Editing Aluminium (section)

=== Origins ===
British chemist [[Humphry Davy]], who performed a number of experiments aimed to isolate the metal, is credited as the person who named the element. The first name proposed for the metal to be isolated from alum was ''alumium'', which Davy suggested in an 1808 article on his electrochemical research, published in [[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]].<ref name="Davy1808">{{Cite journal|last1=Davy|first1=Humphry|date=1808|title=Electro Chemical Researches, on the Decomposition of the Earths; with Observations on the Metals obtained from the alkaline Earths, and on the Amalgam procured from Ammonia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kg9GAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA353|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|volume=98|page=353|doi=10.1098/rstl.1808.0023|access-date=10 December 2009|doi-access=free|bibcode=1808RSPT...98..333D|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415111945/https://books.google.com/books?id=Kg9GAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA353|url-status=live}}</ref> It appeared that the name was created from the English word ''alum'' and the Latin suffix ''-ium''; but it was customary then to give elements names originating in Latin, so this name was not adopted universally. This name 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.{{sfn|Richards|1896|pp=3–4}} The English name ''alum'' does not come directly from Latin, whereas ''alumine''/''alumina'' comes from the Latin word ''alumen'' (upon [[declension]], ''alumen'' changes to ''alumin-'').

One example was ''Essai sur la Nomenclature chimique'' (July 1811), written in French by a Swedish chemist, [[Jöns Jacob Berzelius]], in which the name ''aluminium'' is given to the element that would be synthesized from alum.<ref name="berzelius">{{cite journal|last=Berzelius|first=J. J.|title=Essai sur la nomenclature chimique|journal=Journal de Physique|volume=73|pages=253–286|year=1811|author-link=Jöns Jakob Berzelius|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HpfOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA253|access-date=27 December 2020|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415120753/https://books.google.com/books?id=HpfOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA253|url-status=live}}.</ref>{{efn|Davy discovered several other elements, including those he named ''[[sodium]]'' and ''[[potassium]]'', after the English words ''[[Soda lime|soda]]'' and ''[[potash]]''. Berzelius referred to them as to ''natrium'' and ''kalium''. Berzelius's suggestion was expanded in 1814<ref>{{cite journal|last=Berzelius|first=J.|author-link=Jöns Jacob Berzelius|title=Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy Method of expressing them|editor-last=Thomson|editor-first=Th.|editor-link=Thomas Thomson (chemist)|year=1814|publisher=Baldwin, R.|journal=[[Annals of Philosophy]]|volume=III|pages=51–62|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54032#page/5/mode/1up|access-date=13 December 2014|archive-date=15 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715120636/http://biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54032#page/5/mode/1up|url-status=live}}</ref> with his proposed system of one or two-letter [[chemical symbol]]s, which are used up to the present day; sodium and potassium have the symbols ''Na'' and ''K'', respectively, after their Latin names.}} (Another article in the same journal issue also refers to the metal whose oxide is the basis of [[sapphire]], i.e. the same metal, as to ''aluminium''.)<ref>{{cite journal|last=Delaméntherie|first=J.-C.|title=Leçonse de minéralogie. Données au collége de France|journal=Journal de Physique|volume=73|pages=469–470|year=1811|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HpfOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA470|access-date=27 December 2020|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415114959/https://books.google.com/books?id=HpfOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA470|url-status=live}}.</ref> A January 1811 summary of one of Davy's lectures at the [[Royal Society]] mentioned the name ''aluminium'' as a possibility.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=January 1811|title=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. For the Year 1810. — Part I|journal=The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature|series=The Third|volume=XXII|pages=9|hdl=2027/chi.36013662?urlappend=%3Bseq=17|language=en}}{{blockquote|Potassium, acting upon alumine and glucine, produces pyrophoric substances of a dark grey colour, which burnt, throwing off brilliant sparks, and leaving behind alkali and earth, and which, when thrown into water, decomposed it with great violence. The result of this experiment is not wholly decisive as to the existence of what might be called ''aluminium'' and ''glucinium''}}</ref> The next year, Davy published a chemistry textbook in which he used the spelling ''aluminum''.<ref name="Davy1812">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YjMwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA201|title=Elements of Chemical Philosophy: Part 1|last=Davy|first=Humphry|publisher=Bradford and Inskeep|year=1812|volume=1|page=201|chapter=Of metals; their primary compositions with other uncompounded bodies, and with each other|author-link=Humphry Davy|access-date=4 March 2020|archive-date=14 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200314113620/https://books.google.com/books?id=YjMwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA201|url-status=live}}</ref> Both spellings have coexisted since. Their usage is currently regional: ''aluminum'' dominates in the United States and [[Canada]]; ''aluminium'' is prevalent in the rest of the English-speaking world.<ref name="OEDaluminium-usage">{{cite web
|website=Oxford English Dictionary, third edition
|title=aluminium, n.
|url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/5889
|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=December 2011|access-date=30 December 2020
|archive-date=11 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611060736/https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=7486FA56257A57791FB5DF1C726BAE1F?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F5889|url-status=live}}
{{blockquote|{{smallcaps|aluminium}} ''n.'' coexisted with its synonym {{smallcaps|aluminum}} ''n.'' throughout the 19th cent. From the beginning of the 20th cent., ''aluminum'' gradually became the predominant form in North America; it was adopted as the official name of the metal in the United States by the American Chemical Society in 1925. Elsewhere, ''aluminum'' was gradually superseded by ''aluminium'', which was accepted as international standard by IUPAC in 1990.}}</ref>