Personally, I prefer a more authoritative source than Google, but it is
almost the same story:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/aluminum-vs-aluminium
Tony Thigpen
Bob Bridges wrote on 7/19/20 6:09 PM:
Because I know you were all breathlessly awaiting the verdict on the
great "aluminum"/"aluminium" controversy, I went to find more information.
At https://books.google.com/books?id=YjMwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA201 you can find a
page in _Elements of Chemical Philosophy_ by Humphrey Davy (who first
isolated aluminum), published in 1812; here he talks about "aluminum" (a
metal to be found in alumina, which in turn was processed from alum).
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium) says this about the
name:
"British chemist Humphry Davy, who performed a number of experiments
aimed to isolate the metal, is credited as the person who named the
element. In 1808, he suggested the metal be named alumium in an article on
his electrochemical research which was published in Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society. This suggestion was criticized by
contemporary chemists from France, Germany, and Sweden, who insisted the
metal should be named for the oxide, alumina, from which it would be
isolated. In 1812, Davy published a chemistry textbook in which he settled
on the name aluminum, thus producing the modern name. However, its spelling
and pronunciation varies: aluminum is in use in the United States and
Canada while aluminium is in use elsewhere."
That sounds plausible to me.
---
Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313
/* It's ok to doubt your beliefs; but it's not ok to believe your
doubts. -Jim Snider, pastor, 2000-12-10 */
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Bridges [mailto:robhbrid...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2020 17:34
Aha! Yet a third story; in this one Davy started out with "aluminum"
and the Europeans ~added~ the 'i'.
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU]
On Behalf Of Joe Monk
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2020 07:22
The British Scientist (Davy) who discovered ALUMINUM named it that. It is
we Americans who are using the correct name ... the British press felt
that
it should be in line with sodium and potassium and thus added to the
spelling.
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