Louis Blériot of 1909. Like some of the other prizes offered by the paper, it was widely seen as nothing more than a way to gain cheap publicity: the Paris newspaper "Le Matin" commenting that there was no chance of the prize being won. The English Channel had been crossed by an unmanned hydrogen balloon in 1784 and a manned crossing by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries followed in 1785. Blériot, who intended to fly across the Channel in his Type XI monoplane, had three rivals for the prize, the most serious being Hubert Latham, a French national of English extraction flying
John Sheldon (anatomist) October. It carried scientific instruments, but failed to ascend: Blanchard threw instruments overboard. They landed at Sunbury-on-Thames, and quarrelled, with Blanchard carrying on the flight alone. With John Jeffries, Sheldon then tried to have the Royal Society support more balloon ascents, but without success. Sheldon spent time in studying the lymphatic system, an area on which William Cumberland Cruikshank also was working. He devoted attention to embalming, too. Both interests came from William Hunter's inspiration, and were lifelong. Sheldon had a celebrated body of a young woman embalmed: there are differing accounts. It was that of a patient who had