The time has come to set the Aluminium record straight... The metal with 13 electrons and atomic weight of 26.981538 is known around the world as Aluminium (except a few remote corners of the globe who refer to it as Aluminio or Aluminum). Why, you may ask, is the US one of those who use Aluminum... let's look at the history.

Sir Humphry Davy named the element from the mineral called alumina, based on the French word alum (potassum aluminum sulfate (sic)). Sir Humphry flapped around naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (1807) then alumumium, then aluminum, and finally aluminium in 1812 (he had a dreadful stutter which made matter much worse).

In the USA the standard spelling was aluminium and this is the only form given in Noah Webster’s Dictionary of 1828, and the Webster Unabridged Dictionary of 1913. However, there is evidence that the spelling without the final i was used in various trades and professions in the US from the 1830s onwards and that, due to the appalling education provided and the big immigration, by the 1870s there were few Americans who could spell any word correctly (including their family name) - let alone Aluminium.

The Americian Chemical Society decided they could no longer afford to keep arguing about the name, and therefore, in 1925 a ballot was taken - the choices were Alumium (rep), Aluminimum (dem) and Aluminum (lib). The decision was Alumium but a careless typesetter added an upside down U and you know the rest...

God Bless Aluminium