I remember when there were several common products made primarily with tin, or containing a lot of it.
Tin foil for preserving food.
Tinsel for decorating.
Tin pots before aluminium, that dented and tarnished easily.
Tin toys of various kinds.
Tin garden implements, stakes and pots, etc.
Are there still products wit lots of tin?
[sub](And, don’t try to explain about “tin” cans; everybody’s already in on that tidbit, thanks.)[/sub]
Most solder is 60% tin, 40% lead. Pewter is mostly tin. Bronze is tin and copper.
So tin alloys, yes. Pure tin, I’m not sure. Some electronic parts may be plated with pure tin rather than solder.
Uses taken from http://www.webelements.com:
[ul]
[li]used to coat other metals to prevent corrosion or other chemical action (tin cans are made from tin coated steel)[/li][li]alloying agent, important alloys incldue soft solder, type metal, fusible metal, pewter, bronze, bell metal, Babbitt metal, White metal, die casting alloy, and phosphor bronze[/li][li]the chloride (SnCl2.H2O) is used as a reducing agent and as a mordant in calico printing[/li][li]tin salts sprayed onto glass are used to produce electrically conductive coatings. These have been used for panel lighting and for frost-free wind-shields[/li][li]window glass is made by floating molten glass on molten tin (float glass) to produce a flat surface (Pilkington process)[/li][li]a crystalline tin-niobium alloy is superconductive at very low temperatures. Such magnets, made of tin-niobium wire, weigh just a few pounds and produce magnetic fields that are comparable to that of a 100 ton electromagnet[/li][li]trialkyl and triaryl tin compounds are biocides - there is concern over their environmental effects. Tributyltin is the active ingredient in a type of antifouling paint used on ships.[/li][/ul]
Bullets. In non-jacketed bullets pure lead is rarely used as it’s far too soft and leaves heavy deposits inside gun barrels. Lead is alloyed with up to 50% tin and sometimes antimony for hardness.
Trivia: For years Linotype® metal was considered the best alloy to use for cast lead bullets but it’s an anachronism now since electronic typesetting has replaced cast metal type. The Linotronic used now is nothing more than an ultra high resolution Postscript RIP that prints on photographic film or paper. The materials used have provent to be entirely unsuitable for bullets. 