FLAMINIAN WAY 



3188 



FLANDERS 



FlaminianWay (Via Flaminia). 

 Ancient Roman road. It took its 

 name from C. Flaminius, censor in 

 220 B.C., who extended it to Ari- 

 minum, making it the first Roman 

 road to cross Italy, Previous to 

 this time it had existed only as far 

 as Spoletium. It issued from Rome 

 at the Porta Flaminia, being a con- 

 tinuation of the Via Latina, and, 

 crossing the Tiber by the Milvian 

 bridge, reached Spoletium by way 

 of Narnia. 



Flamininus, TITUS QuiNCTrcrs 

 (d. c. 175 B.C.). Roman general. 

 Before he was 30, he attained the 

 consulship, and in 197 defeated the 

 Macedonians at Cynoscephalae 

 (q.v. ). A clever diplomatist and an 

 admirer of the Greeks and their 

 culture, he was appointed to settle 

 the affairs of that country. At the 

 Isthmian games in 196 he pro- 

 claimed amidst great enthusiasm 

 the independence of Greece, really 

 the exchange of a Roman for a 

 Macedonian master. After crushing 

 the Spartan tyrant Nabis, he was 

 honoured by a splendid triumph 

 on his return to Rome in 194. 

 In 192 he was again in Greece and 

 prevented the pro-Syrian party 

 from assisting Antiochus in his 

 struggle against Rome. In 183 

 Flamininus was sent to demand 

 the surrender of Hannibal from 

 Prusias, king of Bithynia. 



Flaminius, GAIUS. Roman 

 statesman. He introduced an 

 agrarian law in 232 B.C., providing 

 for the distribution of recently 

 conquered territory in Picenum 

 and Senonian Gaul among the 

 plebeians. During his censorship 

 in 220 he built the great Circus 

 Flaminius, and constructed the 

 Via Flaminia. He was one of the 

 generals in command of the Roman 

 army at the battle of the Trasimene 

 lake in 217, in which he himself 

 was slain. 



Fl animation, CAMILLB (1842- 

 1925). French astronomer. B. Feb. 

 26,1842, atMontigny-le-Roi,he stud- 

 ied theology at 

 Langres and 

 Paris. In 1858 

 he entered the 

 Paris observa- 

 tory, and was 

 a member of 

 the Bureau 

 des Longi- 

 tudes in 1862. 

 From 1863 

 onwards he 

 edited Cosmos 

 and L' Astronomic. 'Hie carried out 

 numerous observations, especially 

 on Mars, at his private observatory! 

 at Juvisy. He won wide fame as 

 a popular writer on astronomy, and 

 founded the astronomical society 

 of France in 1887. In Oct., 1920, 



he married Gabrielle Renaudot, his 

 collaborator in some of his chief 

 works. Among his books trans- 

 lated into English are: Popular 

 Astronomy ; Astronomy for Ama- 

 teurs. He died June 4, 1925. 



Flammenwerfer (Ger., flame- 

 thrower). Special type of blow- 

 lamp for military use. German 

 equipment of this type was de- 

 signed as a method of cutting 

 barbed-wire entanglements by 

 melting the strands, but during 

 their attack at Hooge in 1916 was 

 employed by them against the 

 defenders, and was subsequently 

 used on many occasions as a short 

 range weapon in trench fighting. 

 Similar devices were later adopted 

 by the Allies. 



Flammenwerfer. French soldier testing 



a captured German flame-thrower of 



the portable type 



The Flammenwerfer consists 

 essentially of a reservoir of in- 

 flammable oil, usually petroleum 

 or benzene, which can be thrown 

 to a considerable distance in the 

 form of a spray, by means of a 

 suitable nozzle, the oil being forced 

 through the nozzle by the pressure 

 of gas contained in a separate 

 reservoir. The end of the nozzle is 

 fitted with mechanism for igniting 

 the spray. The grosser (large) 

 Flammenwerfer held nearly 350 

 pints of oil. 



The kleiner (small) Flammen* 

 werfer was portable, and held 

 about 16 pints of oil in a reservoir 

 with attached gas reservoir, so 

 designed as to carry from the 

 operator's shoulders a short length 

 of hose carrying a nozzle. See 

 Trench Warfare. 



Flamsteed, JOHN (1646-1719). 

 English astronomer. Born at 

 Denby, Derbyshire, Aug. 19, 1646, 

 he was educated at Cambridge, 

 and devoted himself early to the 



study of astronomy, 1 7 He was 

 appointed King's Astronomer in 

 1675, with an annual salary of 100, 

 and installed 

 eventually at 

 the New Green- 

 wich Observa- 

 tory, begun in 

 that year. His 

 observations 

 there gave 

 Newton much 

 help in the per- 



Ifecting of his 

 lunar theory, 

 though there was much ill-feeling 

 between the two men. Flamsteed' s 

 chief work was the great catalogue 

 of the fixed stars, the origin of all 

 later catalogues, which was in- 

 complete at his death on Dec. 31, 

 1719, but was published with his 

 other observations in 1725. See 

 An Account of the Rev. John 

 Flamsteed, the first Astronomer 

 Royal. To which is added his 

 British Catalogue of Stars, F. 

 Baily, 1835. 



Planches OR FLAKQTJES. In 

 heraldry, the dexter and sinister 

 sides of a shield cut off by curved 

 lines, giving the 

 middle an hour- 

 glass form. They 

 are usually borne 

 in pairs. Classed 

 among the Sub- 

 Ordinaries (q.v. ) 



Flanders. 

 Name given to 

 that part of the Flancties, in 

 Netherlands heraldry 



which is bounded roughly by the 

 lower reaches of the river Schelde, 

 the Lys valley, and the coast from 

 Calais to the Schelde estuary. 

 The political frontiers of Flanders 

 have varied considerably, but most 

 of this territory now lies inBelgium, 

 and the old name is retained hi 

 the two provinces of W. Flanders 

 (Flandre Occidentale), and E. 

 Flanders(Flandre Orientale). These 

 pro vs. are markedly different in 

 character from the Walloon provs. 

 of Belgium, being mainly peopled 

 by peasant Flemish stock, almost 

 entirely speaking their own Flem- 

 ish tongue, a Teutonic language 

 closely akin to Dutch. Ethno- 

 logically, a large part of the French 

 dept. of Nord is Flemish, and is 

 often referred to as French Flan- 

 ders. The chief towns of W. Flan- 

 ders are Bruges, Courtrai, Ostend, 

 Roulers, Thielt, Fumes, Ypres, 

 Dixmude ; of E. Flanders, Ghent, 

 Alost, Audenarde, Eecloo, St. 

 Nicolas Termonde. W. Flanders, 

 area 1,249 sq. m., pop. 884,777 ; 

 E. Flanders, area 1,158 sq. m., 

 pop. 1,134,079. 



The original inhabitants of 

 Flanders were known to the 



