| USGS_Minerals_Information__Aluminum Overview and a number of publications in PDF format. |
| Visual_Elements__Aluminium Image, animation, source, uses, key isotopes, and covalent bonds. |
| WebElements__Aluminum Extensive information on history, uses, occurrence, compounds, and properties of the element. |
| Wikipedia__Aluminum Details the properties of the element, including its history, applications, and characteristics. |
| Physorg Features news about semiconductor technology with scientific discussions. |
| European_Association_for_Solar_Energy Non-partisan independent organization that is independent of industry, political institutions promoting solar energy by conducting conferences and awarding prizes. [English, German] |
| Messier_Marathon An astronomy site with links including a NGC, a Messier search tool. |
| Seqool Free Windows software tool for the analysis of DNA and RNA sequences. It includes several sequence statistics and a comprehensive set of signal search methods. |
| NTE_Electronics,_Inc_ NTE is a supplier of active, passive and electromechanical electronic components. Cross reference for resistors, relays, and semiconductors. |
| Transistor_Cross_Reference_Database Based on Pacific Semiconductor's 40,000 transistors database. |
| ASTOS The Aerospace Trajectory Optimization Software is a tool for solving launcher, reentry and orbit trajectory problems without any programming. ASTOS is a special aerospace model of GESOP, which solves |
| DAP Preliminary new kitplane analysis that allows you to evaluate a new airplane, or performance changes resulting from modifications. |
| DARcorporation Airplane design, analysis & drafting Software. Also offers consultancy and testing services. List of references and clients. FAQ and evaluation programs. |
| Diversified_International_Sciences_Corporation Specializing in Air Traffic Control (ATC) Services, Information Technology Services and the Atom System. Provides systems, services and consulting expertise. |
| Flight_Gear_Flight_Simulator Open Source flight simulator. Source code is available here, and it can run on Windows, Linux, Mac platforms. |
| FlightGear_Flight_Simulator An open-source, multi-platform, cooperative flight simulator development project. Source code for the entire project is available and licensed under the GNU General Public License. The goal of the pro |
| Hanley_Innovations Aerodynamics and Airfoil Analysis Software for Windows. Test airfoils, eBooks about aerodynamics, plot airfoil sections for airplane constructions. |
| High_Plains_Engineering Offers tools for flight control system design and flight test simulators, handling qualities, aircraft dynamics, data analysis and tests. |
| JSBSim_Flight_Dynamics_Model A free, open source, multi-platform flight dynamics model written in C++. New aircraft models do not require additional code. |
| Public_Domain_Aerospace_Software Software for the Aerospace Engineer. Site has free sample downloads. CD for sale containing many useful programs, including Digital DATCOM. |
| RocFlight__Rocket_Trajectory_Software Windows based, planar rocket trajectory software for launch vehicles traveling through the standard earth atmospheric model. Includes a database of common high power/model rocket motors, an optimal m |
| Rotordynamics-Seal_Research Offers consulting in rotordynamics as well as seal and bearing analysis software for hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, foil, magnetic and rolling element bearings. |
| Satellite_Tool_Kit Analytical engine to calculate data and display multiple 2-D maps to visualize various time-dependent information for satellites and other space-related objects such as launch vehicles, missiles, and |
| Scientific_Engineering_Research Offers programs for vibration analysis of non-linear rotor-bearing-foundation systems. By linearization in the vicinity of a stable equilibrium position or by direct solution of the non-linear differe |
| Xpatch High-frequency radar signature analysis and prediction software. |
| Zona_Technology Advanced aeroelastic, aeroservoelastic, flutter and flight loads software products. |
| Precambrian_Fossils Possible Precambrian trace fossils collected in the Van Horn region of Texas. |
| Virtual_Ichnology Computer model of trace fossil development through time. Part of the Computational Paleontology website. |
| Basic_Fish_Anatomy Outline of the external features including body shape, head, fins, gills, lateral line, coloring and swim bladder. |
| Dictionary_of_Ichthyology Defines terms used in the study of fishes and fisheries. |
| Fish A brief outline of the essential features of fish biology. |
| Fish_Keeping_Terms Glossary of technical terms used in fish biology. |
| Fish_on_Line A computer-based course on ichthyology for students in biology or environmental science. |
| The_Ichthyological_Society_of_Japan ISJ was established in 1968 to advance the study of fishes and fish biology. There is a meeting each October and it publishes members papers and the Japanese Journal of Ichthyology. In English and Jap |
