Britannia Metal
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Britannia Metal. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)
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This page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes.
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A tableware alloy, with some resemblance of silver. Articles made from this alloy were formerly made by stamping with dies, but this has been superseded by the more efficient method of spinning. One mixture for this metal is: brass 4, tin 4; after fusing add bismuth 4, antimony 4--this composition to be added at discretion to melted tin. Another is to make up a hardening compound of copper 2, tin 1. This is made separate and used with other ingredients as follows: BRITANNIA METAL. Tin. Hardening. Copper. Antimony. Best quality . . . . . 150 . . . . . 3 10 Good quality . . . . . 140 . . . . . 3 9 Metal for casting . . . . . 210 . . . . . 4 12 Metal for spinning . . . . . 100 4 . . . . . 4 Metal for registers . . . . . 100 8 . . . . . 8 Metal for spouts. . . . . 140 . . . . . 3 6 Metal for spoons. . . . . 100 5 . . . . . 10 Metal for handles. . . . . 140 . . . . . 2 6 Metal for pillars, lamps . . . . . 300 . . . . . 4 15 See ALLOYS; TIN; ANTIMONY; COPPER; SPINNING METALS; WHITE ALLOYS.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an alloy of brass, tin, antimony, and bismuth. It is used to make cheap spoons and teapots.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When the Encyclopedia of Founding printed its tables in 1892 and Collier's called the alloy a way to make "cheap spoons and teapots" in 1921, Britannia metal was the everyday substitute for silver on middle-class tables. Stainless steel, patented in Sheffield in 1913, took over that market from the 1920s onward, and cheap flatware today is steel rather than a tin-antimony alloy. Britannia metal itself did not disappear: electroplated Britannia metal (EPBM) remained a trade term for plated ware, and the alloy is the body of the Academy Award statuette, which is gold-plated. The 1892 recipes are also closely related to modern lead-free pewter, essentially tin with a few per cent of antimony and copper, so the compositions still read as usable, though bismuth is no longer a normal ingredient.
Written for this edition, 2026.