FOR 



FOR 



These feet are commonly reckoned twen- 

 ty-eight, of which some are simple, as 

 consisting of two or three syllables, and 

 therefore called disyllabic or trisyllabic 

 feet : others are compound, consisting of 

 four syllables, and are therefore called 

 tetrasyllable feet. 



FOOT is also a long measure, consisting 

 of twelve inches. Geometricians divide 

 the foot into ten digits, and the digit into 

 ten lines. See DIGIT and LINK. 



FOOT square, is the same measure both 

 in breadth and length, containing 144 

 square or superficial inches. 



FOOT cubic, or solid, is the same mea- 

 sure in all the three dimensions, length, 

 breadth, and depth or thickness, contain- 

 ing 1728 cubic inches. The foot is of dif- 

 ferent lengths indifferent countries. The 

 Paris royal foot exceeds the English by 

 nine lines ; the ancient Roman foot of the 

 Capitol consisted of four palms, equal to 

 11_7_ inches English; Rhineland or Ley- 

 den foot, by which the northern nations 

 go, is to the Roman foot, as 950 to 1UUO. 

 See MEASURE. 



FOOT geld, or Faut-geld, in our old cus- 

 toms, an amercement laid upon those who 

 live within the bounds of a forest, for not 

 lawing or cutting out the ball of their 

 dog's feet. To be free of a foot-geld, 

 was a privilege to keep dogs, unlawed, 

 within the bounds of a forest. 



FOOT level, among artificers, an instru- 

 ment that serves as a foot-rule, a square, 

 and a level. See LKVEL. 



FORAGE, in military affairs, implies 

 hay, straw, and oats, for the subsistence 

 of the army horses. It is divided into ra- 

 tions, of which one is a day's allowance 

 for ahorse, and contains 20 Ib.of hay, 10 Ib. 

 of oats, and 5 Ib. of straw. When cavalry is 

 stationed in barracks in Great Britain, the 

 number of rations of forage is, to field- 

 officers four, supposing them to have four 

 effective horses ; to captains three ; to 

 staff-officers two ; to quarter-masters, 

 non-commissioned officers, and privates, 

 each one. On foreign service, this article 

 is governed by circumstances. 



FORAMEN, in anatomy, a name giv- 

 en to several apertures, or perforations, 

 in divers parts of the body ; as, the 

 foramen lachrymale, &c. See ANATO- 

 MT. 



FORCE, in mechanics, denotes the 

 cause of the change in the state of a body, 

 when, being at rest, it begins to move, or 

 has a motion which is either not uniform, 

 or not direct. Mechanical forces may be 

 reduced to two sort's, one of a body at 

 rest, the other of a body in motion. *See 



MECHANICS. The force of a body at rest 

 is that which we conceive to be in a body 

 lying still on a table, or hanging by a 

 rope, or supported by a spring, and is 

 called by the names of pressure, vis mor- 

 tua, &c. the measure of this force being 1 

 the weight with which the table is press- 

 ed, or the spring bent. 



The force of a body in motion, called 

 moving force, vis matrix, and vis viva, to 

 distinguish it from the vis mortua, is al- 

 lowed to be a power residing in that body 

 so long as it continues its motion, by 

 means of which it is able to remove ob- 

 stacles lying in its way, to surmount any 

 resistance, as tension, gravity, friction, 

 &c. and which, in whole or in part, conti- 

 nues to accompany it so long as the body 

 moves. 



We have several curious, as well as 

 useful observations, in Desagulier's " Ex- 

 perimental Philosophy," concerning the 

 comparative forces of men and horses, 

 and the best way of applying them. A 

 horse draws with the greatest advantage 

 when the line of direction is level with 

 his breast ; in such a situation, he is 

 able to draw 200 Ib. eight hours a-day, 

 walking about two miles and a half an 

 hour. And if the same horse is made 

 to draw 240 Ib. he can work but six 

 hours a-day, and cannot go quite so fast. 

 On a carriage, indeed, where a friction 

 alone is to be overcome, a middling 

 horse will draw 1000 Ib. But the best 

 way to try a horse's force is, by mak- 

 ing him draw up out of a well, over a 

 single pulley or roller; and, in such a 

 case, one horse with another will draw 

 200 Ib. as already observed. Five men 

 are found to be equal in strength to one 

 horse, and can with as much ease push 

 round the horizontal beam of a. mill, in a 

 walk forty feet wide ; whereas three men 

 will do it in a walk only nineteen feet 

 wide. The worst way of applying the 

 force of a .horse is, to make him carry or 

 draw up hill ; for if the hill be steep, 

 three men will do more than a horse, each 

 man climbing up faster with a burden of 

 100 Ib. weight, than a horse that is loaded 

 with 300 Ib. ; a difference which is owing 

 to the position of the parts of the human 

 body being better adapted to climb than 

 those of a horse. On the other hand, the 

 best way of applying the force of a horse 

 is in a horizontal direction, wherein a man 

 can exert least force ; thus, a man weigh- 

 ing 140 Ib. and drawing a boat along by 

 means of a rope coming over his shoul- 

 ders, cannot draw above 27 Ib. or exert 

 above one-seventh part of the force of a 



