Alexander Bain (12 October 1810 – 2 January 1877) was a Scottish inventor and engineer who was first to invent and patent the electric clock. He invented the Telegraph Clock, which was a technology of synchronizing many electric clocks placed anywhere in the world; they would all have the exact same time. He also invented and patented the technology of the facsimile machine for scanning images and transmitting them across telegraph lines hundreds of miles away. He installed the railway telegraph lines between Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland, for recording messages, to regulate the safe movement of trains, marking time, giving signals, and printing information at different locations. He invented a chemical telegraph technology of being able to transmit across a telegraph line messages at up to 1000 words per minute, while at the time Morse's telegraph could only produce 40 words a minute. Early life Bain was born in Houstry, near Watten, Caithness, Scotland. He was born on 12 October 1810. His father was a crofter. He had a twin sister, Margaret, and, in total, he had six sisters and six brothers. Bain was apprenticed to a clock maker in Wick, Scotland. Bain learned the art of clock making and then first went to Edinburgh, Scotland. Later in 1837 went to London where he obtained work as a journeyman in Clerkenwell. He frequented the lectures at the Polytechnic Institution and Adelaide Gallery to further his knowledge of electricity. Later again he constructed his own workshop on Hanover Street in Edinburgh. Career Electric clocks and railway telegraphs In 1840, desperate for money to develop his inventions, Bain mentioned his financial problems to the editor of the Mechanics Magazine, who introduced him to Sir Charles Wheatstone. Bain demonstrated his models to Wheatstone, who, when asked for his opinion, said he shouldn't bother developing those ideas any further as there was no future in them. Three months later Wheatstone demonstrated an electric clock to the Royal Society, claiming it was his own invention. However, Bain had already applied for a patent for it in October 1840 and received patent No. 8783 as the first electric clock invented and patented. Wheatstone tried to block Bain's patents, but failed. When Wheatstone organized an Act of Parliament to set up the Electric Telegraph Company, the House of Lords summoned Bain to give evidence, and eventually compelled the company to pay Bain £10,000 and give him a