Aluminium vs. Aluminum: The Element That Split an Encyclopedia

Element 13 is a soft, silvery metal used in cans, foil, and international incidents.

The minor edit

Americans write aluminum. Most of the rest of the English-speaking world writes aluminium, and so does the international chemistry authority IUPAC. On Wikipedia, where American and British English coexist under a fragile peace treaty, the element's article became a permanent front line.

− aluminum

• aluminium

edit summary: "IUPAC spelling per WP:CHEM"

Editors changed the spelling in the title, in the text, in linked articles, in captions. Each change triggered the counter-change. The talk page accumulated the traditional artifacts: dictionary citations, national statistics, accusations of cultural imperialism in both directions.

The major consequence

Peace required policy. The chemistry editors adopted conventions pinning each element to one spelling — the article lives at aluminium, with aluminum redirecting and the American spelling acknowledged in the first line. The general principle (pick one variety of English, stay consistent, stop re-fighting it) hardened into one of Wikipedia's most-cited style rules, invoked daily on articles that have nothing to do with metallurgy.

Which means the aluminium wars, in their way, wrote the constitution that governs every color/colour dispute since. Not bad for element 13.