Cast aluminium statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus in London
In the UK they say “al-yuh-min-ee-uh
m” (aluminium). In the US we say “uh-loo-muh-nuhm” (aluminum). They think we sound silly. We think they sound silly. In fact the man who named the metal, English chemist Sir Humphry Davy, original called it alumium in 1807. He later change the name to aluminum before settling on aluminium in 1812.
Element Al, with atomic number 13, is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust, and the third most abundant element, after oxygen and silicon. It makes up about 8% by weight of the Earth’s solid surface. It is too reactive chemically to occur in nature as a free metal. Because of this it was extremely rare and expensive in its pure state when the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus in London was cast from the metal in 1893. At that time, both the –um and –ium spelling were in nearly equal use in the UK and the US. The name of the metal was most likely not every day as it is today.
By 1925 the American Chemical Society had officially adopted the –um spelling. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially standardised on aluminium in 1990. This of course has no impact on the US general public, only on the scientific community.
So who is right? Sir Davy ended his indecisiveness with aluminium. The IUPAC agrees, but only did so in 1990. Sir Davy picked aluminum before aluminium. The American Chemical Society agreed before the IUPAC. Sir Davy first named it alumium. But personally I think that sounds even sillier than either of the other two!
I think by now we all know that no matter what we call it we know we mean that stuff used to make containers for cheap beer.
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