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THE DIFFUSION OF TINPLATE MANUFACTURE

1956; Wiley; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1468-0289.1956.tb00667.x

1468-0289

W. E. Minchinton,

Historical and Archaeological Studies

OI F recent years considerable attention has been devoted to the problems of economic growth. The factors involved are numerous and their interaction complex, but one of the essential ingredients in the development of an economy is the improvement of its technical resources. This can be done by the acquisition of a wider range of manufactures or the replacement of old methods by new. Some of these technological improvements evolve within an economy while others are acquired from outside. This second process, the diffusion of techniques,' can be studied in terms of a particular group of countries2 or of individuals3 but it is the purpose of this article to examine it in a third way, in the case of a particular industry, the tinplate industry. The origins of the manufacture are still obscure but tinplate appears to have been first made in Germany, most probably at Wunsiedel in the Upper Palatinate, in the early fourteenth century.4 It soon proved to be a most useful material and, by the sixteenth century, was used for a variety of purposes, including domestic and dairy ware, boxes and containers, the protection of panelling and roofing.5 Its employment for such purposes increased in the following centuries and the range of tinware manufactured was extended. Then, from about the middle of the nineteenth century a most marked change in the demand for tinplate took place with the development of food canning and petroleum production, consumer-goods industries whose production has expanded rapidly in the last hundred years. It is these newer uses which provide the stimulus for the continued expansion of tinplate manufacture. In the history of this industry there have been three phases: each has been dominated by a different country and each has been concerned with a different technique of production. The first phase, from the beginning of the manufacture until about I 750 was the German phase, when first the Upper Palatine and then Saxony formed the main centre of production and the plates or sheets were made with the tilt-hammer. The second phase, from I750 to about I930, was the British phase. In it the rolling mill was the method of sheet production. In both these phases the dominant area held a position of virtual monopoly and the spread of techniques was slow. The third phase is the American phase, with tinplate produced by the strip-mill cold-reduction process and tinning carried out by the electrolytic instead of the hot-dip process used in the previous periods. In this phase the diffusion of techniques has been more rapid than hitherto. In each case the dominant country has been the leading metal-working country during its period and in each case it has served as the main centre for the diffusion of the technique of tinplate production.