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What the name
means: Zinc may come from the German
word Zinke, meaning spike or sharp
edge. Anther German word, Zinn,
meaning Tin may have given rise to the word
zink as meaning “something like tin”. Zinc
was probably named by the alchemist
Georgius Agricola in 1546.
Who identified
zinc? Zinc has been used since
prehistoric times and there is evidence
that it was used in India and China before
1500BC. The Roman, Pliny the Elder, wrote
about calamine (zinc carbonate) helping to
heal wounds. The Persians extracted zinc
metal from its compounds in 1374. The metal
was isolated in the west by Andreas
Marggraf in 1746, but it was Antoine
Lavoisier, in 1789, who first identified
zinc as a metal.
About zinc:
Zinc is a white-blue metal that is
extracted from its compounds, zinc oxide
and zinc carbonate. It has a wide variety
of uses, one of which is to galvanize
steel. This involves coating the steel in a
thin layer of zinc metal to prevent
corrosion. Zinc is also important when
mixed with other metals to form alloys.
Copper and zinc are used to form the alloy,
brass. |
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