John Joseph Griffin

Griffin was born in 1802 in Shoreditch, London, the son of a bookseller and publisher. The family moved to Glasgow when he was young. In present-day his family members still live in, England, and he studied at the Andersonian Institution. He also received training in chemistry at Paris and at Heidelberg.[1][2]

In 1832 he married Mary Ann Holder, with whom he had twelve children, including William Griffin, FCS, and Charles Griffin, FSA. Griffin died at his residence, Park Road, Haverstock Hill, on 9 June 1877.[1]

Griffin commenced business in Glasgow as a bookseller, publisher, and dealer in chemical apparatus, in partnership with his eldest brother. While still a young man he published a translation of Heinrich Rose's Handbuch der analytischen Chemie. Griffin also partly edited the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, of which his firm were the publishers.[1]

In 1852 the partnership was dissolved, with the publishing branch being continued by his nephew (as Charles Griffin & Co.) and J. J. Griffin establishing a firm of chemical apparatus dealers (J. J. Griffin & Sons).[1] By the 1860s this company had established a shop on Bunhill Row and later Long Acre in London, selling both self-made and imported equipment. Through a series of mergers the company was later to develop into the major apparatus supplier Griffin & George.[3]

Griffin devised many new forms of chemical apparatus, including the common style of beaker which sometimes bears his name,[2] and did much in introducing scientific methods into commercial processes.

He was earnest in his attempts to popularise the study of chemistry, and in 1823 published his book Chemical Recreations: a popular manual of experimental chemistry, which was highly successful and went through several editions.[2] Other books he authored include:[1]

• Treatise on the Blow-pipe
• System of Crystallography (1841)
• The Radical Theory in Chemistry (1858)
• Centigrade Testing as applied to the Arts
• The Chemical Testing of Wines and Spirits (1866 and 1872)
• Chemical Handicraft (1866 and 1877)

Griffin assisted in the foundation of the Chemical Society in 1840,[1] and also helped to revive the Glasgow Philosophical Society.[2]

Nine of Griffin's papers appeared in various scientific periodicals. Of these the first was On a New Method of Crystallographic Notation; Report British Association, 1840, p. 88; and the last A Description of a Patent Blast Gas Furnace, Chemical News, 1860, pp. 27, 40.[1]

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Griffin, John Joseph". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: John Joseph Griffin

• Brian Gee and William H. Brock, "The Case of John Joseph Griffin: from artisan-chemist and author-instructor to business-leader" Ambix 38 (1991)