Louis Bleriot, pioneering French aviator mentor XXIII from Micrographia: or some

XXIII from Micrographia: or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and Inquiries thereupon

The Duke of Kent and Lord Mayor of London Sir Matthew Wood advertising a lottery scheme

Sections of Krakatoa pumice and volcanic dust at x50 and x250 magnifications

'The Marriage at Cana'

An elderly man with a walking stick is seen approaching the house

Louis Bleriot, pioneering French aviator mentor XXIII from Micrographia: or someLouis Bleriot, pioneering French aviator, 1909. Bleriot (1872 1936) made his fortune through manufacturing acetylene headlamps for motor cars but he is famous for being the first person to fly across the English Channel, from Calais to Dover, in his Bleriot type XI 24HP monoplane on 25 July 1909. He later became an aircraft manufacturer and his company built the famous SPAD fighter aircraft which was flown by all the Allied Nations during WWI. A