BAILY, JOHN WALKER (1809–1873), archaeologist, brother of Charles Baily [q. v.], was born 9 Jan. 1809, and died 4 March 1873. He was head of the firm of William Baily & Sons, and master of the Ironmongers' Company in 1862–3. He is chiefly known to archaeologists as having formed an important collection of Romano-British and mediæval remains unearthed by excavations in the City of London during the years 1862–72. This collection was purchased in 1881 by the Corporation of London for their museum of City antiquities. In the same year his collection of arms and armour, formed 1835–45, became the property of the Baron de Cosson, of Chertsey.
[Information from Mr. W. Baily; Journal of British Archæological Association, xxx. 349–51; Nicholl's Hist, of the Ironmongers' Company, pp. 417 n., 507.]
BAILY, THOMAS, D.D. (d. 1591), catholic divine, was a native of Yorkshire, and studied at Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1546. Soon afterwards he became a fellow of that house, and in 1549 he commenced M. A. In 1554 he served the office of proctor, and in the following year subscribed the Roman catholic articles. He was appointed master of Clare Hall probably about November 1557. When Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, he refused to comply with the change in religion; and on being deprived of his mastership he went to Louvain, where he was admitted D.D. He remained there till January 1576, when he removed to Douay on the invitation of Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Allen, who employed him in the government of the English College, both at Douay and Rheims. In Allen's absence he was usually appointed regent of the college. He had the chief hand in managing the temporalities of the college, while Dr. Bristow regulated the schools, and Dr. Allen himself inspected discipline. Dodd remarks that 'the college was very prosperous under this triumvirate; but as a nation quickly finds the loss of a zealous and able ministry, so it happened to the English College, which, upon their decease, was oppressed with debts and divided by parties.' Dr. Baily, who was succeeded in the vice-presidency of the college by Dr. Worthington, became a prebendary of Cambray when Allen was advanced to the dignity of cardinal in 1587. He died at Douay 7 Oct. 1591.
[Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 46, 58, 382; Diaries of the English College, Douay (index, under 'Bayley'); Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Allen (index, under 'Bayly'); Cooper's Athenæ Cantab, ii. 108, 545; Lamb's Collection of Letters, Statutes, and other Documents, 175; MS. Addit 5863, f. 135 b.]
BAIN. [See also Baine and Bayne.]
BAIN, ALEXANDER (1810–1877), the author of several important telegraphic inventions, the chief of which was the automatic chemical telegraph, was born in the parish of Watten, Caithness-shire. After having served as apprentice to a clockmaker at Wick, he came up to London in 1837 as a journeyman. He was led, by lectures which he attended at the Adelaide Gallery, to apply electricity to the working of clocks, and was one of the first to devise a method by which a number of clocks could be worked electrically from a standard time-keeper, though the credit of this invention is claimed by Wheatstone as well as by Bain. It is doubtful, again, whether he was the inventor of the first printing telegraph, as this too is disputed. In both cases he was unquestionably very early in the field. He discovered independently the use of the earth circuit, but here he was certainly anticipated by Steinheil. Electric fire-alarms and sounding apparatus were also among his inventions. His most important invention was the chemical telegraph of 1843 previously mentioned. This apparatus could be worked at a speed hitherto impossible, and its invention certainly entitles Bain to the credit of being the pioneer of modern high-speed telegraphy. It is stated that the rate at which the apparatus was capable of working was discovered accidentally, in consequence of the breaking of a spring during an experiment. The machine ran down, but the message was nevertheless properly received. Perhaps the most valuable part of the invention consisted in the use of strips of perforated paper for the transmission of the message. This contrivance was long after adopted by Wheatstone, and is in use in all the existing high-speed systems of telegraphy. He received as much as 7,000l. for his telegraphic patents, but the money was wasted in litigation, and he died a poor man. Intemperance was another cause of his non-success in life. In 1873 he received a grant from the Royal Society of 150l., and at the time of his death he was supported by a government pension of 80l. a year.
