Alexander Pedler

He worked with Lockyer examining the spectra from solar prominences in Sicily when the latter discovered helium on the earth in 1868.

In 1869 he visited America and on return he was a chemical examiner at the Department of Science and Art at the Royal College of Chemistry.

After Herbert McLeod moved to the newly established Royal Indian Engineering College, Coopers Hill, Pedler succeeded him.

[1] Pedler went to India aged 24 and became principal at the Presidency College, Calcutta in 1896 and also served as meteorological reporter to the Bengal Government in 1889.

Pedler was involved in chemical applications of value to India, he studied the toxins of cobra venom, corrosion of lead linings used in tea storage chests, analyzed water supplies in Calcutta and examined coal gas.

In 1901 he was Director of Public Instruction in Bengal, and was created a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in November 1901.