Aluminum Aluminium facts
While investigating facts about Aluminum Aluminium, I found out little known, but curios details like:
The reason Britain says "Aluminium" and America says "Aluminum" is due to the Scientist who coined a name for the element being indecisive and using both names in his book
Transparent aluminum is a real material. It's called Aluminium oxynitride or ALON and has far less weight and thickness than traditional bulletproof glass.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 15 of the best facts about Aluminum Aluminium I managed to collect.
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Napoleon III reserved a prized set of aluminum cutlery for special guests at banquets. Less favored guests used gold knives and forks. Aluminium was a valuable and prized metal.
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Transparent Aluminum is a real thing -- Aluminum Oxynitride (AlON) is a ceramic composed of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen.
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The only reason people in the US spell aluminium as aluminum is because Charles Martin Hall, the developer of the metal's refinement process, misspelled it on one of his advertisements.
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Aluminum used to be more valuable than gold, and Napoleon III's most important guests were given aluminium cutlery, while those less worthy dined with mere silver.
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Element 13 (Al) was originally named Alumium, then Aluminum, and finally Aluminium. Americans adopted Aluminum, but the British didn't because it didn't follow the "ium" naming convention used at the time (Sodium, Calcium, Strontium, Potassium... etc.) and added the extra syllable.
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High-voltage overhead conductors use Aluminum instead of copper. Since Aluminium is less conductive than copper the cables need to be 1.5x thicker but, even then, they're still 2x lighter.
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Sir Humphrey Davy, who named several elements but couldn't decide on one for aluminium, which is why it's still referred to as "aluminum" in North America.
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Sir Humphry Davy originally called "Aluminium" is "Alumium" in 1808. Four years later, he changed it to "Aluminum". Then, the British disliked this name because it disrupted the "-ium" pattern such as in sodium, and calcium. So they called it "Aluminium" since.
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Aluminum and Aluminium are both correct pronunciations. The founder originally named it Alumium but was pressured to conform with the -ium names of most other elements. While everyone else called it Aluminium, the ACS used Webster's Dictionary spelling of Aluminum which stuck in America.
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Aluminum cans are one of the lightest packaging materials we use, with a thickness of about 0.097mm (less than 100 microns), as thin as a human hair. And they are becoming thinner... as every gram of weight saved in the can saves over 200k tonnes of aluminium globally per year.
What is true about aluminum aluminium?
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The reason for the aluminum peel-able seals on bottles/containers is that manufacturers use induction coils to heat the aluminum, sealing both the container and cap to the aluminium.
Aluminum and aluminium are both correct. They are spelled differently around the world. - source
The correct name for Aluminum is actually Aluminium, but is most commonly called the former in only the United States - source
