Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/681

BATH. BATH. A village and county-scat of Steuben County, N. Y., 75 miles south-southeast of Rochester, on Cohocton Creek, and on the Lacka- wanna, the Erie, and the Bath and Hammonds- port railroads (Map: New York, C 3). It con- tains the Davenport Public Library, Davenport Orphan Asylum, the New York State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, two parks, a soldiers' monu- ment, and the various county building's. The principal industries are agriculture, lumbering, wine storage, and the manufacture of sashes and blinds, harness, shoes, etc. Settled as early as 1793, Bath was first incorporated in 1836. The government, under a charter of 1895, is vested in a mayor, annually elected, and a village council. Population, in 1890, 3261; in 1900, 4994.

BATH, bath, See.

BATH, The name of the largest English Order, and the highest to which a commoner can attain. Its name was evidently derived from the initiatory ceremony of bathing, which used to be practiced at the installation of a knight, as an emblem of the purity henceforth required of him by the laws of chivalry. It is asserted by Froissart that in 1127 Henry I. made Geoffrey of Anjou and five others "Knights of the Bath," and Burke relates that Lord Willoughby received 'knighthood by bathing' from Edward II. The last creation of Knights of the Bath in the ancient form was at the coronation of Charles II. in 1661. From that period till the accession of the House of Hanover, the Order fell into oblivion. It was revived by George I. in 1725, and is now the second Order in rank in England, the first being the Garter. The Order was military till 1847, when it was placed on its present footing by the admission of civil knights, commanders, and companions. As constituted at present, the Order comprises three classes — Knights Grand Cross (G.C.B.), Knights Commanders (K.C.B.), and Companions (C.B.), the latter two including both civil and military members. In 1902 there were 117 knights of the first class, 302 of the second, and 1106 of the third.

BATH BRICK. A name applied to bricks made for scouring purposes. Bath bricks were originally made from the silt deposited by the high tides along the Parret River, England, but are now also made in the United States. Fine sharp sand is employed as the scouring agent. See ;.

BATHGATE, bath'gat. A town in the centre of Linlithgowshire, Scotland, 17 miles west- southwest of Edinburgh. The old town lies on a steep slope, and the new on a more level site. The celebrated gas-coal called Torbanehill min- eral is worked here. Bathgate has paraffin and paper works, but mining is the chief occupation of the inhabitants. Population, in 1871, 6942; in 1901, 6786. In 1668 King Charles II. granted Bathgate a charter, since which time it has been a free burg of barony. In the vicinity is the site of an ancient castle, which Margaret, daugh- ter of Robert Bruce, brought as a part of her dowry to her husband, Walter, great steward of Scotland, who died here.

BATH (bath) HOUS'ES,. The first modern publicly owned baths were established in Germany, while Liverpool was the first modern European city to construct inclosed bath-houses with appliances for furnishing both hot and cold water. This was in 1842, and since that time, authorized and aided by parliamentary legislation, the movement in favor of public baths has rapidly spread in Great Britain, especially during the last decade of the Nineteenth Century, until now every borough with a population of over 50,000 has municipally owned bath-houses, and very many smaller cities are well supplied with such facilities. The cities of Continental Europe do not possess so many public baths. In 1900 Germany had municipal bath-houses in 45 of its cities having a population of over 50,000. France has fewer, and in Austria, Norway, and Sweden, baths have been erected only in the larger cities. Vienna has 11 such establishments. In Russia they are very common, even in the smaller villages, being deemed absolutely essential to health. The city of Tokio, Japan, is said to contain 1000 public bath-houses. The movement in favor of municipal baths scarcely began in America until the close of the Nineteenth Century, when not more than ten or a dozen cities possessed them. Yonkers, N. Y., appears to have been the first American city to establish a public bath with hot and cold water, and to keep it open all the year round. It was opened September 3, 1896, and two years later another bath-house was constructed of fireproof brick, at a cost of $8586, affording accommodation for 400 baths daily. Newark, N. J., opened a bath-house on July 29, 1895, and a second one in 1897, but neither of these was open the entire year until 1898, and they were closed one month in 1899 through lack of funds. In 1900 Newark appropriated money for a third bath-house. The movement for public baths in Boston dates back to 1866, when the first one was opened; but until 1898 only beach baths, open a few months in the year, had been furnished. The Dover Street bath-house provided during its first year of operation — 1898-99 — baths for 300,000 people, about 30 per cent. of whom were girls and women. During 1900 the first municipal bath in New York City, situated in Rivington Street, in a densely crowded section, was built at a cost of $100,000. It has 67 spray-baths capable of furnishing 3000 baths per day, allowing each bather 20 minutes. New York is the first American State to enact legislation making the erection of public baths compulsory. In 1895 a law was passed that all cities having a population of more than 50,000 should establish and maintain such free public baths as the local board of health might deem to be necessary, and that any city or village having less than 50,000 inhabitants might loan on its credit or appropriate of its funds for this purpose. The baths must be open 14 hours a day, and both hot and cold water must be provided. The maintenance of river, lake, or ocean-front baths is not to be considered a compliance with this act. The first bath-house erected under the act was opened in Buffalo in 1897. The Rivington Street Bath, New York City, described above, was also built under this act. Albany, Rochester, and Syracuse have built bath-houses since the law was passed, and Troy adopted plans for one in 1900.

Brookline and Worcester, Mass.; Providence, R. I.; Pittsburg, Pa.; and Chicago, Ill., have also provided municipal baths open all the year. At the Brookline baths, instruction in swimming is