FOCH 



2241 



FOND DU LAC 



the coast of Newfoundland are formed in this 

 way. No fog will appear until the cold air 

 has absorbed as much vapor as it can hold. 

 It forms sometimes suddenly; the hot steam 

 coming out of a kettle shows how rapidly the 

 moisture in warm air is condensed when it 

 reaches much cooler air. In seasons of the 

 year when there is considerable difference in 

 temperature during different hours of the day 

 fogs are most frequent; this is seen in moun- 

 tain valleys, where they are formed by the 

 cooling of the lower air at night but usually 

 disappear in the morning sunshine. The dis- 

 agreeable odor of heavy fog in large cities is 

 due to smoke and the many impure gases 

 which it collects. See CLOUD. 



Fog Signals are warnings issued to vessels 

 by means of sound when, owing to the pres- 

 ence of fog, other signals would be invisible. 

 Many kinds of signals are used, including 

 horns, whistles, bells and guns. By means of 

 these devices, agreed upon at the International 

 Marine Conference held at Washington in 1890, 

 vessels that are completely hidden from sight 

 in the fog may enable other vessels to locate 

 their positions and avoid the risk of collision. 

 Lighthouses are equipped with fog signals for 

 use when the light is obscured. 



The most powerful fog signal is a large 

 steam siren (see SIREN, for illustration). The 

 sound issues from a long iron horn swung on 

 a pivot, which makes it possible to turn it 

 in any required direction. Under favorable 

 conditions the sound of a very large siren may 

 be heard at a distance of thirty miles. Fog 

 signals generally used on railways consist of 

 bombs or torpedoes attached to the rails and 

 exploded by the engine as it passes over them. 



Consult United States Monthly Weather Re- 

 view, January, 1914, for an excellent discussion 

 of the subject. 



FOCH, fawsh, FERDINAND (1851- ), a 

 French marshal who was a distinguished leader 

 from the first days of the War of the Nations 

 (which see). He was conceded to be the great- 

 est military strategist of the allied countries, 

 and in March, 1918, was made generalissimo, or 

 supreme commander, of the British, French, 

 Portuguese, Italian and American forces in 

 France. Until that time there had been no 

 unity of command. 



General Foch was born in the Pyrenees 

 Mountains, near the birthplace of the great 

 Marshal Joffre. He was a lieutenant in the 

 French army at the age of nineteen and saw 

 srvice in the Franco-German War. It was his 

 141 



strategy which helped Joffre to win the Battle 

 of the Marne (which see). Because of his posi- 

 tion in that battle as commander of the army of 

 the North he was called the "Protector of the 

 English Channel." In March, 1918, he was 

 made a marshal of France. From June, under 

 his superb leadership, the result of the war was 

 not in doubt. 



FOLK 'LORE, a fascinating study which con- 

 cerns itself not with learned volumes and the 

 thoughts of scholars, but with the traditions, 

 customs, superstitions, games, songs and pro- 

 verbial sayings of the great mass of common 

 people. In Europe it centers around peasant 

 life. The further back these things date, and 

 the more thoroughly unspoiled they are by 

 any hint of book lore, the more does the folk- 

 lore student revel in them. If he can find in 

 some peasant family a quaint saying, a jingle 

 or a nickname that has been handed down by 

 word of mouth generation after generation, he 

 feels that he has unearthed a treasure as surely 

 as does the archaeological collector who dis- 

 covers a rare specimen. Many of these treas- 

 ures have given infinite pleasure to people 

 who have no thought or knowledge of folk- 

 lore, for the Mother Goose rhymes, the old 

 ballads, Grimm's fairy stories and many of 

 Andersen's, and such famous tales' as Cinder- 

 ella and Red Riding-Hood, were all posses- 

 sions of the people long years before they 

 were collected and put into book form. 



The students of folklore make their discov- 

 eries serve a good purpose. For instance, if 

 there is found to be a close similarity in the 

 myths or traditions of two widely-separated 

 peoples, the student may conclude that either 

 there was communication between them at 

 some time in the past, or similar conditions 

 among them have called forth similar explana- 

 tions or sayings. Sociology, ethnology, his- 

 tory, mythology and comparative religion all 

 profit by the study of folklore, and matters 

 apparently very trivial may serve to indicate 

 principles of considerable value. 



FOND DU LAC, /on doo lak' , Wis., the 

 county seat of Fond du Lac County, situated 

 near the southeastern part of the state, at the 

 southern extremity of Lake Winnebago, at the 

 point where it receives the waters of the Fond 

 du Lac River. Appleton is thirty-seven miles 

 north, Milwaukee is sixty-three miles south- 

 east, and Madison is eighty-nine miles south- 

 west. The Chicago & North Western ; the Chi- 

 cago, Minneapolis & Saint Paul, and the Min- 

 neapolis, Saint Paul & Sault Sainte Marie 



