Already in the IV millennium BC, mankind learned about the existence of tin in nature. At all times, this metal was very expensive due to its inaccessibility. In this regard, references to it are rarely found in ancient Greek and Roman written sources.
Tin together with copper acts as one of the components of tin bronze. It was invented in the middle or end of the III millennium BC. Since bronze was considered in ancient times the most durable of all alloys known to man, tin was considered as a strategic metal. This attitude towards him persisted for more than 2 thousand years.
Deposits
The largest pools are located in Southeast Asia and China. Quite extensive deposits were also discovered in Australia and South America (in Peru, Brazil, Bolivia). In Russia, the deposits are located in the Khabarovsk Territory, in the Solnechny district (Sobolinoye and Festivalnoye), Verkhnebureinsky district (Pravourmiyskoye). In addition, deposits were discovered in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Here are the Pyrkakay stockworks, the village/mine Valkumey, Iultin. Their development was closed in90s. There are also tin deposits in Primorsky Krai, in the Kavalerovsky District, in Yakutia (Deputatskoye) and other regions.
The death of the expedition to the South Pole
In 1910, Captain R. Scott, a polar explorer from England, organized an expedition. Her goal was the South Pole. At that time, there were no people in this area. The expedition took many months. Travelers walked through the endless expanses of the Arctic continent. Along the way, they left small warehouses with food and kerosene. By the beginning of 1912 the expedition had reached the Pole. However, to the great disappointment of travelers, they found a note there, which said that Roald Amundsen had been here a month earlier. However, this was not the main problem. On the way back to the first warehouse, Scott's team found that the containers in which there was kerosene were empty. Frozen, tired people could neither keep warm nor cook food. Having reached with great difficulty to the next warehouse, they found that there, too, the canisters were empty. No longer able to resist the cold, all members of the expedition perished.
Other metamorphoses
At the end of the century before last, a train went from Holland to Russia. It contained tin bars. In Moscow, the carriages were opened. Instead of bars, the recipients saw a useless gray powder. Around the same time, an expedition was sent to Siberia. She was well equipped. The organizers of the expedition provided for a lot of little things so that severe frosts would not interferetravel. However, one mistake was made. Travelers took with them utensils made of tin. Soon, at the first frosts, it crumbled into powder. Travelers were forced to carve utensils from wood. At the beginning of the 20th century, a scandal broke out in one of the warehouses in St. Petersburg. During the audit, it was found that buttons disappeared on all uniforms. Instead, there was only gray powder in the boxes. He was sent to the laboratory. According to the conclusion of the researchers, the metal was struck by a tin plague. According to some historians, one of the circumstances that influenced the defeat of the French army in the winter of 1812 may be the disappearance of buttons from soldiers' uniforms.
Attempts to explain the phenomenon
In all the cases described above, there was such a phenomenon as the tin plague. What it is? In 1868, Academician Fritzsche presented a report at one of the meetings of the St. Petersburg Academy. In it, he spoke about how powder was found in a train instead of tin bars, how buttons were scattered in a military warehouse. After his speech, the Academy began to receive a huge number of similar messages. All of them came from various parts of Europe, and some even from North America. It is worth saying that in the Middle Ages, ignorant churchmen believed that the tin plague is the effect on the metal of dark forces that cause witches. Many innocent women were burned at the stake. But with the rapid development of science, the absurdity of these statements became more and more obvious. Temno less to explain how the tin plague arises, what it is, scientists could not for a very long time. Research intensified after the death of Scott's team. The fact is that the canisters in which the kerosene was located were soldered with tin. The metal turned to powder and the liquid flowed out.
Metal structure
It was only after using X-ray analysis that scientists were able to explain how the tin plague originated. This phenomenon is due to the specific structure of the metal. X-ray analysis made it possible to look inside the objects, to study their crystalline structure. As a result, a scientific explanation of the phenomenon was formulated. Researchers have found that any metal can have different crystalline forms. The most stable modification at normal (room) or elevated temperature is tin. This metal is ductile and ductile. If the temperature drops below 13 degrees, the crystal lattice begins to rebuild. In this case, the atoms are located in space at a greater distance. A new modification of the metal is formed - gray tin. It loses its original properties. In fact, the metal ceases to be such and becomes a semiconductor. In the areas of contact between different crystal lattices, internal stresses arise. They lead to cracking of the structure. As a result, the metal crumbles into powder. This is how the tin plague occurs.
Nuances
It should be said that the tin plague, the photo of which is presented in the article, is spreadingfast enough (almost like an epidemic in humans). The transition from one modification to another is the sooner, the lower the ambient temperature. The conversion rate reaches its maximum at -33 degrees. That is why the frosts de alt with all products so quickly. In this case, the tin plague passes from "sick" objects to "he althy". This phenomenon destroyed many of the most valuable collections of soldiers. For example, dozens of figurines turned into powder in the archives of the Suvorov Museum in St. Petersburg. It happened because the batteries burst in the basement one winter.
"Cure" for the plague
Scientists have long been looking for a way to prevent the "disease" of the metal. The British Guild of Manufacturers found a way out of the situation. They created a new alloy. Metals were added to tin to stabilize its unstable properties. The new alloy was named pewter. It includes 95% tin, 2% copper and 5% antimony. Pewter is used in the manufacture of jewelry, household items, dishes, etc. It is worth saying that the well-known America's Cup, as well as Oscar figurines, are made from pewter, and then covered with silver and gold plating. So they are not afraid of any tin plague.
