I've never seen tin foil. I've only seen aluminum foil. Are you asking about foil during World War II?

ETA: When I was a child I think toothpaste was in a soft metal alloy tube. It could have had tin in it. But that was after WWII. I'm a Baby Boomer.

We always called it tinfoil or Reynolds Wrap. Sort of like all tissue is Kleenex. I'm guessing it wasn't "tin", but aluminum. But we still called it tinfoil. Actually, still do, now that I think about it. And yes, it was in a roll, as now.

I'm 81, so this goes back a quite a way,

. Yes, it would have been during WWII. Maybe it wasn't supplied for home use. I just wondered about it. Yes, I remember those toothpate tubes.

It seems there are KTers who don't remember TIN foil.

Yes, I call it tin foil. I crack up when I hear the British say "aluminium" foil. Where do they get that extra i? My mom wrapped my lunch sandwiches in wax paper. I do remember those wonderful toothpaste tubes that you could roll from the bottom.

I used to have some early 1900s magazines that had aluminum foil for home use advertised so it was around before WWI.

My family used to call it tin foil even though it was aluminum. I just call it foil. My lunch sandwiches were in small Waxtex wax paper bags with a small rounded flap.

Maifleur, thanks. I didn't know that. When I was a child we used waxed paper, and I don't remember when aluminum foil first appeared in our kitchen, but it certainly wasn't as early as the 40's.

My mother loved waxed paper. She would use aluminum foil sometimes; hated any sort of plastic wrap as she was too impatient to use it properly.

Tin foil was in common use until the large hydro-electric projects made for cheap electricity; then aluminum manufacture became less expensive and was a better choice for foil.

A similar word, tinsel, used to decorate Christmas trees, was made of lead until the 1960s, I recall it being quite heavy. We of course handled it freely.

Here's a good article about tin foil and when aluminum foil was introduced (1926).

I hadn't thought about Christmas tree tinsel. I do remember

that it was heavy, definitely different from the aluminum used later.

Sushipup, thanks for the article. Very interesting, however I still wonder how it was supplied for home use, since the article does mention wrapping leftovers. I can't imagine it on a roll.

I was born in the early fifties, my mother in the late 19-teens. I never heard anything other than "aluminum foil" as a kid.

I remember tin foil. I was born in 1941 in the midwest, and we used waxed paper for everything. We even had little wax paper bags for lunch sandwiches. I also remember Tin Foil Babies in the '50s, mostly girl babies from Asia who were unwanted and disposed of. The missionary society would be able to buy an unwanted baby for a ball of foil about the size of a tennis ball. So we walked home from school along the gutter to pick up and save foil gum and cigarette pack wrappers. We'd peel the foil off the paper baking and bring it to school where our teacher would add our contribution to the ball of foil we were collecting. When we had enough to buy a baby, the class chose a name for the baby and sent the ball to the mission. Eventually, the foil was not accepted by the parents and we had to collect $5 for each baby.

I suspect that maxmom's childhood memory of tin foil is actually that of aluminum foil. Tin foil stopped being used in the early part of the twentieth century, long before WWII. It was more expensive to manufacture than aluminum and not nearly as user friendly. Tin imparted a terrible taste to food and could not be processed to the thin sheet needed to be useful in wrapping foods.

Aluminum foil was and still is often CALLED tinfoil, and there's the confusion. Al also looked and felt different back in earlier generations. The manufacturing process is vastly different today than in the earlier years of Al foil usage.

JeCrigler, aluminum foil has never been flammable. Ever. It's used on millions of oven floors all over the world! I wrap baked potatoes or onions in foil to place directly in the coals of a fire or the grill.

Yes, I've heard of "tin foil" . It was used to wrap a stick of gum in. During rationing, we saved it and wrapped it in a ball. But for wrapping food or sandwiches, we used waxed paper.

We grew up calling it tin foil; probably because it was quicker to say than "aluminum foil" and probably because it may have originally been tin. Rather like saying, "I gotta dial a number...." when no one's phone has a dial any more (unless you are a collector).

I'm 64, my childhood memories are of the stuff (whatever it is called) coming off a roll, like today.

It doesn't catch fire, but the foil can simply fall apart and disintegrate from major amounts of heat. Which might be obnoxious to clean up from an oven. It probably doesn't happen to those disposable aluminum pans so readily because those are thicker.

We always called it "tin foil", but it was, and still is, Reynolds Wrap, which says "since 1947". The Reynolds Company was producing aluminum products before that time for industrial and food service use. Mom also used wax paper (Cut-Rite) to wrap the bread for dad's lunch bag.

Come on, some of you claim to have never even heard of tinfoil? What about the tinfoil hat guys? (conspiracy theorists).

Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd Ed:

tinfoil: foil made of aluminum or a similar silvery-gray metal, used especially for covering or wrapping food.

tinfoil hat: humorous: used in allusion to the belief that wearing a hat made from tinfoil will protect one against government surveillance or mind control by extraterrestrial beings: you don't need to be wearing a tinfoil hat to understand that your privacy might not be as private as you would think.

I've always called it tinfoil though I've known it was aluminum.

I use waxed paper a lot as I don’t like plastic wrap.

We call it aluminum foil, or Reynolds wrap--even though I buy the store brand.

However, I know what someone is talking about when he/she says 'tinfoil hat'. ;)

Aluminum does burn. It burns extremely hot, but it would take far more heat than your oven can produce to cause it to ignite. A mixture of powdered aluminum and iron oxide (AKA rust) is called Thermite, it can be ignited by a strip of burning magnesium, and the aluminum will then burn reaching a temperature of 4500 deg F and it will convert the iron oxide into pure molten iron. That process is used to weld railroad rails together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uxsFglz2ig

I was wrong, aluminum foil can melt and damage the oven but not catch fire. I’m sorry.

“A well-meaning woman lined the bottom of her oven with aluminum foil, to catch all the food that bakes into the oven.

Instead of having to scrape it all off, she could just pull out the aluminum foil and voila, no more mess.

Except she ended up with a bigger mess when the aluminum foil melted onto the oven.

For years, people had lined their ovens with tin foil to speed clean up. But these days, we don’t use tin foil. We use aluminum foil. And aluminum has a much lower heat tolerance, apparently.

And aluminum foil-maker Reynolds warns against it.

From the Reynolds FAQ webpage:

To avoid possible heat damage to your oven, we do not recommend using aluminum foil to line the bottom of your oven. Rather, we recommend that you place a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil on the oven rack beneath the pie or casserole you are baking. The foil should be only a few inches larger than the baking pan to allow for proper heat circulation. The foil will catch any drips before they reach the oven bottom.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/blog.warnersstellian.com/2010/05/06/should-you-put-aluminum-foil-in-the-oven/amp/

Aluminum can and does burn.

I just looked up the temperature at which aluminum burns and it is a temperature your oven is not going to provide, 6920°F (2300K).

A Summary of Aluminum Combustion

Somewhere else (I did not copy the source) I read that aluminum may flake or powder and appear sort of like ash at a lower temperature, but it has not really burned; it has only broken bonds of tension, so that is splits into many small pieces, which are still non-oxidized aluminum. There was a name for the process, but I already forgot it.

I remember using it to wrap around our tv antenna to try to get better reception. Can't remember if it worked.

Dictionaries are now reporting that "tin foil" means "aluminum foil"

And the noun "foil (n) The sense of "metallic food wrap" is from 1897."

Wikipedia says: " In the late 19th century and early 20th century, tin foil was in common use, and some people continue to refer to the new product by the name of the old one. Tin foil is stiffer than aluminium foil It tends to give a slight tin taste to food wrapped in it, which is a major reason it has largely been replaced by aluminium and other materials for wrapping food. ... The first aluminium foil rolling plant, “Dr. Lauber, Neher & Cie., Emmishofen.” was opened in 1910 in .... Switzerland."

I used to call it tin foil but now call it aluminum foil but have no recollection as to when I made the change. The way the British say the word aluminum (or perhaps aluminium) is a real twist of the tongue.

Prices of it may be going up with trumps new tariffs of 10% on aluminum - I'm being a little facetious.

"Tin cans" must not have changed, too. I think they are lined with something else now. Today, I can leave an opened can of 'whatever' in the fridge without the contents acquiring a tinny taste.

I put aluminum foil on the lower rack of the oven when I bake a pizza and remove the foil and any drips after baking.

I doubt many people want to line their ovens with foil today, when most ovens have a self-cleaning option. Gosh, that used to be an awful chore. When oven cleaning chemicals came along it became a chore with a health hazard.

Many cans used for food are lined with BPA (bisphenyl-A), a chemical known to have some adverse health side effects. Some companies are trying to eliminate or reduce the use of BPA. It's easily absorbed with acidic food, meaning, canned tomatoes aren't a great choice and tomatoes in glass or aseptic (Tetra) packaging is a better choice.

We used to call it tin foil, but wasn't it always made of aluminum? We stopped using at as much when we got a microwave.

matthias_lang I have had aluminum foil flake or powder in my grill, so I do know it is a thing. I didn't have a thermometer in there with it, however.

I have never lined my oven bottom with it... frankly, it never has occurred to me to consider doing so. I have once or twice lined a rack with foil for drippage, but on the rack, not on the base of an oven. It was removed as soon as that particular dish was done.

That "extra I " is the accepted (and original) way of spelling this element in all parts of the world but the U.S. and Canada. We have Noah Webster to thank for that.

