the way in aviation. But, unfortunately, owing to the absence of
a powerful motor engine, Sir George's ideas could not be
practically carried out till nearly a century later, and then
Englishmen were forestalled by the Wright brothers, of America,
as well as by several French inventors.

The distinguished French writer, Alphonse Berget, in his book,
The Conquest of the Air, pays a striking tribute to our English
inventor, and this, coming from a gentleman who is writing from a
French point of view, makes the praise of great value. In
alluding to Sir George, M. Berget says: "The inventor, the
incontestable forerunner of aviation, was an Englishman, Sir
George Cayley, and it was in 1809 that he described his project
in detail in Nicholson's Journal. . . . His idea embodied
'everything'--the wings forming an oblique sail, the empennage,
the spindle forms to diminish resistance, the screw-propeller,
the 'explosion' motor, . . . he even described a means of
securing automatic stability. Is not all that marvellous, and
does it not constitute a complete specification for everything in
aviation?

"Thus it is necessary to inscribe the name of Sir George Cayley
in letters of gold, in the first page of the aeroplane's history.
Besides, the learned Englishman did not confine himself to
'drawing-paper': he built the first apparatus (without a motor)
which gave him results highly promising. Then he built a second
machine, this time with a motor, but unfortunately during the
trials it was smashed to pieces."

But were these ideas of any practical value? How is it that he