FOCHABERS 



French and British, and the immin- 

 ence of the danger brought every- 

 one round to the principle of unity 

 of command. 



A momentous inter-Allied con- 

 ference took place at Doullens on 

 March 26, as the result of which 

 Foch became " Generalissimo of 

 the French, British, American, and 

 Belgian forces fighting upon the 

 western front." After checking 

 the final German offensive opened 

 between Reims and Soissons on 

 July 15, Foch on July 18 launched 

 his decisive counter-offensive on 

 the Marne, the result of which was 

 seen when on Oct. 28 the German 

 message agreeing to an armistice on 

 the basis of President Wilson's 

 Peace note came, and on Nov. 11 

 the armistice was signed. General 

 Foch, who was elected marshal of 

 France on Aug. 6, showed his great 

 qualities in the peace as in the war. 

 He was the chief cause of the 

 acceptance of the German offer, 

 and largely framed the preliminary 

 terms of peace. He had indeed 

 " deserved well of his country," as 

 the deputies unanimously voted on 

 Nov. 11, 1918. 



But he had yet much to do : the 

 organization of the advance to the 

 Rhine and the bridgeheads, re- 

 peated conferences at Spa and 

 Treves with the Germans and 

 Allied leaders. In every act of a 

 continuously strained situation his 

 opinion was the master opinion. 



Throughout all this strain 

 Marshal Foch, in spite of illness, 

 and even when his son was killed, 

 lost none of his calm, and at every 

 juncture gave those who met him 

 the sense of a man who possessed 

 in himself an inexhaustible re- 

 serve of quiet confidence, founded 

 on force of will and clearness of 

 intellect in effective combination. 

 See Marshal Ferdinand Foch, A. 

 H. Atteridge, 1919; Foch, His 

 Character and his Leadership, 

 Raymond Recouly, 1920. 



Fochabers. Village and tourist 

 resort of Elginshire, Scotland. It 

 stands on the Spey, 8 m. S.E. of 

 Elgin, and is the trading centre for 

 the surrounding district. Near is 

 the duke of Richmond's seat, 

 Gordon Castle. Pop. 972. 



Focsani,FocsHANiOB FOKSHANI. 

 Town of Moldavia, Rumania. It is 

 90 m. N.E. of Bukarest, about 4 m. 

 from the river Sereth, and was in 

 normal times a prosperous agricul- 

 tural centre, with a considerable 

 grain trade. Fortified, it formed 

 a bridgehead on the Sereth line 

 during the Great War ; it was the 

 scene of very bitter fighting in the 

 first week of Jan., 1917, falling on 

 Jan. 8 to the Germans. Pop. 25,000. 

 See Rumania, Conquest of ; Sereth, 

 Battles of the. 



3223 



Focus (Lat., hearth). Primarily 

 the point at which converging lines 

 or rays meet, but usually any 

 point through which rays of light, 

 heat, etc., or lines pass. 



In mathematics a focus is a point 

 from which, if lines are drawn to 

 any points on a curve, the lengths 

 of these lines are connected by some 

 law, e.g. in a parabola any point 

 on the curve is equidistant from the 

 focus and a fixed straight line. 



Focus. In the diagram C A B is 

 part of a spherical mirror whose 

 centre is 0. A ray of light from U 

 strikes the mirror at P, and is 

 reflected along P V. The angle 

 U P is equal to P V 



In optics, sound, heat, etc., 

 where rays or waves are considered, 

 the focus is the point to which the 

 rays are brought after reflection 

 from a curved surface or after re- 

 fraction through a lens. See Conic 

 Sections ; Concave Mirror and Lens ; 

 Convex Mirror and Lens ; Lens. 



Fodder. Name applied to the 

 bulky part of the food of stock. It 

 may be either green and succulent, 

 or dry, like hay or straw. The first 

 of the four chambers of the stomach 

 of cud-chewing animals, such as the 

 ox, sheep, and goat, is very large, 

 and digestion cannot go on properly 

 unless it is well filled. Fodder is, of 

 course, more or less nutritious, but 

 it is rendered bulky by the presence 

 of a large amount of fibre, only a 

 small part of which can be digested. 

