and successful than their continental counterparts. By the end of the 18th century, the tontine had fallen out of favour as a revenue-raising instrument with governments, but smaller-scale and less formal tontines continued to be arranged between individuals or to raise funds for specific projects throughout the 19th century, and, in modified form, to the present day. Concept Each investor pays a sum into the tontine. Each investor then receives annual interest on the capital invested. As each investor dies, their share is reallocated among the surviving investors. This process continues until the death of the final investor, when the trust scheme is wound up. Each subscriber receives only interest; the capital is never paid back. Strictly speaking, the transaction involves four different roles: the government or corporate body that organizes the scheme, receives the contributions and manages the capital the subscribers who provide the capital the shareholders who receive the annual interest the nominees on whose lives the contracts are contingent In most 18th- and 19th-century schemes, parties 2 to 4 were the same individuals; but in a significant minority of schemes each initial subscriber–shareholder was permitted to invest in the name of another party (generally one of his or her own children), who would inherit that share on the subscriber's death. Because younger nominees clearly had a longer life expectancy, the 17th- and 18th-century tontines were normally divided into several "classes" by age (typically in bands of 5, 7 or 10 years): each class effectively formed a separate tontine, with the shares of deceased members devolving to fellow-nominees within the same class. Works of fiction (see In popular culture below) often feature a variant model of the tontine in which the capital devolves upon the last surviving nominee, thereby dissolving the trust and potentially making the survivor very wealthy. It is unclear whether this model ever existed in the real world. Patent Financial inventions were patentable under French law from January 1791 until September 1792. In June 1792 a patent was issued to inventor F. P. Dousset for a new type of tontine in combination with a lottery. Uses and abuses Louis XIV first made use of tontines in 1689 to fund military operations when he could not otherwise raise the money. The initial subscribers each put in 300 livres and, unlike many later schemes, this one was run honestly; the last survivor, a widow named Charlotte Barbier,