| The_Identification_of_Oestrogenic_Effects_in_Wild_Fish Technical report into the occurrence of intersex in roach and gudgeon and the role played by treated sewage effluent in the feminizing effects observed in UK roach populations. |
| The_Impact_of_Environmental_Levels_of__Aquatic_Contaminants_on_Atlantic_Salmon Research into the impact of agricultural pesticides on sensitive stages of the life history of Salmonids. [PDF] |
| Induced_Reproduction_in_Fish Many species of fish will not readily reproduce under certain culture conditions. This article describes the natural breeding cycle and the induction of spawning. |
| NetMax’s_Aquaria_Site__Reproduction Information on fish reproduction and the rearing of fry, concentrating on the species usually found in aquaria. |
| New_Zealand_Native_Freshwater_Fish_Society_ This group hopes to raise awareness of native fish and increase scientific knowledge of them to try to prevent more from becoming extinct. |
| Technology_for_Fish_Propagation Janos Bakos provides comprehensive technical data on the conditions necessary for the reproduction of cultivated fish species. |
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GALLIMAUFRY
POSH
ALUMINIUM VERSUS ALUMINUM
Why two spellings?
Following up a Topical Words piece on the international spelling of what British English writes as sulphur, many American subscribers wrote in to ask about another element with two spellings: aluminium.
The metal was named by the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy (who, you may recall, “abominated gravy, and lived in the odium of having discovered sodium”), even though he was unable to isolate it: that took another two decades’ work by others. He derived the name from the mineral called alumina, which itself had only been named in English by the chemist Joseph Black in 1790. Black took it from the French, who had based it on alum, a white mineral that had been used since ancient times for dyeing and tanning, among other things. Chemically, this is potassium aluminium sulphate (a name which gives me two further opportunities to parade my British spellings of chemical names).
Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812. His classically educated scientific colleagues preferred aluminium right from the start, because it had more of a classical ring, and chimed harmoniously with many other elements whose names ended in –ium, like potassium, sodium, and magnesium, all of which had been named by Davy.
The spelling in –um continued in occasional use in Britain for a while, though that in –ium soon predominated. In the USA, the position was more complicated. Noah Webster’s Dictionary of 1828 has only aluminum, though the standard spelling among US chemists throughout most of the nineteenth century was aluminium; it was the preferred version in The Century Dictionary of 1889 and is the only spelling given in the Webster Unabridged Dictionary of 1913. Searches in an archive of American newspapers show a most interesting shift. Up to the 1890s, both spellings appear in rough parity, though with the –ium version slightly the more common, but after about 1895 that reverses quite substantially, with the decade starting in 1900 having the –um spelling about twice as common as the alternative; in the following decade the –ium spelling crashes to a few hundred compared to half a million examples of –um.
Actually, neither version was often encountered early on: up to about 1855 it had only ever been made in pinhead quantities because it was so hard to extract from its ores; a new French process that involved liquid sodium improved on that to the extent that Emperor Napoleon III had some aluminium cutlery made for state banquets, but it still cost much more than gold. When the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus in London was cast from aluminium in 1893 it was still an exotic and expensive choice. This changed only when a way of extracting the metal using cheap hydroelectricity was developed.
It’s clear that the shift in the USA from –ium to –um took place progressively over a period starting in about 1895, when the metal began to be widely available and the word started to be needed in popular writing. It is easy to imagine journalists turning for confirmation to Webster’s Dictionary, still the most influential work at that time, and adopting its spelling. The official change in the US to the –um spelling happened quite late: the American Chemical Society only adopted it in 1925, though this was clearly in response to the popular shift that had already taken place. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially standardised on aluminium in 1990, though this has done nothing, of course, to change the way people in the US spell it for day to day purposes.
It’s a word that demonstrates the often tangled and subtle nature of word history, and how a simple statement about differences in spelling can cover a complicated story.
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Page created 16 Dec 2000Last updated 23 Jan 2006
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