 Fodder thus contrasts strongly 

 with grain and artificials, such as 

 the different kinds of cake, which 

 contain nutriment in a highly con- 

 centrated form. 



Foetus (Lat., offspring). Bio- 

 logical term meaning the young of 

 an animal, usually with reference 

 to a visible embryo either in an egg 

 or within the womb. The term is 

 applied to that stage of the develop- 

 ment of the embryo after its various 

 parts can be distinctly distinguished 

 up to the period of birth. See 

 Embryology. 



Fog. Clouds either close to or in 

 contact with the ground. The con- 

 ditions for the formation of clouds 

 are the presence of dust and water 

 vapour in the atmosphere, and the 

 falling of the temperature of the 

 air below dew point, i.e. that tem- 

 perature at which the atmosphere 

 is incapable of holding its invisible 

 water vapour without condensa- 

 tion. If these conditions are ful- 

 filled, each particle of dust receives 

 a thin coating of water. In the 



FOG 



country, fog is usually white, but in 

 large towns and cities it is some- 

 times dense and black. 



Extensive fogs are also produced 

 where currents of air of different 

 temperatures come in contact with 

 each other. Thus, off Newfound- 

 land, the warm air from over the 

 Gulf Stream Drift meets the air 

 chilled by the cold Labrador cur- 

 rent, and the region is probably the 

 foggiest in the world. Valley 

 bottoms and low -lying meadows 

 frequently experience light fogs 

 or mists due to the chilling of the 

 lower atmosphere during the night, 

 but such fogs are usually dispersed 

 by the morning sunshine, except in 

 winter, when the sun's rays may be 

 of insufficient strength. Extensive 

 fogs are prevalent over lowlands 

 during spells of cold but quiet 

 weather. See Cloud. 



FOG SIGNALS. Warning or infor- 

 mation given by various contri- 

 vances, usually for producing 

 sound, when visual signals are ob- 

 scured by atmospheric conditions. 



On the roads horsed vehicles 

 sometimes use bells, motor vehicles 

 their normal horn equipment. On 

 railways detonators clamped to the 

 rails and exploded by the ap- 

 proaching engine warn its driver 

 of danger. Fogmen exhibit red 

 flags or lamps, subsequently noti- 

 fying the all-right position by 

 changingtogreen. Various mechani- 

 cal and electrical devices for com- 

 municating these signals from signal- 

 box to driver have been proposed. 



On the sea, in fog, mist, snow, or 

 heavy rainstorm, board of trade 

 regulations require vessels at an- 

 chor to ring bells, steamships under 

 way to sound whistles or sirens, 

 sailing vessels foghorns, fishing 

 craft bells and horns alternately, 

 all according to a prescribed code. 



The prototype of modern coast- 

 siguals was the medieval bell, as on 

 the Inchcape Rock (q.v.). Bell- 

 buoys are numerous in Great 

 Britain, whistling buoys in the 

 U.S.A. In pierhead and break- 

 water bells the clappers are oper- 

 ated by clockwork, sometimes 

 motor-driven. Two-ton bells, with 

 a 14-m. range, have been used. 

 Some ports and harbours have 

 reed -horns, some light houses Mait- 

 land bell-mouth guns. Guncotton 

 rockets, introduced in 1878, are 

 now superseded, especially on rock 

 stations such as Eddystone, by 

 explosive signals, usually tonite 

 cartridges on iron jibs, 'detonated 

 electrically at fixed intervals. 

 Unattended acetylene fog-guns in 

 the Clyde are switched on by wire- 

 less energy transmitted from aerials 

 on Gourock pier. Steam or air 

 whistles, general in N. America, are 

 sometimes fitted with megaphones. 



