15th January: Tin

Tin used to be celebrated by the French on this date in their revolutionary calendar, which assigned a substance, animal or plant to every day of the year. 

Tin ore

1. The chemical symbol for tin is Sn. This is short for the Latin name for it, stannum. This word originally referred to an alloy of Silver and Lead, while tin was known as plumbum candidum, or "white lead". In the 4th century BC stannum became the word for lead. It's possible this word came from a Cornish word, stean, which is evidence that Cornwall was always a source of tin. From this root we get the word "stannary" relating to tin mines and production, and later, "stannary towns" which were places responsible for collecting money (then made of tin) for the crown.
2. The atomic number of tin is 50. In nuclear physics, 50 is a "magic number" (I'm not a nuclear physicist so don't ask me why) and it is because of this that tin has more stable isotopes than any other element - ten. It also has 29 unstable ones.
3. Its Melting point is 505.08 K (231.93 °C, 449.47 °F), and its boiling point is 2875 K (2602 °C, 4716 °F).
4. Tin doesn't occur naturally on its own - it is obtained from minerals, most commonly cassiterite, which contains tin dioxide, SnO2.
5. It was first extracted and used around 3000 BC, the early Bronze Age. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Early man discovered, probably by accident, that if another metal is added to Copper, it makes it easier to work with. Tin wasn't the only metal they used back then - they'd also use arsenic, but soon found out this was bad for people - so the demand for tin grew, and may have been the driving force behind trade in the Bronze Age.
6. By itself, tin isn't toxic at all, and it is highly resistant to corrosion. Hence it became commonly used to package food - hence the term "tin can" or simply, "tin". We still refer to cans of food as tins, even though they are mostly made from steel nowadays. Tin can become very poisonous, however, in some organic combinations so there still need to be limits for exposure for people working with it.
7. Tin is the 49th most abundant element. Nevertheless it is likely the mineable tin will run out in forty years or even less, so recycling the stuff is becoming more and more important.
8. The biggest tin producing country is China, followed by Indonesia, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. The United States leads the way in terms of producing recycled tin.
9. Bend a bar of tin and a crackling sound can be heard. This sound is known as the "tin cry", and is caused by the arrangement of tin crystals inside the metal.
10. "Tin soldiers" contained tin, alloyed with lead. Modern day uses for tin include using it as a solder, plating other metals to prevent corrosion and making glass for Windows - if molten glass is floated on molten tin, this makes the glass flat and flawless. This is known as the Pilkington Process. Tin is also used in organ pipes because it has a tonal resonance - the amount of tin in an organ's pipes defines its tone. Perhaps this is why whistles plated with tin were once common, too - "tin whistles".

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