St. Mary's Beacon

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 for the great problem in aeronautics—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 aerial navigator is to be suspended at a distance of about four feet from the platform, while his feet rest on pedals, by means of which the wings are set in motion, while his arms rest on a lever that imparts to the platform the direction he chooses to give it. Only a model of this machine has yet been constructed, and it appears to work well. Thanks to the Emperor's munificence, it is now about to be constructed on a large scale.