Stringfellow, built a model aeroplane after
the design outlined by Sir George; but though their model was not of
much practical value, a little more valuable experience was accumulated
which would be of service when the time should come; in other words,
when the motor engine should arrive. This model can be seen at the
Victoria and Albert Museum, at South Kensington.

A few years later Stringfellow designed a tiny steam-engine, which he
fitted to an equally tiny monoplane, and it is said that by its aid
he was able to obtain a very short flight through the air. As some
recognition of his enterprise the Aeronautical Society, which was
founded in 1866, awarded him a prize of L100 for his engine.

The idea of producing a practical form of flying machine was never
abandoned entirely. Here and there experiments continued to be carried
out, and certain valuable conclusions were arrived at. Many advanced
thinkers and writers of half a century ago set forth their opinions on
the possibilities of human flight. Some of them, like Emerson, not only
believed that flight would come, but also stated why it had not arrived.
Thus Emerson, when writing on the subject of air navigation about fifty
years ago, remarked: "We think the population is not yet quite fit for
them, and therefore there will be none. Our friend suggests so many
inconveniences from piracy out of the high air to orchards and lone
houses, and also to high fliers, and the total inadequacy of the present
system of defence, that we have not the heart to break the sleep of the
great public by the repetition of these details. When children come into
the library we put the inkstand and the watch on the high shelf until
they be a little older."

About the year 1870 a young German engineer, named Otto Lilienthal,
began some experiments with a motorless glider, which in course of time
were to make him world-famed. For nearly twenty years Lilienthal carried
on his aerial research work in secrecy, and it was not until about the
year 1890 that his experimental work was sufficiently advanced for him
to give demonstrations in public.

The young German was a firm believer in what was known as the
"soaring-plane" theory of flight. From the picture here given we can get
some idea of his curious machine. It consisted of large wings, formed of
thin osiers, over which was stretched light fabric. At the back were
two horizontal rudders shaped somewhat like the long forked tail of
a s