There is a "missing Sherlock Holmes" story "singular affair of the aluminium crutch" that is referenced but was never written; an early reference using the internationally-accepted form of the name.
The top of the Washington Monument in DC is an alumin(i)um pyramid, and Napolean provided alumin(i)um tableware to the most honored guests, because it was so expensive to extract at the time; it was more costly than gold.
That's why an alumin(i)um crutch would have been so singular at the time — it wasn't until 1886 that industrial production was made feasible, and it was of course not instantly ubiquitous.