• pulsewidth@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    The only reason it’s called ‘Aluminum’ in the US is that name was popularised in the Webster’s dictionary in the US firstly, and then Hall who preferred the less common ‘Aluminum’ spelling for marketing his new Aluminium refining process as he thought it sounded fancy like Platinum. Prior to that it was more widely called ‘Aluminium’ in the US as well as the rest of the world - as it was the dominant name scientifically, and nobody else used it much as it wasn’t widely commercially used until the late 19th century / early 20th century.

    This is all on Wikipedia, dunno why people feel the need to make up their own stories every single time this comes up, but it does make us laugh.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Spelling

    • Wilco@lemm.ee
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      2 hours ago

      From the Wikipedia page you linked;

      Davy suggested the metal be named alumium in 1808[30] and aluminum in 1812, thus producing the modern name.[29] Other scientists used the spelling aluminium

      The name Aluminium never caught on in the US. It appeared in a few books and was in a dictionary, but so we’re words like Soop (for Soup) and greef (for grief). These did not catch on, Americans just kept using Aluminum. Webster wanted to standardize words … but nobody wanted to use dawter instead of daughter. They did stop using “Gaol” and used Jail instead.

      The word history was “alumium” in 1807, then changed to “aluminum” in 1808. It was not changed to “aluminium” until 1812

      • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Edited my comment for more clarity. But the etymology of the spelling is all in the Wikipedia article if you’d just read that small ‘spelling’ section instead of stopping when you feel you’ve read something that backs your point. It was 100% driven by American marketers, not “Brits changing their minds”, and yes ‘Aluminium’ most certainly had ‘caught on in the US’ and was the most popular spelling. Read Wikipedia - it cites sources in the form of several reputable books covering this history.

        […] in 1892, Hall used the Aluminum spelling in his advertising handbill for his new electrolytic method of producing the metal, despite his constant use of the Aluminium spelling in all the patents he filed between 1886 and 1903. It is unknown whether this spelling was introduced by mistake or intentionally, but Hall preferred aluminum since its introduction because it resembled platinum, the name of a prestigious metal.[141] By 1890, both spellings had been common in the United States, the -ium spelling being slightly more common; by 1895, the situation had reversed; by 1900, aluminum had become twice as common as aluminium; in the next decade, the -um spelling dominated American usage. In 1925, the American Chemical Society adopted this spelling.[135]