Tenacity: Iron is the most tenacious of metals. To pull asunder an iron wire 0.787 of a line in diameter requires a weight of 549 lbs. To pull asunder a gold wire of the same size, 150 lbs.; tin wire, 34 lbs.; gold being thus shown to be more than four times as tenacious as tin. (Fractions omitted.)
Malleability: Pure tin may be beaten into leaves one-fortieth of a millimeter thick, thus requiring 1020 to make an inch in thickness. Miller states that it can be beaten into leaves .008 of a millimeter thick, thus requiring 3175 to make an inch in thickness. Richardson says that ordinary tin foil is about 0.001 of an inch in thickness.
If the difficulty with which a mass of gold (the most malleable of metals) can be hammered or rolled into a thin sheet without being torn, be taken as one, then it will be four times as difficult to manipulate tin into thin sheets.
Ductility: If the difficulty with which gold (the most ductile of metals) can be drawn be taken as one, then it will be seven times as difficult to draw tin into a wire. At a temperature of 212° it has considerable ductility, and can be drawn into wire.
Among the metals, silver is the best conductor of heat. If the conductivity of silver be taken as 100, then the conducting power of gold would be 53.2; tin, 14.5; gold being thus shown to be nearly four times as good a conductor of heat as tin. Among the metals, silver is the best conductor of electricity. If its electrical conductivity be taken at 100, then the conducting power of gold would be 77.96; tin, 12.36; gold being thus shown to be more than six times as good a conductor of electricity as tin.
Resistance to air: If exposed to dry, pure air, tin resists any change for a great length of time, but if exposed to air containing moisture, carbonic acid, etc., its time resistance is reduced, although even then it resists corrosion much better than copper or iron.
As to linear expansion, when raised from 32° to 212° F., aluminum expands the most of any of the metals. Taking its expansion as 1, that of tin would be 3, i.e., aluminum expands three times as much as tin. (Dixon, "Vade Mecum.")
Solids generally expand equally in all directions, and on cooling return to their original shape. Within certain limits, metals expand uniformly in direct proportion to the increase in temperature, but the rate of expansion varies with different metals; thus, under like conditions, tin expands nearly twice (13⁄5) as much as gold, but the rate of expansion for gold is nearly twice (17⁄10) that of tin.
The capacity for absorbing heat varies with each metal; that of gold is about twice (13⁄4) that of tin.
Tin has a scale hardness of about 4, on a scale of 12 where lead is taken as the softest and platinum the hardest. (Dixon, "Vade Mecum.")