John Pemberton Fulton County enacted temperance legislation, Pemberton had to produce a non-alcoholic alternative to his French Wine Coca. Pemberton relied on Atlanta drugstore owner-proprietor Willis E. Venable to test, and help him perfect, the recipe for the beverage, which he formulated by trial and error. With Venable's assistance, Pemberton worked out a set of directions for its preparation. He blended the base syrup with carbonated water by accident when trying to make another glassful of the beverage. Pemberton decided then to sell this as a fountain drink rather than a medicine. Frank Mason Robinson came up with the name "Coca-Cola" for
John Stapylton Grey Pemberton John Stapylton Grey Pemberton John Stapylton Grey Pemberton was Member of Parliament for Sunderland 1900–1906 and Vice-Chancellor of Durham University 1918–1919. He was also President of the Council of Durham Colleges 1911–1937, Recorder for Durham and chair of the Durham Quarter Sessions. He died in 1940 aged 79. Pemberton was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford, gaining his BA in 1884 and proceeding to an MA in 1888. He won a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford in 1885 and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1889. In December 1883, shortly before completing his degree,