• insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe
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    18 days ago

    Mr.Webster of dictionary fame decided to only use Aluminum in his publication so that took over.

    The bigger player here is probably Charles Martin Hall, who invented* a cheap method of refining it. Turns out yeah, if it’s marketed and sold as aluminum in the US that’s what people will know it as.

    Although I guess it is possible Webster’s dictionary influenced Hall’s naming choice.

    I wouldn’t mind if we went back to calling it alumium, though.

    * as a sidenote, also invented in France in the same year (coincidence) by Paul Héroult, thus called the Hall-Héroult process