FLOTATION 



3213 



FLOUR MILL 



serve to entangle the minute par- 

 ticles on which the animal feeds. It 

 is just visible to the naked eye. 



Flotation. When a body is 

 placed in a fluid, an upward force 

 acts on it, equal to the weight of 

 fluid displaced and due to the 

 pressure of the fluid. If the quan- 

 tity of fluid displaced weighs less 

 than the body, the latter sinks ; 

 otherwise the body floats. Thus 

 when a solid floats, the weight of 

 the volume of liquid displaced is 

 exactly equal to the weight of the 

 whole body. A balloon in the air 

 will continue to rise till the density 

 of the air hi which it floats is such 

 that the amount of it displaced by 

 the balloon is equal in weight to 

 that of the balloon and its contents. 

 See Hydrostatics ; Metacentre. 



Flotilla (Span., small fleet). In 

 the tactical organization of a fleet, 

 usually a number of destroyers 

 grouped under a commodore or a 

 captain and intended to be worked 

 as a whole. The senior officer 

 is accommodated in a fast light 

 cruiser or flotilla leader, and the 

 flotilla itself generally consists of 

 20 boats representing four or five 

 tactical units. Submarines are nor- 

 mally organized in flotillas, though 

 they usually work as independent 

 units. A number of mine-sweeping 

 trawlers or anti-submarine drifters 

 working together is sometimes re- 

 ferred to as a flotilla. See Navy. 



Flotilla Leader. Ship between 

 a light cruiser and a destroyer in 

 size and intended for service as 

 senior vessel of a destroyer flotilla. 

 Dimensions vary, but the leaders 

 all displace about 2,000 tons, have 

 a speed of approximately 35 knots, 

 and are armed with 4 -in. guns and 

 18 -in. torpedo tubes. 



Flotsam and Jetsam (low Lat. 

 flottare, to float ; Lat. jactare, to 

 cast). English law term. Goods 

 found floating up on the sea are 

 flotsam. Jetsam means goods jetti- 

 soned, cast overboard in a storm, 

 or washed upon shore after a 

 wreck. They become the property 

 of the crown unless claimed by the 

 rightful owners ; hence people find- 

 ing them must hand them over to 

 the receiver of wrecks. 



Flounder (Pleuronectes fiesus}. 

 Small species of flatfish, common 

 in the sea and the lower reaches of 

 rivers. It belongs to the same 





Flounder, a small flatfish found round 

 tbo coasts of the British Isles 



genus as the plaice, but is smaller, 

 being seldom 12 ins. long. It has 

 dark mottlings, and lacks the 

 orange -coloured spots of the larger 

 fish. The flounder is very prolific 

 and produces from one to two mil- 

 lion eggs. Its flesh is delicate, but 

 its small size makes it unimportant 

 as a food fish. 



Flour. Term denoting espe- 

 cially the ground contents of the 

 wheat berry freed from its dermal 

 envelopes. The corresponding pro- 

 duct of some other grains, par- 

 ticularly maize and rice, is called 

 cornflour. Similar starchy meals 

 are yielded by other cereal grasses, 

 buckwheat, pulses, and banana ; 

 sago-palm pith, and tapioca, ar- 

 rowroot, potato, and other roots 

 and tubers. 



The stone pounders used in neo- 

 lithic times gave rise to handmills 

 or querns, wherein wheat-meal 

 was ground between two stone 

 disks. In the early metal age the 

 upper millstones were rotated by 

 slave or cattle power, in classical 

 Greece and republican Rome by 

 geared water - wheels, later by 

 windmills, and since 1784 by 

 steam. As the 19th century ad- 

 vanced flour manufacture was re- 

 volutionised by the invention of 

 roller-mills. 



