1894, is already rare. Chanute draws from a still rarer book,
namely, De la Landelle's work published in 1884. Le Bris
himself, quoted by De la Landelle as speaking of his first
visioning of human flight, describes how he killed an albatross,
and then--'I took the wing of the albatross and exposed it to
the breeze; and lo! in spite of me it drew forward into the
wind; notwithstanding my resistance it tended to rise. Thus I
had discovered the secret of the bird! I comprehended the whole
mystery of flight.'

This apparently took place while at sea; later on Le Bris,
returning to France, designed and constructed an artificial
albatross of sufficient size to bear his own weight. The fact
that he followed the bird outline as closely as he did attests
his lack of scientific training for his task, while at the same
time the success of the experiment was proof of his genius. The
body of his artificial bird, boat-shaped, was 13 1/2 ft. in
length, with a breadth of 4 ft. at the widest part. The
material was cloth stretched over a wooden framework; in front
was a small mast rigged after the manner of a ship's masts to
which were attached poles and cords with which Le Bris intended
to work the wings. Each wing was 23 ft. in length, giving a
total supporting surface of nearly 220 sq. ft.; the weight of
the whole apparatus was only 92 pounds. For steering, both
vertical and horizontal, a hinged tail was provided, and the
leading edge of each wing was made flexible. In construction
throughout, and especially in that of the wings, Le Bris adhered
as closely as possible to the original albatross.

He designed an ingenious kind of mechanism which he termed