp’d in curls.” The outline of this
description might be from Sharifu ’d-Dīn, while the colours are the
poet’s own. A Latin memoir of Tamerlane by Perondinus, printed
in 1600, entitled Magni Tamerlanis scytharum imperatoris vita,
describes Timūr as tall and bearded, broad-chested and
broad-shouldered, well-built but lame, of a fierce countenance and with
receding eyes, which express cruelty and strike terror into the
lookers-on. But Jean du Bec’s account of Timūr’s appearance is
quite different. Now Tamburlaine was written in 1586. The
first English translation of Jean du Bec is dated in 1595, the Life
by Perondinus in 1600, and Petis de la Croix did not introduce
Sharifu ’d-Dīn or ‘Alī Yazdī to European readers till 1722. The
dramatist must have heard of Timūr in other quarters, equally
reliable it may be with those available in the present stage of
Oriental research. At the beginning of the 18th century Timūr
was represented in Rowe’s Tamerlane as a model of valour and
virtue. The plot, however, has little to do with history, and is
improbable and void of interest. By Matthew Gregory Lewis
again “Timour” is depicted as the conventional tyrant of a
gorgeous melodrama, slaying, burning, slaughtering and committing
every possible atrocity until checked by a violent death and
a poetical climax.
Apart from modern European savants and historians, and the more strictly Oriental chroniclers who have written in Persian, Turkish or Arabic, the following authorities may be cited—Laonicus Chalcondylas, Joannes Leunclavius, Joachimus Camerarius, Petrus Perondinus, Lazaro Soranzo, Simon Mairlus, Matthew Michiovius. A score or so of other names are given by Samuel Purchas. See also Sir Clements Markham’s Clavijo, in the Hakluyt Society’s publications; White’s edition of Davy’s translation of the Institutes (1783); Stewart’s translation of the Malfūẓāt; Malcolm’s History of Persia; and Trans. Roy. Soc. (1885); Horn, “Gesch. Irans in islam. Zeit,” in Geiger and Kuhn, Grundr. der iranisch. Philol. (1904); works quoted, s.v. Mongols. (F. J. G.)
TIN (Lat. stannum, whence the chemical symbol “Sn”; atomic weight＝117·6, O＝16), a metallic chemical element. Being a component of bronze, it was used as a metal thousands of years prior to the dawn of history; but it does not follow that prehistoric bronzes were made from metallic tin. When the unalloyed metal was first introduced cannot be ascertained with certainty. The “tin” of the Bible (κασσíτερος in the Septuagint) corresponds to the Hebrew bedhil, which is really a copper alloy known as early as 1600 B.C. in Egypt. All we know is that about the 1st century the Greek word κασσíτερος designated tin, and that tin was imported from Cornwall into Italy after, if not before, the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar. From Pliny’s writings it appears that the Romans in his time did not realize the distinction between tin and lead: the former was called plumbum album or candidum to distinguish it from plumbum nigrum (lead proper). The word stannum definitely assumed its present meaning in the 4th century (H. Kopp). By the early Greek alchemists the metal was named Hermes, but at about the beginning of the 6th century, it was termed Zeusor Jupiter, and the symbol ♃ assigned to it; it was also referred to as diabolus metallorum, on account of the brittle alloys which it formed.
Occurrence.—Grains of metallic tin occur intermingled with the gold ores of Siberia, Guiana and Bolivia, and in a few other localities. Of minerals containing this element mention may be made of cassiterite (q.v.) or tinstone, SnO2, tin pyrites, Cu4SnS4+(Fe,Zn)2SnS4; the metal also occurs in some epidotes, and in company with columbium, tantalum and other metals. Of these “tinstone” is of the greatest commercial importance. It occurs in its matrix, either in or closely associated with fissure veins or disseminated through rock masses. It is also found in the form of rolled lumps and grains, “stream tin,” in alluvial gravels; the latter are secondary deposits, the products of the disintegration of the first-named primary deposits. Throughout the world, primary deposits of tinstone are in or closely connected with granite or acid eruptive rocks of the same type, its mineral associates being tourmaline, fluorspar, topaz, wolfram and arsenical pyrites, and the invariable gangue being quartz: the only exception to this mode of occurrence is to be found in Bolivia, where the tin ore occurs intimately associated with silver ores, bismuth ores and various sulphides, whilst the gangue includes barytes and certain carbonates. Over five-sixths of the world’s total production is derived from secondary alluvial deposits, but all the tin obtained in Cornwall (the alluvial deposits having been worked out) and Bolivia is from vein mining, while a small portion of that yielded by Australasia comes from veins and from granitic rocks carrying disseminated tinstone.
Production.—During the 18th century the world’s supply of tin was mainly drawn from the deposits of England, Saxony and Bohemia; in 1801 England produced about 2500 tons, while the supplies of Saxony and Bohemia had been greatly diminished. The English supply increased, with some oscillations, to between six and seven thousand tons annually in the period 1840–1860, when it suddenly rose to about 10,000 tons, and this figure was fairly well sustained until about 1890, when a period of depression set in; the yield for 1900 was 4336 tons, and for 1905 about 4200 tons. In the opening decades of the 19th century supplies began to be drawn from Banka; in 1820 this island contributed 1200 tons; the production was increased to 12,000 tons in 1900, when a diminution set in, 9960 tons being the output during 1905. Billiton became of note in 1853 with a production of 40 tons, which increased to 6000 in 1900 and has since declined to about 3000 tons in 1905. The Straits Settlements ranked as an important producer in 1870 with 2337 tons; it now supplies the greater part of the world’s supply, contributing 46,795 tons in 1900, and over 60,000 tons in 1905. Australian deposits were worked in 1872, and in the following year the production was 3000 tons; the maximum outputs were in 1881–1883, averaging 10,000 tons annually; but the supply declined to 2420 tons in 1898 and has since increased to about 5028 tons in 1905. Bolivia produced 501 tons in 1883, 10,245 in 1900 and 12,500 in 1905.
The world’s supply in 1900 was 72,911 long tons; this increased in 1904 to 97,790 tons, but in 1905, principally owing to a shortage in the supplies from the Straits and Banka, the yield fell to 94,089 tons.
Metallurgy.—The operations in the metallurgy of tin may be enumerated as: (1) mining and dressing, (2) smelting, (3) refining. The first stage has for its purpose the production of a fairly pure tinstone; the second the conversion of the oxide into metallic tin; and the third preparing a tin pure enough for commercial purposes.
Mining and Dressing.—The alluvial deposits are almost invariably worked opencast, those of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago chiefly by Chinese labour; in a few instances hydraulic mining has been resorted to, and in other cases true underground mining is carried on; but the latter is both exceptional and difficult. The alluvial extracted, which in the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago carries from 5 to 60 ℔ of tinstone (or “black tin,” as it is termed by Cornish miners) to the cubic yard of gravel, is washed in various simple sluicing appliances, by which the lighter clay, sand and stones are removed and tinstone is left behind comparatively pure, containing usually 65 to 75% of metallic tin (chemically pure tinstone contains 78·7%).
Lode tin, as tinstone derived from primary deposits is often termed, is mined in the ordinary method, the very hard gangue in
