Tin

Organotin compounds such as tributyltin oxide are biocides and need to be handled with care. However the 1990s saw its return to the catwalk, and it was soon to regain its place as a popular fashion item, particularly in America and on the Continent. The small amount of tin that is found in canned foods is not harmful to humans. By the 1980s it was largely out of fashion, though continued to be regarded as a staple item. See also Stannous hydroxide (Sn(OH)₂), Stannic acid (Stannic Hydroxide - Sn(OH)₄), Tin dioxide (Stannic Oxide - SnO₂), Tin(II) oxide (Stannous Oxide - SnO), Tin(II) chloride (SnCl₂), Tin(IV) chloride (SnCl₄). The tightness of the garments may also be seen as sexual bondage. For Stannite (SnO₃^-) see Stannite. Wearers of skin-tight spandex garments can appear naked or coated in a shiny substance like paint.

For discussion of Stannate compounds (SnO₃^2-) see Stannate. As explained in the spandex fetishism article, another reason why spandex and other tight fabrics may be fetishised is that the garment forms a "second skin," acting as a fetishistic surrogate for the wearer's own skin. 18 additional unstable isotopes are known. However, the poloneck in all its forms soon became a standard wardrobe item for both sexes during this period. Tin is the element with the greatest number of stable isotopes (ten). The poloneck was generally seen as a unisex and classless garment and wearing one remained a political statement in many circles. Secondary, or scrap, tin is also an important source of the tin. This trend continued into the 1960s and 1970s, with the white poloneck being briefly adopted as a corresponding item for mainstream feminists.

The only mineral of commercial importance as a source of tin is cassiterite (SnO₂), although small quantities of tin are recovered from complex sulfides such as stannite, cylindrite, frankeite, canfieldite, and teallite. In contrast, France saw the black poloneck adopted by left wing bohemians and intellectuals, and by the late 1950s their counterparts in the United States and Britain had also adopted the fashion. Most of the world's tin is produced from placer deposits; at least one-half comes from Southeast Asia. The look would filter through to Britain and Europe in a watered down version. This metal is a relatively scarce element with an abundance in the earth's crust of about 2 ppm, compared with 94 ppm for zinc, 63 ppm for copper, and 12 ppm for lead. This would become an important aspect of the polonecks image in America. Tin is produced by reducing the ore with coal in a reverberatory furnace. By the late 1950s the "tight poloneck" had been adopted as part of the preppie style amongst students, a style emphasising neatness, tidiness and grooming.

Nearly every continent has an important tin-mining country. It was not long before Hollywood was also exploiting this image as part of the sweater girl look. About 35 countries mine tin throughout the world. Later its increasing acceptability as women's wear saw it become a fad amongst teenage girls, especially in a lightweight form that emphasised aspects of their figures. Likewise, so-called "tin toys" are usually made of steel, and may or may not have a small coating of tin to inhibit rust. Absorbed into mainstream American fashion by the mid 20th century, the poloneck came to be viewed as an anti-tie, a smart form of dress for those who rejected formal wear. Most everyday objects that are commonly called tin, such as aluminium foil, beverage cans, and tin cans, are actually made of steel or aluminium, although tin cans do contain a small coating of tin to inhibit rust. Again, it was the feminists who turned these into a unisex item.

In modern times, the word "tin" is often (improperly) used as a generic phrase for any silvery metal that comes in thin sheets. Their adoption by Noel Coward in the 1920s turned them into a brief middle class fashion trend. The alchemical symbol for tin is shown on the left. It was in this stage that a range of light polonecks in a variety of colours began to be designed. The American Heritage Dictionary speculates that the word was borrowed from a pre-Indo-European language. Over time polonecks would become acceptable casual wear, though still usually for men only. The word "tin" has cognates in many Germanic and Celtic languages. It was probably at this time that its unisex status as sportswear was exploited by early feminists, who would wear their Hockey sweaters as day wear.

However the pure metal was not used until about 600 BC. The latter use at sea also led to its adoption by Royal Navy. Tin mining is believed to have started in Cornwall and Devon ( esp Dartmoor) in Classical times, and a thriving tin trade developed with the civilizations of the Mediterranean. Polonecks crossed over from sportswear to work wear at the turn of the century, mostly amongst menial workers and seamen. Because of its hardening effect on copper, tin was used in bronze implements as early as 3,500 BC. This use as sports wear would continue into the early 20th Century. Tin (anglo-Saxon, tin, Latin stannum) is one of the earliest metals known and was used as a component of bronze from antiquity. Its use by women was also extended into field sports like hockey soon after this.

