Elimination by association with each scientist's known contribution:
L. A. Richards is chiefly associated with refining and popularising the tensiometer and with developing the pressure-plate/pressure-membrane apparatus for soil water potential, work that came after the instrument's invention. B. E. Livingston is known for the porous-cup atmometer used to estimate evaporative demand, a different type of instrument altogether. Henry Darcy is remembered for the law governing flow through porous media, not for any water-tension sensing device. Since none of these three match the origin of the tensiometer concept, the original design is attributed to Willard Gardner, confirming option 1.