Tono-Bungay H. G. Wells - Tono-Bungay by H.G. Wells is a story about George Ponderevo, who is persuaded to assist his uncle Edward in developing selling Tono-Bungay, a patent medicine. George spends seven years organizing and manufacturing the product, despite his belief that it is "a damned swindle." He then abandons day-to-day operations in favour of aeronautics. Still, he remains associated with his uncle, who develops into a first-rate financier and is on the verge of achieving social and economic dominance when his business empire implodes. George attempts to rescue his uncle's faltering finances by having stolen large quantities of a radioactive compound known as "quap" from an island off the coast of West Africa, but the excursion fails. George then arranges for his uncle's escape from England in an experimental aircraft he built. Still, the bankrupt entrepreneur-turned-financier contracts pneumonia and dies in a village near Bordeaux, despite George's efforts to save him.