Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Wonderful World of Tin

Episode Date: September 15, 2022

In the ancient world, only seven metals were identified and named: gold, silver, iron, lead, copper, mercury, and tin.  Tin probably doesn’t rank up there with the other metals in terms of how interestingness….or usefulness. Nonetheless, tin was incredibly important to the ancient world and remains incredibly important today.  In fact, tin is probably playing a role in your life right now, and you don’t even know it. Learn more about the wonderful world of tin on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Darcy Adams Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Everything Everywhere is an Airwave Media podcast." or "Everything Everywhere is part of the Airwave Media podcast network Please contact [e-mail] to advertise on Everything Everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the ancient world, only seven metals were identified and named, gold, silver, lead, iron, copper, mercury, and tin. Tin probably doesn't rank up there with the other metals in terms of interestingness or usefulness. Nonetheless, tin was incredibly important to the ancient world and remains incredibly important today. In fact, tin is probably playing a role in your life right now and you don't even know it. Learn more about the wonderful world of tin. on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. So, yeah, 10. I am aware that tin is not the sexiest of metals. It isn't valuable like silver or gold. It isn't the basis of industry like iron or electrical distribution like copper. It doesn't even have the cool ability to turn to a liquid at room temperature like mercury.

Things that are associated with tin almost always have an aura of mediocrity. Tin cans, tin cups, tin foil, the tin man. And none of them imply strength, wealth, or speed. So, why am I doing an episode? on tin. Well, that is what you will find out, and by the end of this episode, I hope you will have a greater appreciation for this often overlooked metal. So, what is tin? Looking at it chemically, tin is element number 50 on the periodic table. It's a silvery metal that has several interesting attributes, including being very soft and easy to cut. It doesn't corrode, and it has a very

low melting point. All of these attributes are going to be seen to be important later on. It also has the distinction of having more stable isotopes than any other element with 10. The abbreviation for tin is SN, which makes absolutely no sense in English. And that's because it comes from the Latin word for tin, which is stanum. The discovery of tin probably happened by accident. The best bet is that trace amounts of tin probably found their way into other metals, most probably copper. Its mixture with copper was the first real big use of tin. because tin and copper make an alloy that's known as bronze.

Bronze was a huge step forward for human development. In a previous episode, I talked about the Bronze Age. To summarize, bronze was much stronger and more robust than copper. To make bronze, you used approximately 12% tin and the rest copper. However, the exact proportions might change from place to place. Bronze was highly valued in the ancient world. Bronze weapons, bronze armor, and tools were full. far better than their copper equivalents. But there was one big problem. In the ancient world,

tin was quite rare. The number of tin deposits in the known world was actually quite small. In particular, Europe had very little in the way of tin. There was a small deposit in Tuscany, which was depleted rather quickly, one on the Iberian Peninsula, and another one in Germany. Perhaps the largest tin mine was located in southern Turkey. It operated for a thousand years, but it had already ceased operating, by the year 1800 BC. Much of the tin used in the Mediterranean was actually imported from much further away, from mines as far as Afghanistan, India, or East Africa. China had significant deposits of tin along the Yellow River,

and much of it was carried by the river and left influvial deposits. As the Bronze Age ended, demand for tin dropped as well. Iron was much stronger, and perhaps more importantly, it was much more abundant. Just to put this into perspective, there are about 50,000 parts per million of iron in the crust of the earth, whereas there are only about two parts per million of tin in the earth's crust. With the onset of the Iron Age, Tin became relegated to a minor player in the world of metals, mostly used in the creation of alloys. The Romans used an alloy of lead and tin to solder together pieces of lead pipe, which were used to carry water.

One of the other alloys which tin is used in is pewter. pewter wasn't strategically important like bronze was. It was primarily used for objects like jewelry, dishes, and other decorative items. Unlike bronze, tin is the dominant metal in the pewter alloy. Puter consists of about 85 to 95% tin, with the rest consisting of antimony, copper, and silver. The earliest samples of pewter that have been found date back to around 3,500 years ago from ancient Egypt. There are minor examples of pewter which were found in ancient Rome and throughout the Middle Ages, but it was never a major alloy.

Puter never really took off until the 18th and 19th centuries. Puter was used for dishes and cups in Europe before porcelain became popular. Puter is still used today, but again, mostly for decorative items. Some sporting events will actually give out pewter metals for fourth place. The resurgence in the importance of tin occurred in the early 19th century. Beginning in the 17th century, there was the development of a new product called tinplate. Tin plate was originally thin sheets of iron, which were coated in tin.

The tin coating solved the problem of rust and corrosion. Eventually, the iron was replaced with steel, which made for an even stronger sheet of metal. This led to the breakthrough product, which was developed in 1810, the tin can. The tin can was developed by the French inventor Philippe de Gerard, who then got the English inventor Peter Duran to patent the idea. Duran didn't do anything with the patent and sold it to Brian Duncan and John Hall,

who created the first canning factory in 1812. Tin cans are actually not just made out of tin. There are mostly steel and just plated in tin to prevent corrosion. The tin can was truly a revolutionary invention. The canning process allowed for the long-term preservation of food that could be stored at room temperature. Canning was the first way that many foods could be preserved and shipped long distances without spoiling.

One of the problems with early tin cans was that a lead, tin alloy was used to solder the can to hold it together. This could result in lead poisoning, and it was eventually replaced with a lead-free solder. Early tin cans were also very thick. To open a can, you literally had to use a hammer and a knife. Over time, however, the metal used in the cans became thinner as manufacturing techniques improved. And eventually, the metal became thin enough that the first specially designed can opener was developed. It was developed in 1858 by Ezra Warner of Waterbury, Connecticut. And this actually became huge

for the consumption of canned food during the U.S. Civil War. Continued improvements in can technology resulted in beer in tin cans in 1935. The very first canned beer was Kruger Cream Ale, sold by the Kruger Brewing Company of Richmond, Virginia.

Beer in can still had to be opened with a can opener until the development of the pop-top can in 1959. While aluminum has supplanted tin for most uses, especially beverages, the canned industry is still the second biggest consumer of tin today. While a canning industry makes use of tin's non-corrosive quality, another industry makes use of the low

melting point of tin. In fact, you might not have even known that tin was involved in its manufacturer. That product is glass. Modern panes of glass are of a type known as float glass. Float glass allows for extremely flat panels of glass of uniform thickness. The way in which it's made is that molten glass is poured onto a thin pool of liquid metal, which is almost always tin. This technique was first attempted in the mid-19th century, but it was perfected in the 1950s by Sir Alistair Pilkington. He developed a system whereby a continuous pour of molten glass is poured onto a shallow bath of molten tin. The glass, which is smooth and flat on both sides, then flows down the bath until it solidifies. And it's all possible due to tin.

Another major use of tin developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This took advantage of tin's property of being soft and malleable. Tinfoil. Gold was able to be hammered into very thin sheets, but gold is incredibly expensive. Tin was much more affordable and could be rolled into very thin sheets as well. The problem with tinfoil was that it often left foods with a rather tiny taste. As aluminum cost dropped throughout the 20th century, tinfoil was eventually replaced with the much cheaper aluminum foil. Even though the term tin foil is still used today, there's very little tin foil

that's actually produced. Most everything that is called tin foil is actually aluminum foil. The final use of tin that I'm going to talk about is one that uses over half of the world's tin production, and is probably involved somehow with you listening to this podcast right now. Sodering. Sodering uses low melting point metal alloys to connect two other pieces of metal when it cools. It's primary uses in electronics, but it's also used in plumbing and jewelry. If you've ever done hand soldering, you probably used a metal alloy consisting of approximately 62% tin and 38% lead. Most commercial sodders and all plumbing sodders have had the lead removed for reasons of lead poisoning, but tin is still a major component. Tin soldering is an important part in the

creation of almost all commercial electronics. There are, of course, even more uses for tin. In the course of traveling around the world, I've seen countless examples of tin-plated corrugated metal used in construction. And tin also has a minor role to play in the manufacturer of lithium ion batteries, which can probably be found in the device that you're listening to this very podcast right now. So I hope you have a better appreciation for boring old tin. I'm sure that the folks at the International Tin Association get wild during their convention swapping war stories about tin, but for most people, it's not something that they ever really think of. Tin is at a role to play in human civilization for thousands of years. It was responsible

for the Bronze Age, Food Preservation, and our ability to make windows and electronics. So, even though you may never give it another thought after this episode, take a moment to appreciate the value of good old tin. Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener, Yaron de Boer, over at Facebook. He writes, This podcast is amazing in every way. Content, voice, speed, length, everything.

Gary is one of the very few Americans whose knowledge about the Netherlands goes further than tulips, not Holland, clogs, and cheese. As a teacher and traveler, I enjoy great benefits from this podcast. I can broaden children's minds and outsmart tour guides, especially in Rome. Keep up the good work, Gary. I'll try to get everyone in the Netherlands as addicted to this podcast as I am. Donkowell, Your Own. I've had the pleasure of exploring your wonderful yet small country. In addition to Amsterdam, I've been to Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht,

Naimegen, Arnhem, and even the Bemster Polder. However, I've also been to all the other parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including Aruba, Kurosap, Bon Air, St. Martin, St. Eustaceous, and Saba. And I can even say that I've climbed to the highest point in the Netherlands, which, fun fact, is actually located in the Caribbean. and I'm personally part Dutch, and the area where I grew up in Wisconsin has a very large Dutch population.

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