h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

{Pedantic folk ,or party animals among us would claim it's likely to go into both the next century and the next millennium, but even Plaguesville, in his role as oldest inhabitant, does not claim to have been around the last time we were invaded)
Have you noticed that people are posting language queries to the general Ask h2g2 questions? "Kit and caboodle" and "sixes and sevens" are up there even as I type.
Too nesh (wimpish) to read through a _couple_ of thousand postings?
"Big girls' blouses", I reckon.

Couldn't find big girls' blouses, but found some leather pants.

In the "sixes and sevens" thread a really good website is recommended:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/

Absolute heaven for all of us and the answer to all Kaeori's questions.

A great site but it doesn't seem to have an answer to "The Dogs"

Have any of you read Michael Quinion's biog (the site owner) he sounds mad enough to be a researcher

He certainly might know DNA - what with working in Radio and all

Now I know he is mad enough to join see http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/nadgers.htm

Similar converastion here http://www.h2g2.com/F19585?thread=88364&post=723423 I have heard before that our american cousins pronunce Al correctly, but still cannot find any reference to it on-line. None of the bios of Sir Humprey Davy state he isolated Al. A comprehensive bio only says "1807, October: Davy discovered the elements Ca, Ba, Sr, Mg, Na, K and B." Anyone have any proof? C Hawke

More research has found this

http://www.berndorf.at/story/kap51.htm

Anyone read German? TC can you translate for us?

C Hawke

To save TC a job:
The site you've found describes the history of Al.
Sir Humphrey Davey was the first to melt Al with Iron. Friedrich Woehler, a German, was the first to produce pure Al in 1828, even if it was only in bits as big as pin-heads. It does not howerver say who is credited with the finding of the substance. I'll try to read a bit more about it later.

CH
Forget that.
Go back to the site you included in you last message, click the home button and switch to Englsh Version and read it yourself. Save both TC and me a job.

Well they call it the English Version! Shouldn't try to be cocky when I'm tired.

Schon vor 7000 Jahren benutzten babylonische Töpfer aluminiumhaltige
Tonerde. Bis zum Ende des 18.Jahrhunderts bemühten sich Alchemisten
und Metallurgen vergeblich, das Element Aluminium aus seinen
Verbindungen zu lösen. Erst 1809 schmolz Sir Humphry Davy Eisen mit
Aluminium. 1821 entdeckte der französische Chemiker Pierre Berthier
im Städtchen Les Baux jene rote Erde, der er den Namen Bauxit gab.
1827 gelang es dem deutschen Chemiker Friedrich Wöhler,
Aluminiumteile in der Größe eines Stecknadelkopfes herzustellen. Aber
noch fehlte der entscheidende Durchbruch zur industriellen Fertigung

Sorry, but as a compulsive translator, I shall just have to jot this one down :

(I couldn't find an English Version button)

As far back as 7000 years ago, Babylonian potters used clay with aluminium content. Alchemists and metallurgists tried in vain to isolate the element Aluminium right up to the end of the 18th Century. It wasn't until 1809 that Sir H.D. managed to melt down iron with aluminium. In 1821 the French chemist Pierre Berthier discovered in Les Baux the red earth that was given the name "bauxite". In 1827 the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler separated pinhead-size samples of Aluminium....

As Java said, really. I think I'd better go to bed. Will talk sense in the morning.

Interesting that it's got an 'i' in in German

More history of this element at http://www.eaa.net/pages/material/material.html, which includes an explanation of the change of spelling.

However, some of this is contradicted at http://www.webelements.com/webelements/scholar/elements/aluminium/history.html

Let's sort this out by renaming it again. Kaeorium?

Encyclopaedia Britannica says the following:

The English chemist Humphry Davy in 1807 attempted to extract the metal. Though unsuccessful, he satisfied himself that alumina had a metallic base, which he named "alumium" and later changed to "aluminum." The name has been retained in the United States but modified to "aluminium" in many other countries.

We are all wonderful chemists on this thread. Perhaps we may share the next Nobel prize.

Anyone know the chemical formula for cappuccino?

We could rename it Kaeorium, or Kaeoriium which would be the British variant spelling and give me more chance of using it in my ongoing domination of the Joneses' Scrabble(tm) tournaments

Did you notice all the vowels appear in Kaeorium?

Oh well, at great personal sacrifice, I'd be willing to consider Quaeorium to boost your Scrabble score (and rid you of a handful of vowels).

I could have sworn that I saw 'charabang' back there somewhere. This is one of those Franglais borrowings and we have the good manners, usually, to spell it 'charabanc'. Whence the idea that there are few German derived words in English? Swine, bread, sour, four etc. etc.
Apropos of nothing, cliche country again, I take it that all are familiar with the Pratchetism 'ambisinistrous'?

You might have seen charabanc.

TC (archivist of the BE forum)

http://www.hsegroup.com/hse/text/caffiene.htm !