homson in the Centennial Exhibition,
Philadelphia, recording at the rate of 1057 words in fifty-seven
seconds. In England the telegraph of Bain was used on the lines of the
old Electric Telegraph Company to a limited extent, and in America about
the year 1850 it was taken up by the energetic Mr. Henry O'Reilly, and
widely introduced. But it incurred the hostility of Morse, who obtained
an injunction against it on the slender ground that the running paper
and alphabet used were covered by his patent. By 1859, as Mr. Shaffner
tells us, there was only one line in America on which the Bain system
was in use, namely, that from Boston to Montreal. Since those days of
rivalry the apparatus has never become general, and it is not easy to
understand why, considering its very high speed, the chemical telegraph
has not become a greater favourite.

In 1847 Bain devised an automatic method of playing on wind instruments
by moving a band of perforated paper which controlled the supply of
air to the pipes; and likewise proposed to play a number of keyed
instruments at a distance by means of the electric current. Both of
these plans are still in operation.

These and other inventions in the space of six years are a striking
testimony to the fertility of Bain's imagination at this period. But
after this extraordinary outburst he seems to have relapsed into sloth
and the dissipation of his powers. We have been told, and indeed it
is plain that he received a considerable sum for one or other of his
inventions, probably the chemical telegraph. But while he could rise
from the ranks, and brave adversity by dint of ingenuity and labour, it
would seem that his sanguine temperament was ill-fitted for prosperity.
He went to America, and what with litigation, unfortunate investment,
and perhaps extravagance, the fortune he had made was rapidly
diminished.

Whether his inventive genius was exhausted, or he became disheartened,
it would be difficult to say, but he never flourished again. The rise
in his condition may be inferred from the preamble to his patent for
electric telegraphs and clocks, dated May 29, 1852, wherein he describes
himself as 'Gentleman,' and living at Beevor Lodge, Hammersmith.
After an ephemeral appearance in this character he sank once more into
poverty, if not even wretchedness. Moved by his unhappy circumstances,
Sir William Thomson, the late Sir William Siemens, Mr. Latimer Clark
and others, obtained from Mr. Gladston