Pewter Pewter Pewter () is a malleable metal alloy. It is traditionally composed of 85–99% tin, mixed with copper, antimony, bismuth, and sometimes silver or lead, although the use of lead is less common today. Copper and antimony act as hardeners while lead is more common in the lower grades of pewter, which have a bluish tint. Pewter has a low melting point, around , depending on the exact mixture of metals. The word "pewter" is probably a variation of the word "spelter", a term for zinc alloys (originally a colloquial name for zinc). Pewter was first used around the beginning
Metal to produce the combination of low carbon and high chromium found in most modern stainless steels, and the high-chromium alloys they could produce were too brittle to be practical. It was not until 1912 that the industrialisation of stainless steel alloys occurred in England, Germany, and the United States. By 1900 three metals with atomic numbers less than lead (#82), the heaviest stable metal, remained to be discovered: elements 71, 72, 75. Von Welsbach, in 1906, proved that the old ytterbium also contained a new element (#71), which he named "cassiopeium". Urbain proved this simultaneously, but his samples were very