Among the numerous observers in the middle of the century who had noted the soaring power of birds, was a French sea-captain named Le Bris. On his long voyages he had studied the movements of the great albatross, which, with wings rigidly distended, outsailed the swiftest ship without any apparent exertion. Anxious to study the wing-mechanism of this bird, the captain, overcoming the scruples of the mariner against killing the sacred sea-rover, shot one of the birds. On removing a wing and spreading it in the wind he thought that it had a very appreciable tendency to pull forward into the breeze, and tended to rise when the wind was strong. Convinced that by duplicating the shape of the bird he could construct a successful flying-machine, Le Bris set to work and succeeded in producing a most remarkable "air-ship." The body of this machine, which was supposed to correspond to the body of the bird, was made boat-shaped, and was about thirteen feet long and four feet wide, being broadest at its prow, in imitation of the breast of the bird. The front part was decked over, something like the bow of the modern torpedo-boat, and through this deck protruded a small mast which was used for supporting the pulleys and cords used in working the machinery of the wings. Each wing was about twenty-five feet long, so that the entire spread of the machine was fifty feet. There was a tail-like structure so hinged that it could be used for steering up, down, and sidewise, the total area of surface presented to the atmosphere being something over two hundred square feet, although the entire "albatross" weighed something less than a hundred pounds. The front edges of the wings were made of pieces of wood fashioned like the wings of the albatross, and feathers were imitated by a frame structure covered with canton flannel. The front edges of the wings could be given a rotary motion to fix them at any desired angle by an ingenious device worked by two levers. In operating this artificial bird the captain proposed to stand in the boat and control its flight by these sets of levers and by balancing his body.