Tin — the element

Abstract

The discovery, around 3500 BC, that copper, easily smelted but rather soft, could be made harder and stronger by alloying with tin, can be considered to be one of the great milestones in man’s technological development, and heralded the advent of the Bronze Age. Because of its relative scarcity, tin has always been a strategic metal and remains so to the present day. Isolation of the pure metal probably only dates from about 800 BC. The earliest recorded reference to tin occurs in the Old Testament in the book of Numbers (31:22): ‘Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the tin, and the lead.’ Substantially later (c. 600 BC) Ezekiel (27:12) relates: ‘Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in their fairs.’ Both suggest that tin was regarded as a valuable commodity, and indeed a strip of tin free from silver and lead has been found in the wrappings of an Egyptian mummy dating from not later than 600 BC.