Ervin George Bailey, born in Damascus, Ohio, invented the revolutionary Bailey Boiler Meter, a major contribution to the science of automation and the efficient burning of fuels. In 1916, he founded the Bailey Meter Company of Wickliffe, Ohio, a world supplier of industrial instrumentation and controls. Considered the Dean of Combustion Engineers, Bailey held more than 100 patents in the fields of meters, automatic controls, furnaces, boilers, and fuel burning equipment.