Scottish innovation IV

In 1840, clockmaker/inventor/engineer Alexander Bain was granted a patent for his electric clock, where an electric current, rather than springs or weights was utilized to keep an electro-magnetic pendulum going.

When a financially strapped Bain showed his invention to another inventor, Charles Wheatstone during a demonstration, Wheatstone slyly dismissed the invention but later tried to pass it off as his own. Wheatstone then tried to block Bain's patents but failed and was ordered by the House of Lords to pay Bain the princely sum of 10,000 pounds. After the incident Wheatstone was often heard saying: that man is the bane of my existence.*

Alexander Bain went on to make great advances in the technologies of telegraph and fax machines and during his work with the Electric Telegraph Company, he was credited for installing the first telegraph lines alongside the railroad between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Such deception, intrigue and business maneuvering; it would make a great movie.


*I made that up but if I were Wheatstone I would have said that in an attempt to be witty. Then, at least, I would be a witty, sly idea-thief.

Unrelated: heat continues, plants are cooking, out east people are dying because they don't have power for a/c because of storms. When you hold your hand up to a window, it feels like the oven window when a cake is baking. In fact, I could bake a cake outside if I could invent some sort of solar oven or even some enclosure to harness and intensify heat.