Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/505

FANTI. 455 FARADAY. allied to the Ashantis, waged incessant wars against the latter until subjugated in the begin- ning nf the nineteenth century. Sec Ashanti. FANTI, fitn'te, Manfeedo (180805). An Italian general. He was horn at Carpi, near Modena. In 1831 he took part in the rising against the Duke of Modena and the Austrians; in 1835 he entered the Spanish service, where he was distinguished by his bravery in the Carlist War, and was promoted to the rank of colonel on the General Staff at .Madrid. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848 he returned to Italy, where in the following year he fought against the Austrians. During the Crimean War he served as general of division, and in the war of 1859 commanded the forces of the provisional governments of Tuscany, Modena, the Romagna, and Parma. In 1800 he entered the first Italian Cabinet of Cavour as head of the Ministry of War, in which capacity he increased the army and brilliantly conducted the campaign against the Papal troops in Umbria. As chief of general staff to Victor Emmanuel, he reduced Gaeta and Mola. In 1872 a bronze statue was erected to his memory in Florence. FANTINE, faN'ten'. The mother of Cosette, in Victor Hugo's Les Misirables. She gives her name to part i. of the novel. FANTIN-LATOTJR, faN'taN' la'toor', Henri (1836-1904). A French painter, born at Grenoble. He was the son and pupil of Theodore Fantin- Latour (1805-75), and studied in Paris under Lecoq de Boisbaudran. His painting is refined, simple, and harmonious, and excellent in color. His chief works are portraits of "M. Jullien" and "M. and Madame Edwards" (1875); "The Reader:" "The Temptation of Saint An- thony;" the "Prelude to Lohengrin;" and "Hom- age to Delacroix." His numerous lithographs treat subjects taken from Wagner, or are in- spired by the themes of Berlioz or Schumann. He also painted flowers anil still life with much delicacy. He received medals in 1870 and 1875, and the cross of the Legion of Honor in 1879. FAN-TRACERY VAULTING. A kind of late Gothic vaulting peculiar to the Perdendieu- lar (q.v.) style in England. It is the logical out- come of the English feeling that the ribs of Gothic vaulting were not strictly structural ele- ments, as is the case in all pure Gothic, espe- cially in France (see Vault), but could be ised for decorating the surface of the vaults without regard to functional use, as a form of surface tracery. The first step consisted in sup- plementing the two diagonal ribs of the simple quadripartite vault by other ribs radiating, at equal distances, from the same point — namely, the spring of the vault, on the wall or over the capital of the pier. These gave four fan-like groups of ribs, called tiercerons, whose summits were intercepted at the ridge-level by other ribs, called Hemes. This is the simple fan vaulting, as in the chapter-house at Wells (1292) and the choir of Exeter. When, during the fourteenth century, other ribs, parallel to the Heme ridge Tibs, were added, which were crossed by the tiercerons, a series of star-shaped groups were formed, and these were called lier>w or star vaults, as in the nave of Tewkesbury and the choir of Gloucester. This was popular during the Decorated style (q.v.). With the advent of the Perpendicular, the whole surface of the vault- ing between the ribs was filled with a rich trac- ery, similar to that used in windows, and consist- ing of cusped arcades, circles, or polygons of bewildering delicacy. Thus the fan- tracery vaulting was finally created. Its most wonder- ful novelty was the construction of Btone pen- dants hanging from the vaulting surfaces and supported by an ingenious series of internal arches, while appearing to rest on air. Among the finest example-- are Efenry VII.'s chapel a1 Westminster, Saint George's at Windsor, and King's College Chapel at Cambridge. This vault- ing was a! > n I'll iii cloisters, as at Gloucester and Canterbury. Consult: Gwilt, Encyclopaedia of Architecture, revised by Papworth (London, 1807); Willis, "Const ruction of the Vaults of the Middle Age," in Transactions of the Royal Institute of Vritish Architects (London, 1842). FARABI, la-ra'be. See Al-Faham. FAR'AD. The farad is the so-called 'practi- cal' unit of electric capacity, being by definition the capacity of a condenser whose potential is one volt when charged by one coulomb. It is substantially equal to the C. G. S. electro-mag netic unit of capacity, divided by 10", or to the C. G. S. electrostatic unit of capacity, multiplied by 9 X 10". One-millionth of a farad is called a 'microfarad.' The name 'farad' was given the unit of capacity in honor of Michael Faraday, who made' such important discoveries in regard to the nature of the capacity of condensers. See Electrical Units. FAR'ADAY, Michael (1791-1807). A dis- tinguished English chemist and physicist. He was born near London, the son of a blacksmith, and at an early age was apprenticed to a bookbinder. He devoted his leisure time to science, and, among other things, made experiments with an electrical machine of his own construction. In 1812 he was able to attend the chemical lectures of Sir H. Davy (q.v.), then at the zenith of his fame. and he ventured to send to Davy the notes he had taken, with a modest expression of his desire to be employed in some intellectual pursuit. Davy engaged him as his assistant at the Royal Insti- tution, and later took him to the Continent as assistant and amanuensis. On their return to London Davy confided to him the performance of a number of important experiments, which led in his hands to the liquefaction of certain gases by pressure. Here he showed that extraordinary power and ingenuity which resulted in so many important discoveries, and rendered his name familiar to every student of physics. In 1824 lie was elected to the Royal Society, and in the following year was appointed director of the laboratory of the Royal Institution, where later he was promoted to Davy's post of professor of chemistry. Faraday's first important discovery was the revolution of a magnetic needle around an electric current (1821), and ten years later came his work on magneto-electricity and induc- tion. Following this came the discovery of the action of one current on another, when the de- flection was observed as before, and also when a magnet was inserted or withdrawn in a coil of wire. These discoveries naturally furnished the foundation for the development of magneto and dynamo machines, and other inventions of im- portance. Faraday's researches in electrolysis are also of great value, and to him is due the dis covery that the amount of liquid decomposed is