In life, we can often see the use of aluminium. Aluminium is the most metal element in the earth’s crust. Aluminium occupied one-third of the total amount of metal elements in the earth’s crust. Aluminium is rich and has a good performance, so it is often made into an aluminium tube, aluminium plate, aluminium foil, etc. It is widely used in important industries such as aviation, construction, automotive, and electricity. Due to the universal use of aluminum, two English spelling methods of aluminum appear in the world, one is “aluminum“, one is “aluminium“. What is the cause of these two spelling methods, what is the difference between them?
1. Origin of Aluminium
In the earth crust, aluminum is the most abundant (8.2% by weight) metal element, the third most abundant element (second only to oxygen and silicon). Due to its powerful to oxygen affinity, it has never been found in the state of the elements, on the contrary, it always is found in oxide or silicate. The most common is the silicone acid salt, minerals in the crust.
2. Source of the Different Spelling of Aluminum
Aluminum elements were initially found by the UK’s chemist Sir Humphry Davy. And in 1807, it was identified as the 13th element in the periodic table of chemical elements. Aluminum’s spelling is referred to when naming aluminum elements, so there is the most beginning “Aluminum” spelling form. Until 1812, Sir Humphry Davy received other chemists’ suggestion, suggesting changing the original “aluminum” to “aluminium” in order to match the suffix of other metal elements. Change the names to better maintain consistency with other elements (such as sodium, potassium, and magnesium) containing the -IUM suffix. Sir Humphry Davy accepts this advice. The change in spelling is also widely accepted by chemists and sociologists at the time, so in various scientific journals and dictionary, “aluminum” is gradually replaced.
However, aluminum spelling changes in the Americas is not obvious. In 1828, the spelling of aluminum in the popular NOAH Webster’s Dictionary at that time was still “aluminum”. In the Century Dictionary of 1889, and the Webster Unabridged Dictionary of 1913 the accepted spelling was “aluminium”.
Until 1895, as the metal began to become more widely used, Americans suggested that aluminum as the 13th periodic elements was almost completely referred to. And people find more use of aluminum materials, require more printing advertising. Therefore, this material is called “Aluminum” in the country.
3. Aluminum vs Aluminium
Aluminium is the British English word for the same metal. The following chart compares the usage of aluminium vs. aluminum in British English works published since 1800.
As you can see, the British preferred to spell “aluminium” from history until today, it still dominates. However, from the above trend graph, you can find that the gap between the two spelling methods is gradually shrinking.
The American Chemistry (ACS) officially used “aluminum” in 1925 and 1990. The International Pure and Application Chemical Federation (IUPAC) accepted aluminium as an international scientific standard. So today, the main difference between the two acceptable spelling forms (aluminum vs. aluminium) is geographical. Typically, people who speak English in North America use aluminum, and other people in the world use aluminium, thus both spellings are accepted.
4. Aluminum at CHAL
No matter which spelling method you use, is the main supplier of aluminium materials and aluminium products, including aluminium tubes, aluminium plates, aluminium foils, aluminium circle, etc. These profiles are widely used in various industries. We agree with the two spellings of aluminum. CHAL Aluminium Corporation is a manufacturer of OEM aluminum products with exclusive stock warehouses and suppliers. If we don’t have your required aluminum profiles, our professionals will help you create custom aluminum profiles to meet your needs. Our custom and OEM extrusion services enable us to meet almost any requirements of customers.
You can visit our official website to learn more about our product information. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our expert or sales representative.
