NOT TIN.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXX, Issue 11126, 8 February 1930, Page 9

NOT TIN.

ALL THAT CLITTIiUS. WHAT IIO&IM'I’A L.S DO WITJi ■‘SILVER'’ PAPER. What happens to the unioil that is so assiduously set aside from cigarette packets for the hospitals ? Tin is very malleable ami can be rolled or hammered out into exquisitely line sheets, much as is gold in the process of making golf leaf. This is the property that makes it of so much value in the wrapping of sweets and tobacco. Thin wrappings afford adequate protection against moisture, while adding practically nothing to the weight of a small carton. The foil used for packing cigarettes varies in size and thickness. A fair average for a sixpenny packet of a well-known brand averaged Tin. by -gin., weighing about 5.7 grains. It would, therefore, take some d() of this size to weigh an ounce, so at this rate one ton of tin would provide wrappers for 1.792,000 such packets. Assuming pure tin afc-the present rate of .L‘lß-3 per ton be used, the cost of each wrapper is about one-tenth of a farthing. This is not much, but it explains why hospitals are anxious that none should bo thrown away as they have a ready sale for all that smokers are good enough to' send to them.

The'Secretary of St. Bartholomew's Hospital recently stated that such sales had yielded from £BO to £IOO each year for the last two years. The foil is sold to metal dealers, who make an analysis—for well-meaning people will not realise that all that gutters is not tin, and that many bottle capsules are only lead—and lix a price after the assay. There is-a very simple test for tin which requires no knowledge of chemistry. A' bar or thin rod'of the metal bent near the ear gives a characteristic . crackling or whispering sound.