Zinc

How the el­e­ment was dis­cov­ered

Al­loys con­tain­ing zinc have been used by hu­man­i­ty since an­cient times. The name of the met­al (zin­cum) is en­coun­tered in the works of Paracel­sus, a doc­tor who lived in the 16th cen­tu­ry. At around the same time the met­al be­gan to be used by crafts­men in Chi­na, who forged coins from it. Lat­er zinc was dis­cov­ered in Eu­rope, and the met­al be­gan to be wide­ly used in var­i­ous spheres. The first known al­loy of zinc was brass, which was first used in Cyprus, and then in Eng­land, Ger­many and oth­er Eu­ro­pean na­tions.

Char­ac­ter­is­tics of the el­e­ment:

  • den­si­ty – 7.13 g/cm³;
  • col­or – bluish-white;
  • zinc is a low-melt­ing met­al, with a melt­ing point of 420 °C;
  • the elas­tic­i­ty and mal­leabil­i­ty of the met­al in­creas­es when it is heat­ed to 100 °C;
  • the boil­ing point of the sim­ple sub­stance is 906 °C;
  • when heat­ed to 200 °C, zinc los­es its elas­tic­i­ty and turns to a gray pow­der;
  • the met­al has a high heat ca­pac­i­ty and heat con­duc­tiv­i­ty;
  • zinc is a good con­duc­tor.