If I understand correctly, back before electricity could easily be produced, it was very difficult to smelt bauxite ore into aluminum. I seem to remember hearing that one European crown actually includes aluminum because it was so rare and costly. But now I can’t find anything about it; all my Googling brings up things about Royal Crown cola and the like. Does anyone else know this story?
I suspect its a confused rendering of this, from wikipedia:
So not exactly the same as having an actual Aluminium crown, but the same idea of the material being so expensive that it was displayed alongside the royal bric-a-brac.
Your own link explains why the longer, British, spelling and pronunciation is more correct, being preferred by the discoverer, conforming to standard rules of suffix formation, and even being preferred 19th century American chemists. “Aluminum” is just a bit a bit of lazy slurring, following what was almost certainly a simple misprint made by Noah Webster.
Not to get off topic, but I never pick up on that spelling variation - my brain just seems to always see “aluminum”.
It is kind of a weird thing to think of. I think aluminum is the only metal that used to be considered precious and is no longer. Even if there was never a crown made of it - it is still cool to think of the whole Washington monument thing (and also I believe aluminum cutlery was considered nicer than silver).
I fear your opinion may be coloured.
Actually, it says only that aluminium was eventually settled upon by Davy. But aluminum was used in Davy’s 1812* Chemical Philosophy*, and it was an anonymous critic who proposed aluminium due to a more “classical sound.”
There are no rules of suffix formation for the elements, and molybdenum, lanthanum, and platinum all have the -num suffix.
In short, the only reason Brits use aluminium is because some dude liked the sound better.
In modern times, I suppose yes. But if you go far enough back, any metal would have been considered precious - including iron, copper and tin (the latter of which is now often used a synonym for ‘cheap’)
Are you thinking of the aluminium helmet of Frederik VII?
The Washington Monument has an aluminum “crown” of sorts, a hundred-ounce apex that cost $225 in 1884. That made it slightly more expensive than silver. It was at the time the largest piece of aluminum ever cast. A History of the Aluminum Cap of the Washington Monument
Calling it lazy slurring and a misprint is a bit disingenuous when the spelling was used in published writings by the discoverer, even if he did change his mind.
Not “Brits” - the entire world except for the USA (and maybe some Canadians).
And since the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, who are the arbiters of such things, say it’s aluminium, you have officially lost this argument.
“Have you ever danced with the Davy in the pale moonlight?”
One object that I know of which is sort-of famously made of alumin(i)um is the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus.
I learned that recently on QI (which, of course, is the source of every single fact that I know).
Also, here’s the IUPAC Aluminum page, with both spellings.
To be honest, I’d be happy to lose the second I in Aluminium, on condition we could keep the PH in Sulphur
The pronunciation of the element is a very important topic since it’s the only difference in pronunciation and spelling of words between the US and GB. Amazing that we’ve tolerated this discrepancy all these years.
Thank you! I heard the aluminum crown story years ago, specifically regarding a Danish king. No amount of googling could confirm it, so this helmet angle is obviously the origin. Kudos!
For the same reason the top of the Washington Monument is aluminum… it was considered rare at the time.
In some contexts. Common usage is the arbiter in most contexts.