FOUNDLING HOSPITALS 



227S 



FOUNTAIN 



Two years after his appointment (1855) as 

 physical assistant in the Paris observatory, he 

 invented the polarizing prism which bears his 

 name, and later he completed a reflector for 

 the great telescope at Paris. He also is cred- 

 ited with the invention of the gyroscope and 

 an apparatus for the better application of elec- 

 tric light, and he made many important dis- 

 coveries in optics and photography. He was 

 the first to discover that the sun may be 

 viewed without injury to the eyesight if the 

 object glass of a large telescope be covered 

 with a thin film of silver. See GYROSCOPE. 



FOUNDLING HOS'PITALS, institutions for 

 children who are abandoned by their parents 

 because of poverty, or because they do not 

 wish to keep them. They are also homes for 

 orphan children. In America, foundling hos- 

 pitals are found in most of the larger cities, 

 although in Massachusetts they have been 

 abolished by law. Such institutions have to 

 be protected by strict laws in regard to the 

 admission of children, or they would be im- 

 posed upon by people guilty of illegal prac- 

 tices. In the main, the law is concerned with 

 the abuse which may attend such hospitals, in 

 connection with illegitimacy, and with the care 

 given to helpless infants confided to them. 



The death rate among the children at these 

 places is seventy-five per cent, so the better 

 institutions try to have the mother stay and 

 nurse her child, unless they can persuade her 

 not to abandon it. The New York Foundling 

 Asylum has adopted the plan of placing as 

 many children as possible in private homes 

 for board. Those receiving such children must 

 care for them according to the rules of the 

 institution. 



FOUND 'RY, a place where metal castings 

 are made. The Latin word jondere means to 

 pour, and founding is literally a process of 

 pouring molten steel, iron, brass or bronze into 

 molds. The latter are usually of sand, and 

 their design requires great skill. In hand mold- 

 ing a box called a flask is filled with sand, into 

 which is then pressed a pattern of wood or 

 metal the exact shape of the article to be 

 manufactured, but slightly larger because the 

 metal will contract in cooling. The sand is 

 then packed tightly, and the pattern must 

 taper toward the bottom or it will be impos- 

 sible to withdraw it without spoiling the mold 

 which has been formed. For patterns of ir- 

 regular form molds are made in two or more 

 parts. For a hollow casting a core of hardened 

 sand is suspended within the mold. If any of 



the sand falls into the casting a sand-hole may 

 result, perhaps rendering it useless. 



The principles of machine molding are es- 

 sentially the same as of hand molding, but 

 the sand is packed and the patterns applied 

 by machinery, with resulting increase in ac- 

 curacy and speed for some varieties of work. 

 For further information relating to cast iron 

 and cast steel, see IRON. 



FOUNTAIN, foun'tin. According to mythol- 

 ogy, in the ages long ago the beautiful wood- 

 nymph, Arethusa, who loved to go hunting, 

 returned one day heated from the chase and 

 went to bathe in the river. A voice from the 



A NATURAL FOUNTAIN 



Except for the opposing forces of atmospheric 

 pressure and the attraction of gravitation, a foun- 

 tain will rise as high as its source. 



depths of the stream startled her, and she fled, 

 but the voice followed, saying, "Why flyest 

 thou, Arethusa? Alpheus am I, the god of 

 this stream." Faster and faster she ran, but 

 the god pursued her, so Diana changed her 

 into a lovely fountain to save her. This 

 ancient myth shows how the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans associated the gods with any unusual 

 thing in nature, such as the natural fountain 

 which shoots a stream of water from the 

 ground and drops it into a basin formed around 

 it. Just such a fountain is that of Vaucluse, 

 in Southern France, where from 117,000 to 

 350,000 gallons of water shoot every minute 

 into a circular pool surrounded by lofty cliffs. 

 From there the water flows off through a ravine 

 to form twenty brooks. 



The operation of a fountain is based on the 

 following principles: The flow of the fountain 

 is caused by the pressure of the water in the 

 pipe or crevice connecting the opening, through 

 which the jet flows, with the reservoir. The 

 higher the reservoir is above this opening, the 

 higher will be the flow of the jet, on the 

 principle that a jet of water will extend up- 

 ward to the level of its source. This, how- 

 ever, will not hold true in practice because of 

 friction, which keeps the jet a little lower than 

 the source. 



Many beautiful artificial fountains have been 



