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Properties and Uses
Published in Alan Cottrell, An Introduction to Metallurgy, 2019
About one-half of the tin produced is used in tinplate. The traditional method of dipping the steel sheet into molten tin is now becoming replaced by an electroplating process, to economize in the use of this rather scarce and expensive metal by producing a thinner coating. A recent use for molten tin has appeared in the float process for making plate glass by floating molten glass on the surface of a tin bath. Tin bronzes consume about 7% of the tin produced. In tin-based alloys the main alloy elements are lead and antimony. Britannia metal, used for tableware, consists of 7% Sb and 2% Cu in tin. There are many important tin-lead alloys, e.g. tinman’s and plumber’s solder (cf. § 15.3) and pewter (similar to Britannia metal but with about 10% Pb included). Tin foil (‘silver paper’) is made by rolling a sandwich of lead sheet in tin sheets down to a foil about 10−5 m thick; in recent years this has of course been largely replaced by the cheaper aluminium foil.
Zinc as an Alloying Element
Published in Frank Porter, Zinc Handbook, 1991
Britannia metal, pewter and such specials such as 'Queen's metal' are typically tin, modified by additions of antimony and copper and sometimes by additions of zinc also. Tin-base bearing metals may also contain zinc. The addition of silver to binary copper-zinc alloys lowers the melting point, and a series of ternary alloys containing 10-80% Ag, 16-50% Cu and 4-38% Zn, commonly called silver solders, are used for brazing alloys. Silver solders melt at 675−820∘C, the highermelting-point alloys having relatively high silver and low zinc content. They are used for joining silver to silver or to other metals. Gold may be added to silver solders for joining gold articles, the amount of gold and copper present being determined by the carat of the gold to be joined. Nickel silver is also used as a brazing alloy. For special purposes tin, cadmium, nickel, chromium and manganese may be added to the silver brazing alloys. The silver-copper-phosphorus eutectic, which melts at 643∘C and contains up to 7%P is frequently used.
The Pewterer and the Chymist: Major Erasmus Purling and his Refined Tin
Published in Ambix, 2022
Purling’s secret alloy was probably quite similar to the Britannia metal, a leadless tin alloy that included antimony regulus as well as bismuth and was, as of the post-1820s, marketed in Great-Britain.35 It also matches pretty well the “Prince’s metal” described by Pierre-Augustin Salmon (b. 1718) in his 1788 Art of the Pewterer: Prince’s metal, or simply metal, is an alloy of tin and antimony regulus, which is used to make spoons of all sizes, as well as forks. This composition was not known in the trade before the middle of the last century. The invention is attributed to a Paris pewterer, whose name escapes my memory, but it is at least certain that he was first to put it into use. He was very careful to keep his compound secret, in order, it is said, to benefit alone from the profit of the new factory he was opening.36The qualities of this “Prince’s metal” were such, according to Salmon, that the production was “not enough for the Capital, the Province, Europe, the whole world, where this new cutlery spread with astonishing speed.” Salmon’s text unfortunately does not provide any further details.