FORMATION 



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FORMOSA 



Forme. 



Four pages of type locked up in a chase, 

 making a forme ready for printing 



Richard Nicolas, in Overbury's 

 Vision, 1616, thus refers to him : 



Forman was that (lend in human shape 

 That by his art did act the devil's ape. 



His philtres are alluded to in 

 Jonson's Epicoene (iv, 1), and his 

 career suggested much in Jonson's 

 play, The Alchemist. He died 

 Sept. 11, 1611, and was buried in 

 S. Mary's Church, Lambeth. His 

 MSS., which came into the pos- 

 session of Elias Ashmole, included 

 a diary, 1564-1602, publ. 1849; 

 Notes on Chemistry, Astrology, 

 Alchemy, and Geomancy ; and a 

 Booke of Plaies. 



Formation. In geology, an old 

 term used to denote a group of 

 strata or rock-beds. They are dis- 

 tinguished by common lithological 

 characters, such as the Upper 

 Greensand formation (sandstone) 

 and Gault ( clay ). Modern divisions 

 of stratified rocks are based on 

 fossils enclosed, which often prove 

 strata of different lithological as- 

 pect to be of same age. For these 

 divisions " stage " names are ap- 

 plied, e.g. Selbornian stage, which 

 includes both Upper Greensand 

 and Gault formations. 



Formby. Urban district, mar- 

 ket town, and watering-place of 

 Lancashire. It is 7 m. S.W. of 

 Southport, and has a station on the 

 L. & Y.R. It is really a residential 

 suburb of Liverpool. Near are the 

 Altcar Flats, on which the Water- 

 loo Cup is decided. Pop. 5,950. 



Forme. In printing, a page or 

 number of pages of type, or stereo- 

 plates, arranged or "imposed" for 

 printing and secured or " locked 



up" in a metal 

 frame called a 

 chase. See 

 Printing. 



Formentera. 

 One of the Bale- 

 aric Islands, in 

 the W. Mediter- 

 ranean Sea, be- 

 longing to Spain, 

 ft is the smallest 

 and most south- 

 erly of the group, 

 and lies 7 m. S. 

 of Iviza. Area 37 

 sq. m. Fishing 

 and salt -working 

 are engaged in . 

 I 'op. 2,600. 



Formia. Town 

 of Italy, in the 

 prov. of Caserta, 

 until recently 

 called Mola di 

 Gaeta. Situated 

 on the N. side of 

 the Gulf of Gaeta, 

 48 m. by rly. 

 W.N.W. of Caser- 

 ta, it is a seaside 

 resort. AVolscian 

 town, known as Formiae, it stood 

 on the Appian Way and was a 

 residential district for wealthy 

 Romans, remains of whose villas 

 stud the coast. Here Cicero lived, 

 and met his death, near his villa, 

 Dec. 7, 43 B.C. The town has a little 

 trade in olive oil and earthenware, 

 and the surrounding districts yield 

 an abundance of fruit. Pop. 8,734. 

 Formic Acid (Lat. formica, 

 ant). The lowest in the important 

 series of fatty acids. Its chemical 

 formula is CH 2 O 2 . It was first ob- 

 tained by John Ray in 1670 by 

 distilling red ants with water, his 

 observations being printed in the 

 Philosophical Transactions of 

 that year. Formic acid occurs in 

 other animal and vegetable sub- 

 stances, but is now made by: (1) 

 heating to 60 C. in a retort a mix- 

 ture of sugar, water, manganese 

 peroxide, and sul- 

 phuric acid; (2) f 

 by heating equal 

 parts of a n- 

 hydrous glycerine 

 with oxalic acid 

 and distilling the 

 product. The 

 liquid acid is 

 colourless, and 

 hd,s a pungent, 

 sour taste and 

 odour. 



Formicivora 

 (Lat. formica, 

 ant ; vorare, to 

 devour). Genus 

 o f passerif orm 

 birds of the 

 family Fonni- 



cariidae Ant-birds natives of 

 South and Central America. They 

 have long, compressed and hooked 

 beaks; the foot (metatarsus) is short 

 and thick, and the outer and middle 

 toes are joined towards their base. 



Formidable. British battle- 

 ship, the first of her class sunk by 

 a submarine in the Great War. She 

 was launched at Portsmouth in 

 1898 and completed in 1901, her 

 principal characteristics being : 

 length 400 ft., beam 75 ft., dis- 

 placement 15,000 tons, speed 18 

 knots, with an armament of four 

 12-in., twelve 6-in., and 18 12- 

 pounder guns. She was torpedoed 

 in the English Channel on Jan. 1, 

 1915. About 600 lives were lost, 

 and 71 officers and men were saved. 



Formigny , BATTLE OF. Fought 

 between the English and the 

 French, Apl. 15, 1450. To strengthen 

 the English eause in France a 

 force under Sir Thomas Kyriel was 

 sent to Cherbourg. About 2,500 

 strong, it was joined in Normandy 

 by another 1,000 men, and this 

 army, having taken Valognes, 

 moved to Formigny, not far from 

 Bayeux. There it was met by a 

 French force, and the English were 

 routed. 



Form Letter. Letter of which 

 many copies are made, generally 

 used for advertising purposes. 

 Frequently they are printed so as to 

 resemble a typewritten letter, the 

 name and address being inserted 

 afterwards, as far as possible in the 

 same type and ink as the form 

 letter. See Advertising ; Mail Order. 



Formocyanine. Name given to 

 a British dye discovered in 1916. 

 Researches were carried out by the 

 university of Leeds, and two dyes, 

 formocyanine and tolucyanine, 

 were prepared, both of which are 

 used in colour printing. See Colour 

 Printing ; Dyes. 



Formosa. Island in the W. 

 Pacific Ocean. It is "the beauti- 

 ful island" of the Portuguese far- 

 eastern navigators of the 16th 



H.M.S. Formidable. The last photograph of the vessel. 

 taken during the naval review, July 20, 1914 



Vribb, Southsea 



