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A tinker's dam is also reportedly a temporary patch to retain solder when repairing a hole in a metal vessel, such as a pot or a pan. It was used by tinkers and was usually made of mud or clay, or sometimes other materials at hand, such as wet paper or dough. The material was built up around the
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When working with copper, tin, gold, or other low-melting-point metals, the tinker would construct a charcoal furnace out of bricks and mud. At the bottom, he would leave a hole for the molten metal to pour out into a trough that led to a casting or a depression for an ingot. The hole was covered
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with a temporary "dam" which would be broken when the liquid metal had puddled at the bottom of the furnace. The function of the blockage coined the term "tinker's dam" as being something that only lasted temporarily, as it was to be destroyed or made useless in the very near future.
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of 1877, Edward Knight gives this definition: "Tinker's-dam: a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless".
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can be applied to something considered insignificant. An example: "I don't give a tinker's curse what the doctor thinks", sometimes shortened to, "I don't give a tinker's about the doctor."
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was then poured on the inside of the hole. The solder cooled and solidified against the dam and bonded with the metal wall. The dam was then brushed away. The remaining solder was then
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The term "tinker", in
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It is thought that the use of "tinker's dam" as something worthless may have evolved into the
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The
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means "metalworkers". However, this use is considered offensive.
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This article is about itinerant tinsmiths. For other uses, see
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for metal-worker is attested from the thirteenth century as
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