A superconducting magnet weighing only a couple of kilograms is capable of producing magnetic fields comparable to a conventional electromagnet weighing tons. These lighter polonecks would become popular for golf amongst both sexes by 1895. The niobium-tin compound Nb₃Sn is commercially used as wires for superconducting magnets, due to the material's high critical temperature (18 K) and critical magnetic field (25 T). Originally a thick woollen garment, lighter versions were designed for those who found coarser wool uncomfortable against their skin. In fact, tin was one of the first superconductors to be studied; the Meissner effect, one of the characteristic features of superconductors, was first discovered in superconducting tin crystals. It was also used in some equestrian activities, though no evidence exists for its use in polo, which might otherwise have explained its name. Tin becomes a superconductor below 3.72 K. It had a varied application but was most often used for the more static players in field sports (a use preserved for the soccer goalkeeper as late as the 1950s in the UK).

Other uses:. The poloneck sweater, like most sweaters, first emerged in the 1890s as an article of sportswear. The tin whistle is so called because it was first mass-produced in tin-plated steel. . One thus-derived use of the slang term "tinnie" or "tinny" means "can of beer".
. Speakers of British English call them "tins"; Americans call them "cans". It can also refer to the style of collar itself, or be used as an adjective ("polo-necked").

Tin-plated steel containers are widely used for food preservation, and this forms a large part of the market for metallic tin. A polo neck (UK) (or turtle neck in the US) is a garment—usually a sweater—with a close-fitting, round, and high collar that folds over and covers the neck. Tin bonds readily to iron, and has been used for coating lead or zinc and steel to prevent corrosion. Tennis shirt. However, this transformation is affected by impurities such as aluminium and zinc and can be prevented from occurring through the addition of antimony or bismuth. Preppy. It slowly changes back to the gray form when cooled, which is called the tin pest or tin disease. Polo Ralph Lauren.

When warmed above 13.2 °C it changes into white or beta tin, which is metallic and has a tetragonal structure. Lacoste. At low temperatures it exists as gray or alpha tin, which has a cubic crystal structure similar to silicon and germanium. Spandex fetishism. Solid tin has two allotropes at normal pressure. Tin is malleable at ordinary temperatures but is brittle when it is heated.

This metal combines directly with chlorine and oxygen and displaces hydrogen from dilute acids. Tin can be highly polished and is used as a protective coat for other metals in order to prevent corrosion or other chemical action. SnO₂, in turn, is feebly acidic and forms stannate (SnO₃^-2) salts with basic oxides. Tin forms the dioxide SnO₂ when it is heated in the presence of air.

Tin acts as a catalyst when oxygen is in solution and helps accelerate chemical attack. This metal resists corrosion from distilled sea and soft tap water, but can be attacked by strong acids, alkalis, and by acid salts. Tin is a malleable, ductile, highly crystalline, silvery-white metal whose crystal structure causes a strange screeching sound known as the "tin cry" when a bar of tin is bent (caused by crystals breaking). .

Tin is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite where it occurs as an oxide. This silvery, malleable poor metal that is not easily oxidized in air and resists corrosion is found in many alloys and is used to coat other metals to prevent corrosion. Stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Sn (L.

Hence one use of the slang term "tinnie" or "tinny" for a small retail package of a drug such as cannabis or for a can of beer. Tin foil was once a common wrapping material for foods and drugs; now replaced by the use of aluminium foil, which is commonly referred to as tin foil. Although of higher melting point than a lead-tin alloy, the use of pure tin or tin alloyed with other metals in these applications is rapidly supplanting the use of the previously common lead–containing alloys in order to eliminate the problems of toxicity caused by lead. Tin is also used in solders for joining pipes or electric circuits, in bearing alloys, in glass-making, and in a wide range of tin chemical applications.

Window glass is most often made via floating molten glass on top of molten tin (creating float glass) in order to make a flat surface (this is called the "Pilkington process"). These coatings have been used in panel lighting and in the production of frost-free windshields. Electrically conductive coatings are produced when tin salts are sprayed onto glass. The most important salt formed is tin chloride, which has found use as a reducing agent and as a mordant in the calico printing process.

Some important tin alloys are: bronze, bell metal, Babbitt metal, die casting alloy, pewter, phosphor bronze, soft solder, and White metal.