The wheat berry comprises four 

 dermal coats, weighing 5 p.c., the 

 germ and the embryo membrane, 

 5 p.c., and the kernel or endo- 

 sperm, 90 p.c. It is composed of 

 carbohydrates, 71'2 p.c., cellulose, 

 2*2 p.c., proteins, 11 p.c., fats, 

 T7 p.c., mineral salts, T9 p.c., and 

 water, 1 2 p. c. Of the four proteins, 

 gliadin and glutenin, forming four- 

 fifths of the whole, are collectively 

 called gluten. Besides their flesh- 

 forming value, their sticky nature 

 confines the carbonic acid gas 

 which yeast generates in dough 

 within tiny cavities whose ex- 

 pansion causes the spongy light- 

 ness of bread. 



The innermost core of the endo- 

 sperm yields fine, white, weak, 

 starch flour ; that from the outer 

 kernel is strong, granular, and glu- 

 tinous. Outside this come the 

 middlings, comprising fine sharps 

 or seconds, and coarse sharps or 

 thirds. The outer envelopes yield 

 fine, coarse, and long brans. 

 Flour is graded into patents, 50-70 

 p.c. ; supers, 20-30 p.c. ; bakers, 

 from the lower grades, sometimes 

 bleached ; and households, the 

 lowest of all. When all grades are 

 mixed together straight-run flour 

 results. Roller-milling produces 

 about 70 p.c. of stock flour; when 

 10 p.c. of sharps is added the pro- 

 duct is 80 p.c. or standard flour. 

 Besides its use in bread-making, 

 wheat flour is also made into 



semolina, macaroni, and vermicelli. 

 It is a thickening agent in textile 

 printing, and the base of some 

 violet powders. 



The imports of meal and flour 

 into the United Kingdom in the 

 year ended August 31, 1915, 

 amounted to 3,529,573 qrs., be- 

 sides 22,483,587 qrs. of wheat. 

 Out of its 1917-18 crop Canada 

 exported to the Allies, besides 

 unmilled wheat, 10,000,000 barrels 

 of flour. See Bread ; Wheat ; con- 

 sult also Processes of Flour Manu- 

 facture, P. A. Amos, 1912. 



Flourens, GUSTAVE (1838-71). 

 French politician. The son of the 

 physiologist, Marie J. P. Flourens 

 (1794-1867), known as the asso- 

 ciate of Cuvier, he was born in 

 Paris, Aug. 4, 1838. He began life 

 as a lecturer and writer, but was 

 soon associating with revolution- 

 aries in Italy and elsewhere. In 

 Feb., 1870, he headed a futile rising 

 against Napoleon III, and after the 

 abdication of the emperor he was 

 one of the leaders of the commune. 

 He was killed during the fighting, 

 April 3, 1871. 



Flour Mill. Building equipped 

 for grinding grain, especially wheat, 

 into flour. The application of 

 steam-power to millstone grinding 

 in 1784 led, not only to improved 

 methods of direct reduction, but 

 also to the invention of systems for 

 gradual reduction by means of rolls. 

 Millstones are still used for whole 

 wheatmeal, oatmeal, and other 

 grains and pulses. The stones 

 French burrs, Derbyshire peaks, 

 or composition disks are usually 

 1 ft. thick and 4 ft. or 4 ft.- in 

 diam., scored with straight furrows 

 tapering to J in. in depth. The 

 upper stones rotate at a maximum 

 of 150 r.p.m. 



Although small hand- turned 

 roller-mills were produced casually 

 from the 16th century onwards, it 

 was not until 1837 that Sulzberger, 

 A Swiss engineer, founded the 

 modern iron-roller system. Porce- 

 lain rolls, introduced in 1870, and 

 popular for a time, are still pre- 

 ferred here and there. Roller mills 

 were erected in Glasgow in 1872, 

 and in Dublin in 1878. For some 

 years stones and rolls were em- 

 ployed in the same mills. But after 

 1881, when an exhibition was held 

 in Islington, British millers rapidly 

 adopted the roller system, which 

 to-day deals with all but a minute 

 fraction of the merchant flour- 

 milling of the world. Duiing the 

 Great War a large Chinese roller- 

 mill was erected at Wusih, near 

 Soochow. 



Roller-mills are equipped with 

 silos or granaries, containing capa- 

 cious storage bins. These origin- 

 ated in N. America, where they are 



