John Henry Fooks Bale
John Henry Fooks Bale (1867-1932)
1932 Obituary [1]
JOHN HENRY FOOKS BALE, whose death occurred on 12th August 1932, was born in London in 1867 and had had a varied career. He was at one time chief assistant to [Charles Henry Wordingham|Mr. C. H. Wordingham]], M.I.Mech.E., in the Manchester Corporation Tramways Department, and after two years there he became resident engineer on the Mersey Railway contract for the British Westinghouse Company.
In 1905 Mr. Bale was appointed chief engineer and tramways manager to the Walthamstow Council and in the following year became manager of the motor department of the London General Omnibus Company. At this period he took out a number of patents in connexion with safety devices for motor-buses and trams.
He subsequently joined Messrs. Crompton and Company, for whom he went to India in 1913 in connexion with the Tata Hydro Electric scheme. He remained in India until 1919.
Mr. Bale's apprenticeship was served with Messrs. Pontifex and Wood from 1882 to 1885, and after holding a number of positions with firms manufacturing electric plant and being for a period in charge of large colliery plant, he was appointed resident engineer and later managing director of the Lynton and Lynmouth Electric Light Company. This appointment he resigned in 1899 and after a few months as superintending engineer for Messrs. F. J. Warden-Stevens and Company, he went to Manchester to take up his appointment under Mr. Wordingham. During recent years he had been interested in an engineering business at Bridgwater which he purchased upon his return from India.
Mr. Bale was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1901 and became a Member in 1905.