FUSE Young Reporter
iWORLD
TIN MYSTERY
Most of ancient Europe’s tin came from
the British Isles. By the 1700-1800s,
highly-successful tin and copper mining
in Devon and Cornwall (South West
England) had turned the landscape into
what is now a World Heritage site.
19th
In Northern Europe during the late
often
century, cathedral organ pipes were
winters
made of tin alloys. When the coldest
No-one
came, these pipes began to crumble.
pening.
knew why this “tin disease” was hap
allotrope
Nowadays we know our most useful
ic solid
(form) of tin is a silver-white metall
s “white
known as the ß-form (‘beta-form’). Thi
ling
tin” has a melting point of 232 °C, a boi
m 3 .
g/c
point of 2,260 °C and a density of 7.31
bent.
It screeches a strange “tin cry” when
) and
ß-tin is both malleable (hammerable
brittle
ductile (fl exible), although it is very
above 200 °C.
llic α-tin
The second allotrope is the non-meta
able
(‘alpha-tin’). This crumbly, non-malle
tin cools
“grey tin” forms slowly when white
lains
and stays below about 13 °C. -This exp
those “diseased” organ pipes!
Back in 700 BC, the Chinese were
mining for tin ore in Yunnan province.
China is still a major producer today
along with Indonesia, Peru, Brazil
and Bolivia. America uses a lot of tin
but makes almost none of its own.
FUSE reader
Theo (on our
cover) had
great fun working
with metal at our Big
Family Weekend!
FUSE
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