"...it may be an amusement to some of your reader to see a machine rise in the air by mechanical means [and] which anyone can construct at the expense on 10 minutes labour.

There are two corks, into each of which are inserted four wing feathers, from any bird, so as to be slightly inclined like the sails of a windmill, but in opposite directions in each set.  A round shaft, which ends in a sharp point, is fixed in the top cork. At the upper part of the bottom cork is fixed a whalebone bow, having a small pivot hole in its centre, to receive the point of the shaft. The bow is then to be strung equally on each side to the upper portion of the shaft, and the little machine is completed.

Wind up the string by turning the flyers differents ways, so that the spring of the bow may unwind them with their anterior edges ascending. Then place the cork with the bow attached to it upon a table, and with a finger on the upper cork press strong enough to prevent the string from unwinding, and taking it away suddenly, the instrument will rise to he ceiling. This was the first experiment I made upon this subject in the year 1796."