New Gas Station in Sulphur Needs Spell Check

There are a few ways to spell the word sulphur. I did some research and digging to see how exactly wrong this new business being built on Beglis in Sulphur, LA really is. From what I can tell in my extensive 30 minutes of research, they are mostly wrong in this version of their spelling.

The city gets its name from the sulfur mines that were discovered in the salt domes. Herman Frasch rolls in and invents a way to extract it, the city booms with opportunity, and they name it after the element. Sulphur, the city, was born.

Now, for a lesson on spelling. The IUPAC, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, says that the element is spelled as sulfur. British English also has the word as being spelled sulphur. This would make sense, since the guy who discovered it in Louisiana was from Germany. The American English way to spell it matches the same way the chemistry nerds say it should be, sulfur.

No matter what variation of spelling I could find for the element, sulpher was certainly not one of those variations. Now, the big question is will the residents of Sulphur embrace this creative spelling, or shun it.

One more note: I saw in the post of this picture from my friend Kathy that someone mentioned the name of Sulphur as a city was perhaps trademarked. While city names themselves aren't trademarked, if the city forms part of a full business name (e.g. "Sulphur Express") then it can, which might be what happened here.