Tin

Uses

Tin’s oldest and most historically important use is as the key ingredient in bronze, an alloy with copper that ancient civilizations discovered was far harder and more workable than either metal alone. Today, tin’s best-known job is protecting steel: a thin electroplated layer of tin on steel sheet — what most people call a “tin can” — keeps food and beverage containers from rusting, since tin resists corrosion much better than bare steel while still being safe to have in contact with food.

Tin is also a core ingredient in solder, the low-melting alloy used to join electrical components and pipework; lead-free solders based on tin, copper and silver have become standard in electronics as regulations have phased out older tin-lead formulas. It’s additionally used in pewter, a tin-based alloy long favored for tableware and decorative objects.

History

Tin has been used since antiquity, well before it could be credited to any single discoverer. Its major historical breakthrough came when ancient metalworkers, independently in several regions, learned to alloy tin with copper to make bronze — a harder, more durable material that gave its name to the Bronze Age and transformed toolmaking and warfare. Tin ore was valuable enough that it was traded across long distances in the ancient world, connecting regions that otherwise had little contact. Its chemical symbol, Sn, comes from its Latin name, stannum, reflecting how long the metal has been part of recorded human history.