how was tin discovered?

Question

The element

Answer 1

Tin and bronze (an alloy of tin and copper) were known as early at 2000BC. The discoverer is not recorded, or as I tell the children, "'Ugh' the caveman".

Interestingly enough, bronze came into wide use before tin was discovered as a separate substance. There are multiple references to bronze in the Bible.

For more Tin facts:

http://www.chemistryexplained.com/elements/T-Z/Tin.html

Answer 2

No one knows. The reason that people call the world of the Odyssey and the Iliad of 1500BC the Bronze Age was that they already knew about tin and could alloy it with copper to make bronze. Only later in the Iron Age did they learn to smelt iron. And the Iron Age is still in ancient history.

Answer 3

Think it was a Greek guy called Europhallic. Was trying to heat his beans one day but could not understand why it was taking so long.
Eventually he figured out that the casing around them was diverting the heat so he stripped it away and heated the beans directly.

Obviously, natural curiousity made him investigate the bean covering material, and lo and behold, he discovered it was made from a substance that he named 'Brian', originally but later changed it to 'tin'.

Answer 4

Tin is one of the ancient metals, and it is impossible to discern who discovered it of how it was discovered.