gton Museum; Stringfellow's earlier
models, together with those constructed by him in conjunction with
Henson, remain in this country in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

John Stringfellow died on December 13th, 1883. His place in the history
of aeronautics is at least equal to that of Cayley, and it may be
said that he laid the foundation of such work as was subsequently
accomplished by Maxim, Langley, and their fellows. It was the coming of
the internal combustion engine that rendered flight practicable, and had
this prime mover been available in John Stringfellow's day the Wright
brothers' achievement might have been antedated by half a century.

V. WENHAM, LE BRIS, AND SOME OTHERS

There are few outstanding events in the development of aeronautics
between Stringfellow's final achievement and the work of such men as
Lilienthal, Pilcher, Montgomery, and their kind; in spite of this, the
later middle decades of the nineteenth century witnessed a considerable
amount of spade work both in England and in France, the two countries
which led in the way in aeronautical development until Lilienthal gave
honour to Germany, and Langley and Montgomery paved the way for the
Wright Brothers in America.

Two abortive attempts characterised the sixties of last century in
France. As regards the first of these, it was carried out by three men,
Nadar, Ponton d'Amecourt, and De la Landelle, who conceived the idea
of a full-sized helicopter machine. D'Amecourt exhibited a steam model,
constructed in 1865, at the Aeronautical Society's Exhibition in 1868.
The engine was aluminium with cylinders of bronze, driving two screws
placed one above the other and rotating in Opposite directions, but the
power was not sufficient to lift the model. De la Landelle's principal
achievement consisted in the publication in 1863 of a book entitled
Aviation which has a certain historical value; he got out several
designs for large machines on the helicopter principle, but did little
more until the three combined in the attempt to raise funds for the
construction of their full-sized machine. Since the funds were not
forthcoming, Nadar took to ballooning as the means of raising money;
apparently he found this substitute for real flight sufficiently
interesting to divert him from the study of the helicopter principle,
for the experiment went no further.

The other experimenter of this period, one Count d'Esterno, took out a
patent in 1864 for a soar