Float. Raft or a quantity of 

 timber secured together for float- 

 ing or towing through water. It 

 also means a float board of a 

 paddle steamer or water wheel ; 

 a piece of wood or a closed, water- 

 tight, metal case which floats, 

 used for various purposes such as 

 actuating cistern valves, indicating 

 depth of water in tanks and 

 reservoirs, and gauging the velocity 

 of streams; an angler's accessory; 

 and a plasterer's tool for floating 

 or rendering smooth a surface of 

 cement, mortar, or plaster. The 

 word is also used for the light hol- 

 low vessel or cork body used in the 

 engine carburetter. 



Floating Battery. Obsolete 

 method of carrying big guns for use 

 afloat. Floating batteries as such 

 were used in the Crimean War. 



Floating Debt. Name given in 

 the United Kingdom to that part 

 of the. national debt which is not 

 funded. It consists mainly of 

 treasury bills, but also of advances 

 made by the Bank of England and 

 by government departments. On 

 June 12, 1920, the floating debt 

 amounted to 1,301,020,000. 



In 1919 and 1920 the enormous 

 amount of the floating debt was 

 considered to be one of the chief 

 reasons of the rise in prices. The 

 idea behind this theory was that the 

 creation of treasury bills gives their 

 holders borrowing powers and so 

 increases the demand for money, 



3205 



thus leading to higher prices. If 

 this debt were not floating but 

 funded, it would be held in the 

 main by genuine investors who 

 would not raise money on their 

 securities. See Credit ; National 

 Debt; National Finance. 



Floating Island. Floating mass 

 of peaty vegetable materials. Such 

 materials collect in the shallower 

 parts of the floor of a lake, and are 

 probably made temporarily buoy- 

 ant by the formation of gases pro- 

 duced by their decomposition. 



Floating Kidney. Condition in 

 which the kidney is abnormally 

 mobile and can be freely moved 

 within the abdomen by manipula- 

 tion. Lesser degrees of the con- 

 dition are known as palpable 

 kidney and movable kidney. The 

 causes of floating kidney are re- 

 peated pregnancies, tight lacing, 

 displacement of the organ by 

 tumours, and a general sagging 

 down of the viscera known as 

 enteroptosis. Mild cases can be 

 treated by suitable padding and 

 bandaging of the abdomen. 



Float Seaplane. Type of air- 

 craft capable of rising from and 

 alighting on water by means of 

 floats. Except for the floats, which 

 replace the ordinary wheeled type 

 of undercarriage of the land aero- 

 plane, the construction of the float 

 seaplane follows that of other 

 heavier-than-air craft. Float sea- 

 planes, as the Short, Fairey, etc., 



FLODDEN 



were extensively used during the 

 Great War. See Fairey; Flying 

 Boat; Short. 



Flocculi (Lat. floccus, a lock of 

 wool). Bands of bright woolly 

 matter parallel to the sun's equator 

 which appear upon certain types 

 of solar photographs. See Sun. 



Flock (Lat. floccua, a lock of 

 wool). Stuffing for beds and up- 

 holstery, a by-product in woollen 

 manufacture. Short and more or 

 less curled fibre is brought away 

 from woollen piece goods in the 

 course of finishing, notably in 

 scouring, milling, and shearing the 

 face of cloth. Again flocks are 

 generated in pulling well-worn 

 woollen rags to their constituent 

 fibre. In Great Britain, under the 

 Rag Flock Act of 1911, a test stan- 

 dard of cleanliness has been set up 

 which applies both to flocks pro- 

 duced from new cloth and to rag 

 flock. See Wool. 



Flock Book. Register of sheep. 

 Special societies, dealing with 

 almost every variety of sheep, 

 publish a flock book in which all 

 pure-bred animals belonging to 

 members are registered and the 

 points of the breed laid down 

 officially. See Sheep. 



Flodden, BATTLE OF. Fought 

 between the English and the Scots, 

 Sept. 9, 1513. Flodden is a ridge of 

 the Cheviots on the English side of 

 the border. It is 3 m. S.E. of Cold- 

 stream, and nearer is the village of 



Flodden. The Morning oi Flodden. James IV of Scotland receives news of the strength of the English forces under the 

 earl of Surrey. From the picture by John Faed, R.S. A. 



