Fan-tail, a variety of the domestic pigeon, so called from the fan-like shape of their tails. Also a name applied to certain birds (species of Rhipidura) of the fly-catcher family, native to India, Australia, and New Zealand.
Fantees´, a people of West Africa inhabiting the coast district of the Gold Coast Colony, between the Ashantis and the sea. They were at one time the most numerous and powerful people situated immediately on the Gold Coast seaboard; but their power was almost entirely broken after 1811 by repeated invasions of the Ashantis, and they have since lived under British protection. The soil is fertile, producing fruits, maize, and palm-wine.
Fan-tracery, in architecture, elaborate geometrical curved work, which spreads over the surface of a vaulting, rising from a corbel and diverging like the folds of a fan. Fan-tracery vaulting is much used in the Perpendicular style, in which the vault is covered by ribs and veins of tracery, of which all the principal lines diverge from a point, as in Henry VII's chapel, Westminster Abbey.
Farad, the practical unit of capacity for electricity, in the electromagnetic system of units. The capacity of a conductor or condenser whose potential is raised by one volt when given a charge of one coulomb. This unit is too large for most purposes, and capacities are usually expressed in microfarads (q.v.).
Far´aday, Michael, one of the greatest of English chemists and physicists, was born in humble circumstances at Newington Butts, near London, 22nd Sept., 1791, died 25th Aug., 1867. Early in life he was apprenticed to a bookbinder in London, but occupied himself in his leisure hours with electrical and other scientific experiments. Having been taken by a friend to Sir Humphry Davy's lectures, he attended the course, and became so interested that he decided to abandon his trade. With this end he sent his notes of the lectures to Sir Humphry Davy, who was so struck with the great ability they showed that he appointed him his assistant at the Royal Institution. In 1829 he became lecturer at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and in 1833 he was appointed to the newly established chair of chemistry at the Royal Institution. It was while in this office that he made most of his great electrical discoveries. His communications to the Philosophical Transactions were published separately in three volumes (1839, 1844, 1855). In 1832 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from Oxford, and was made an honorary member of the Academy at Berlin. In 1835 he received a pension of £300 a year from Lord Melbourne. As an experimentalist Faraday was considered the very first of his time. As a popular lecturer he was equally distinguished, and used to draw crowds to the Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution. Amongst his published works we may mention the following: Researches in Electricity (1831-55), Lectures on Non-metallic Elements (1853), Lectures on the Forces of Matter (1860), Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle (1861).—Bibliography: J. Tyndall, Faraday as a Discoverer; S. P. Thompson, Michael Faraday: his Life and Work.
Faradization, or Faradism, the medical application of the induced currents which Faraday discovered in 1831.
Farallo´nes, a group of small islands in the Pacific, about 30 miles from the entrance to the Bay of San Francisco.
Faran´dola, an exciting dance popular amongst the peasants of the south of France and the neighbouring part of Italy. The men and women, placed alternately and facing
different ways, form a long line winding out and in with a waving motion.