ABSTRACT
The chief reason for this apparent contradiction is that both countries lack tinplate capacity, which is the main source of tin consumption in industrial countries. The effects of tin-economizing technology have been shown most dramatically in tinplate, which has been the chief use of tin for the whole of this century. Some experts believe that the development of electrolytic tinplate, the major tin-economizing innovation, has on balance helped tin consumption. Within a year of the federal government directive in December 1941, requiring American steel producers to cut their tin consumption, the first electrolytic line had been built, more capacity being installed in the later war years, so that by 1950, 59 per cent of US tinplate output was electrolytic. For an average tinplate production of 3.5 million tonnes in the 1935-9 period, tin consumption was 59,000 tonnes. Pressure from government played an important part at times in stimulating materials substitution and tin-economizing technology.
