FATS 325 



FAULTS is the name of the impure spirit which comes over first and last in the 

 distillation of whiskey ; the former being called the strong, and the latter which is 

 much more abundant, the weak faints. This crude spirit is much impregnated with 

 fetid essential oil (fusel oil) ; it is therefore very unwholesome, and must be purified 

 by rectification. 



FAIRY-STONE. A name given in the south of England to the fossil sea- 

 urchins found in the chalk. They are sometimes called ' fairy loaves.' 



STONES. A name given to meteoric stones. See METEORIC 



STONES. 



FALSE SILVER. A term applied by the ancients, in all probability, to zinc. 

 Strabo, in a passage quoted in Watson's ' Chemical Essays,' speaks of false silver, with 

 the addition of copper, making orichalcum, or brass. 



FALSE TOPAZ. A light yellow pellucid variety of quartz crystal. It may be 

 distinguished from yellow topaz, for which, when cut, it is frequently substituted, by 

 its difference of crystalline form, the absence of cleavage, inferior hardness, and lower 

 specific gravity. Found in the Brazils, &c. 



FAMP is a siliceous bed, composed of very fine particles. This term is confined 

 chiefly to the North of England. Famp possesses little cohesion, and when exposed 

 to the action of the air it crumbles into a sandy kind of clay. Beds of ' famp ' often 

 separate the hard ' posts ' of sandstone ; they also contain more mica than the sand- 

 stone rocks among which they are interspersed. See POST. 



FAN (Eventail, Fr. ; Facher, Ger.) is usually a semi-circular piece of silk or paper, 

 pasted double, enclosing slender slips of wood, ivory, tortoise-shell, whalebone, &c., 

 arranged like the tail of a peacock in a radiating form, and susceptible of being folded 

 together and expanded at pleasure. This well-known hand ornament is used by ladies 

 to cool their faces by agitating the air. Fans made of feathers, like the wing of a bird, 

 have been employed from time immemorial by the natives of tropical countries. 



Fan is also the name of the apparatus for winnowing corn, for urging the fires of 

 furnaces, and for purposes of ventilation. For an account of the powerful blowing and 

 ventilating fan machines, see IRON MANUFACTURE and VENTILATION OF MINES. 



FANG, a mining term. A niche cut in the side of an adit or shaft to serve 

 as an air-course. Sometimes the term a fanging is applied to a main of wood- 

 pipes. 



FARE-WELL ROCS, The name given in South Wales to the Millstone Grit, 

 because no coal is found worth working after this rock has been reached. 



This rock is much used for the hearths of furnaces, its power of resisting the most 

 intense heat being remarkable. 



F ARISTA (Farine, Fr. ; Mehl, Ger.) is the flour of any species of corn, or starchy 

 root, such as potato, arrow-root, &c. v See BREAD and STARCH. 



FASSAITE. A variety of augite containing alumina, lime, magnesia, and iron. 

 It occurs in the Fassathal, in Piedmont. 



FATS (Grraisses, Fr. ; Fette, Ger.) occur in a great number of the animal tissues, 

 being abundant under the skin in what is called the cellular membrane, round the 

 kidneys, in the folds of the omentum, at the base of the heart, in the mediastinum, 

 the mesenteric web, as well as upon the surface of the intestines, and among many of 

 the muscles. Fats vary in consistence, colour, and smell, according to the animals 

 from which they are obtained ; thus, they are generally fluid in the cetaceous tribes, 

 soft and rank-flavoured in the carnivorous, solid and nearly scentless in the ruminants, 

 usually white and copious in well-fed young animals ; yellowish and more scanty in the 

 old. Their consistence varies also according to the organ of their production ; being 

 firmer under the skin and in the neighbourhood of the kidneys than among the moveable 

 viscera. Fat forms about one-twentieth of the weight of a healthy animal. But as 

 taken out by the butcher it is not pure ; for being of a vesicular structure, it is always 

 enclosed in membranes, mixed with blood, blood-vessels, lymphatics, &c. These 

 foreign matters must first be separated in some measure mechanically, after the fat is 

 minced small, and then more completely by melting it with hot water, passing it 

 through a sieve, and letting the whole cool very slowly. By this means a cake of 

 cleansed fat will be obtained. 



Braconnot and Easpail have shown that solid animal fats are composed of very 

 small microscopic, partly polygonal, partly reniform particles, which are connected 

 together by vqry thin membranes." These may be ruptured by mechanical means, 

 then separated by triturating the fresh fats with cold water, and passing the unctuous 

 matter through a sieve. The particles float in the water, but eventually collect in a 

 white granular crystalline appearance, like starch. Each of them consists of a vesi- 

 cular integument, of the nature of stearine, and an interior fluid like elaine, which 

 afterwards exudes. The granules float in the water, but subside in spirits of wine. 

 When digested in strong alcohol, the liquid part dissolves, but the solid remains.' 



