Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1858 — A French Flying Machine. [ARTICLE]

A French Flying Machine.

The Emperor has just made a present of 5,000 francs to a private in the line, who asserts he has discovered a solution of the great problem in aeroh utics—the art of flying. He has invented a kind of air-ship, consisting of a platform of silk stretched over whalebone, to be propelled by two gigantic wings of the same material placed on each side. The aeriall navigator is to be suspended at a distance if about four feet from the platform, while liis feet rest on pedals, by means of which t|ie wings are se ; t in inotion, while his arms rest on a lever that imparts to the pl.itlbrm the direcbion he chooses to give it. Onl- a ihod-'l of this machine” has yet been c instructed ' it appears to work well. Thunks to th iperor’s munificence! it is now about to . ,n ’ruct■ ■ on a large scale.—Parts Cor. oj the Mjjrnin,. Herald O??’’ ; th' tninufadture of salt at Syra cuse, about eight hundred thousand cords of wood ar? annually consumed.