Draft:Alexander Garden (chemist)

Alexander Garden (1784–1866) was a notable figure in the development of Chemistry in the 19th Century. While little is known of him, he is recorded in the literature as having been the first to discover Naphthalene through the distillation of Coal Oil or Coal Tar, as his submissions regarding his discovery preceded W.T. Brande by 2 days, according to Morrell et al. Garden's article regarding the discovery of Naphthalene was published in Annals of Philosophy in 1820. It is unclear whether he achieved the observation and record through the distillation of Coal Tar or Coal Oil, and invarious accounts point to both the former and the latter.

A bill of sale is held in the British Museum, dated 1832, from Garden's Oxford Street business

Garden was at first a pupil of Friedrich Accum, at "the Laboratory" Old Compton, Soho, before opening his own "Operative" Chemist shop at 372 Oxford Street, London, some time between 1810 and 1832. While Ludwig Haber claims that Garden formed his own business between 1810 and 1812, this is unlikely, as the previously referenced records held by the British Museum show that he was operating as junior partner to Accum until at least 1814.

While according to the British Museum, Garden started off as Accum's pupil, they eventually became business partners as "Accum and Garden, as depicted in the adjacent 1814 receipt head.

Garden was notable for supplying Henry Fox Talbot with "chemicals including Gallic Acid" that were used during Talbot's experimentation with pioneering photographic methods. A letter from the elder Garden's son, Felix, to Talbot exists in which Felix writes:

"Sir/

I beg to inform you we can supply Hypo Sulphite of Soda in Solution at 6/. per Gallon & Carbonate of Soda also in Solution at 3/ 6 -

Your Obdt Servt F R Garden

for AG. 372 Oxford St Oct 26/42."

R. Derek Woods (1980) writes that on the 30th of March 1839, "Talbot must have also gone up Regent Street into Oxford Street, for on this same day he purchased 1 dram of gallic acid in a bottle, at a cost of 1 shilling and 6 pence, from Alexander Garden's chemist shop at 372 Oxford Street.[17] Talbot travelled down to Lacock, in Wiltshire, on 2 April. Within three days he there carried out a test with the gallic acid recently purchased and entered into his Chemical Notebook: [18] April 5 Lacock — Dilute gallic acid & dilute nit silver mixed turn dark in daylight"

While some sources in the mid 20th Century incorrectly identified the Scotch American Alexander Garden, also born of Aberdeen, the botanist after whom the Gardenia flower is named, and who was an apprentice in an Apothocary where George Fordyce gained his inspiration at a young age at its window of "colorful liqueres", as the same individual who discovered Naphthalene, though this is impossible as that Alexander Garden passed away in 1791.