Tin

Tin takes a high polish and resists water corrosion, so it is used to coat metals to prevent rusting and other chemical action, viz. tin plating over thin steel to produce "tin cans" used to preserve food. (The small amount of tin ingested from food cans is harmless.)   Tin is a useful alloy used in soft solder to join metal surfaces, printer type metal (alphanumerics used with ink to print) , fusible (meltable) metal, pewter (tin with either lead or copper + bismuth or antimony), bell metal (bronze, with 3 or parts Cu and 1 part Sn), Babbitt or White metal (tin + copper + antimony, usually used for antifriction linings), die casting alloy, and phospor-bronze (bronze with phosphorus used in bearings and gears to provide good wear, the bronze providing wearability and the phosphorus providing hardness).   Tin chloride, SnCl₂•H₂O, is used as a reducing agent and a mordant in calico printing.   Tin salts sprayed on glass produce electrically conductive coatings for panel lighting and frost-free windshields. ^{Lide 4-30}

Tin was known to the ancients.   It is found mainly in cassiterite, SnO₂.   There is almost no tin in the U.S.   Most of it comes from Malaya, Bolivia, Indonesia, Zaire, Thailand, and Nigeria.   Tin metal is obtained by reducing the ore with coal in a reverberatory furnace. ^{Lide 4-30}