Facts about Tin
Tin(II) chloride is used as a mordant (dye-fixing agent) in the calico printing process, and a niobium-tin compound is used in wires for superconducting magnets.
Tin can be highly polished and is used as a protective coat for other metals, to prevent corrosion or other chemical action.
The flat surface of window glass can be made by floating molten glass on molten tin.
Tin (Anglo-Saxon tin, Latin stannum) is mined in about 35 countries throughout the world.
The small amount of tin found in canned foods is not harmful to humans.
At low temperatures, it exists as gray or alpha tin, which has a cubic crystal structure, similar to that of silicon and germanium.
Tin (chemical symbol Sn, atomic number 50) is a silvery, malleable metal that is not easily oxidized in air and resists corrosion.
The last Cornish tin mine, at South Crofty near Camborne, closed in 1998, bringing four thousand years of mining in Cornwall to an end.
Tin mining is believed to have started in Cornwall and Devon (especially Dartmoor) in classical times, and a thriving tin trade developed with civilizations of the Mediterranean.
Certain organic tin compounds, such as triorganotins, are toxic and are used as industrial fungicides and bactericides.
Most of the world's tin is produced from placer deposits; at least one-half comes from Southeast Asia.
A superconducting magnet weighing only a couple of kilograms is capable of producing magnetic fields comparable to a conventional electromagnet weighing tons.
The Meissner effect, one of the characteristic features of superconductors, was first discovered in superconducting tin crystals.
Tin is located in group 14 (former group 4A) of the periodic table, between germanium and lead.
The only mineral of commercial importance as a source of tin is cassiterite (SnO2).
Tin has ten stable isotopes (listed in the box), making it the element with the highest number of stable isotopes.
When cooled, it slowly returns to the gray form, a phenomenon called tin pest or tin disease.
Tradition has it that Joseph of Arimathea was a tin trader and that he brought his nephew Jesus with him to Cornwall on some of his journeys.
Given its hardening effect on copper, tin was used in bronze implements as early as 3500 B.C.E.
When a bar of tin is bent, a strange crackling sound known as the "tin cry" is produced, caused by breakage of the crystals.
Tin is one of the earliest metals known and was used as a component of bronze from antiquity.
When warmed above 13.2 °C, it changes into white or beta tin, which is metallic and has a tetragonal structure.