Both spellings (and pronunciations) are considered acceptable, but that extra I came first and is preferred in the scientific community worldwide.

The new ovens with the hidden element, the floor gets too hot to put anything on it.

I use an aluminum liner/tray that sits under my exposed element to catch any drips and over-flows. If you put anything on the direct floor where the element is hidden, it will certainly melt/weld to the floor. It will void your warranty as well, if something serious happens.

If the element cover inside your range is stamped with big bold lettering like mine that says, DO NOT USE FOIL ON BOTTOM, you probably shouldn't.

LOL, and yet I've read where people have, and now foil is stuck on there.

Tooth paste tubes are made of aluminum. You'd be surprised to how it is made. The tube starts as a round aluminum slug. It is inserted in a cavity of a die and whacked at high speed by a punch. It is hit so hard that the aluminum extrudes up around the punch; That part becomes the tube. At the same time, the threaded cone for the cap end is formed. The extruded, thin tube is trimmed to an accurate length and is ready for filling. The forming process takes only milliseconds.

The tube is filled from the tube end (the bottom) and then the tube end is roll-folded and flattened. (The tubes are upside down during filling.)

My toothpaste comes in plastic tubes and has for as long as I can remember.

My toothpaste comes in plastic tubes and has for as long as I can remember.

You must not have been paying attention when you were a kid.

Jem, are you a How It's Made fan, too? ;-)

sushipup, the comment was in the present tense - tubes ARE made of aluminum. That was what I was referring to.

Long ago, sure, it was different. How long ago, I don't remember. Do you?

I remember metal (tin? aluminum? whatever) toothpaste tubes, probably up into the 60's. You used to be able to crimp them up and they'd stay rolled up. I also remember the stand-up tubes, from the 80's. That stands out in my mind because as a newly-wed sharing a bathroom, it drove me crazy that husband left his toothpaste (tube) all loose and laying on the counter ... until these nifty stand-up tubes forced him to stand it up neatly! Now I don't see that style tube anymore, but DH has his own bathroom so it doesn't matter.

I think I'm a little older than Elmer, so I well remember metal tubes. And how my older brother wouldn't let me start the rolling up for the longest time. I don't think I got to do that until he went away to boarding school.

Those of us who remember metal toothpaste tubes (painted or given a plastic wrap label) probably also remember toothpaste keys.

I stand corrected about tooth paste tubes. Presently, those are made of plastic or plastic with other material layers. I fault my memory. I'm too old. I do remember aluminum tooth paste tubes and according to several articles, manufacturers sought alternate materials for the tubes during WW2.

http://www.intelligentdental.com/2011/09/18/about-toothpaste-tubes-made-of-metal/

Metal tubes did not entirely disappear. Those are used to hold materials that may be incompatible with plastic. I recall 2 yrs ago, getting a tiny tube of medication that was in a metal tube. In recent times, have seen lubricants, artist paints, and adhesives in metal tubes.

The article below states that tooth paste tubes were made of a tin-lead alloy up to WW2. It was suspected that lead might have been bad for health (depending on how much leached into the paste) and by WW2, the tube material was changed to aluminum, some with coatings and other layers. During WW2, a push was made to eliminate aluminum in tooth paste tubes as the war effort restricted the supply of aluminum to the general public.
Another tooth paste tube article.

The link below shows that tooth paste type of tubes (for packaging) are are available in several materials including metal.

https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/toothpaste-tube.html

As a kid someone gave me a small round slug of metal maybe 1 1/4" in diameter and 1/4" thick. They told me it was what was used to make a toothpaste tube. The slug seemed to me to be solid lead (although I suppose it could have been a tin-lead alloy) it was soft enough that I could scratch it with a fingernail. Even then I knew that lead was bad for you, and I wondered how they could be using lead to hold something that you were supposed to put in your mouth. Maybe the slug was many years old even at the time it was given to me.

It was always called tin foil when I was growing up (born 1939). I have family members that still call it that,and find myself calling it that every now and then. I wish tooth paste tubes were still metal. I hate these plastic tubes. I recently had a small metal tube, to use in my cats eye when he had an infection. I dont recall what the name of it was anymore. Metal tubes roll up so nicely. Seems a lot of waste with the plastic tubes.

In looking up some things for this thread, I was reminded that tin can take two different forms, 1) a shiny, silvery metal, and 2) a gray, flaky, crumbly powder.

At low temperatures it can spontaneously start to transform from the metal form to the gray crumbly form. Some pipe organs used pipes that were made out of tin, and in some instances of very cold weather the pipes would basically start slowly but inexorably rotting away.

Here's a time lapse video of tin "rotting away", ie. changing from metallic tin to crumbly gray tin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUoVEmHuykM