Aluminium Atomic number 13 History of the name Commentary

Copenhagen, Berlin—Hans Christian Ørsted, Friedrich Wöhler elements

Aluminium

• Some sources say
• Ørsted isolated aluminium.
• Others say he failed.
• Some sources say
• Wöhler showed
• Ørsted’s method
• didn’t work.
• Others say Wöhler
• didn’t know how
• to make it work.
• At any rate, one or
• both of them
• isolated aluminium
• by reacting anhydrous
• aluminium chloride
• with potassium amalgam.

Atomic number 13

• Light and bright
• common as clay, rare as ruby
• used in many alloys
• for the statue of the Anteros in Piccadilly Circus
• the capstone of the Washington Monument
• and the Austin “A40 Sports”
• delivers beer in cans
• wraps casseroles in foil
• swallowed as antacid tablets

History of the name

• Humphry Davy named it alumium
• after alum, which is aluminium sulfate
• or hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate.
• Davy’s idea was to use the -ium suffix
• for metals, like silicium and glucium, because
• he thought alumium would turn out to be a metal.
• Someone, however, convinced Davy
• to go with aluminum, which
• became accepted in the United States.
• The International Union of Pure
• and Applied Chemistry, however, added back
• the -ium suffix, resulting in aluminium.