engine.

The publication of the patent attracted a great amount of public
attention, and the illustrations in contemporary journals,
representing the machine flying over the pyramids and the
Channel, anticipated fact by sixty years and more; the
scientific world was divided, as it was up to the actual
accomplishment of flight, as to the value of the invention.

Strongfellow and Henson became associated after the conception
of their design, with an attorney named Colombine, and a Mr
Marriott, and between the four of them a project grew for
putting the whole thing on a commercial basis--Henson and
Stringfellow were to supply the idea; Marriott, knowing a member
of Parliament, would be useful in getting a company
incorporated, and Colombine would look after the purely legal
side of the business. Thus an application was made by Mr
Roebuck, Marriott's M.P., for an act of incorporation for 'The
Aerial Steam Transit Company,' Roebuck moving to bring in the
bill on the 24th of March, 1843. The prospectus, calling for
funds for the development of the invention, makes interesting
reading at this stage of aeronautical development; it was as
follows:

PROPOSAL.

For subscriptions of sums of L100, in furtherance of an
Extraordinary Invention not at present safe to be developed by
securing the necessary Patents, for which three times the sum
advanced, namely, L300, is conditionally guaranteed for each