FAMILY 



2135 



FARCE 



FAMILY. See CLASSIFICATION, subhead 

 Family. 



FAMINE, jam' in, a great scarcity of food 

 which causes suffering and death among many 

 inhabitants in a country. The chief causes are 

 destructive floods or the lack of rain, devas- 

 tating wars, and injurious insects such as the 

 locusts which travel in such swarms that they 

 may ruin crops wherever they go. In early 

 history famines were more common than they 

 are to-day, for transportation and lines of 

 communication were not developed, so when 

 crops failed people could not quickly obtain 

 supplies from more favored districts. 



The worst famines in history have been in 

 India and China. English rule has helped 

 India, for the government has set aside an 

 amount of money annually to be used, if 

 .needed. In China a great famine occurred in 

 1877, in which over 9,000,000 people perished; 

 in 1902 there was another, which killed over 

 1,000,000. In India several have occurred; 

 one visited the country in 1837, when 800,000 

 perished; another, in 1865, when over 1,000,000 

 died; and yet another, in 1900, in which about 

 the same number starved to death. During 

 the War of the Nations, Belgium, Serbia and 

 Poland were on the verge of famine before 

 supplies reached them from benevolent neutral 

 countries, but relief was sent in time to save 

 many thousands of the unfortunates. 



FANDANGO, fan dang 'go, one of the three 

 modern national dances of Spain, the other 

 two being the bolero and the seguidella. These 

 first came into prominence in the sixteenth 

 century. The fandango is danced by two 

 people in 6-8 time, beginning slowly and grad- 

 ually increasing in speed, until they end in a 

 whirl. Marked by the snapping of fingers, 

 stamping of feet and the clicking of castanets, 

 which are held in the hands of the performers, 

 the dance is lively and full of exultation. A 

 feature of the fandango is a sudden pause 

 of the music towards the end of each measure, 

 upon which the dancers stop in a rigid pose 

 until it starts again. 



FANEUIL HALL, jan"l, an historic building 

 in Boston, popularly called "the Cradle of 

 Liberty." For description and illustration, see 

 BOSTON. 



FARAD, fair 'ad, the unit of capacity in 

 electricity, named for the great scientist, Mi- 

 chael Faraday. By. reference to the article 

 LEYDEN JAR, it will be seen that a charged 

 condenser has a potential power. If one cou- 

 lomb of electricity gives a condenser a poten- 



tial force of one volt, the capacity of the 

 condenser is one farad. See ELECTRICITY. 



FARADAY, fair'aday, MICHAEL (1791-1867), 

 an English chemist and physicist, one of the 

 world's greatest electricians. The taming of 

 electricity to act as man's servant, more pow- 

 erful than Aladdin's slave of the lamp, was in 

 large part his 

 work. 



Faraday was 

 born at Newing- 

 ton Butts, near 

 London, of a 

 poor family. 

 After little 

 schooling he was 

 apprenticed to a 

 bookbinder, but 

 he had very 



definite a m b i - MICHAEL, FARADAY 

 tions and spent * n middle life, 



his leisure time reading scientific works and 

 making experiments in electricity, with an old 

 bottle for a battery. The great name in 

 science in the England of that day was Sir 

 Humphry Davy (which see), and in 1812 

 Faraday had the joy of hearing the distin- 

 guished chemist lecture. His notes on the 

 lectures so aroused the interest of Davy, to 

 whom they were submitted, that he made 

 young Faraday his assistant at the Royal In- 

 stitution. For fifty-four years Faraday was 

 connected with that scientific body, winning 

 constantly greater honors and higher rank. 



He made a number of important discoveries 

 in chemistry, his reduction of certain gases to 

 liquid form by pressure being especially note- 

 worthy, but these all sank into insignificance 

 beside his electrical discoveries. Of them the 

 greatest was that of the connection between 

 electricity and magnetism, which had as its 

 practical outcome the production of electric 

 currents by means of a magnet. Because of 

 this discovery the unit for measuring electric 

 current capacity was called a farad. Faraday 

 published numerous works dealing with various 

 phases of science, the most important of which 

 are Experimental Researches in Electricity and 

 Researches in Chemistry and Physics. 



FARCE, a form of dramatic composition in 

 which the author has but one purpose, to pro- 

 voke laughter by means of exaggerated and 

 ludicrous situations. No pretense is made of 

 presenting characters that are true to life, for, 

 in a farce, character is entirely subordinate to 

 plot. Pure comedy often has farcical ele- 



