ral Elliott's defence of Gibraltar, creates an enthusiasm that makes each man a hero! It is in such places, and in such exigencies, that the man of genius may render himself conspicuous, and his name immortal! The planning of defences in opposition to approaches, both numerous and stupendous in their construction, and the contrivance of interior safety, as well as the means of protracting, and of annihilating the efforts of a numerous besieging army, composed of the flower of two nations, while they upheld the brave defenders of Gibraltar to the admiration of the world, and endeared them to their country, afford the best example as to the duties of those who are entrusted with the defence of fortified places, and should encourage to the formation of work after work in the interior, to prolong the doubtful contest, and to hold out to the very last moment.

Fortification under such circumstances is certainly a most important science; and, when duly executed, often gives a turn to the balance of war, and produces the most extraordinary reverses. Record furnishes various instances of comparative handfuls of men, having, by the aid of field-works, such as a line of redans or fleches, supported by redoubts, within musquet-shot of each other; or of swallow-tails, that is, irregularly indented lines, and various other defences made in favourable positions; such as rising grounds, or between two deep rivers, or around a town, or among heavy woods, so completely foiled all the attempts of large armies, as to cause their retreat, and ultimately their route or dispersion. Field-works are generally slight, being intended only for temporary defence; they sometimes answer well for the protection of convoys, and are always most formidable when flanked by posts made in churches, mills, old castles, and a variety of such edifices. When the ground is uneven, the line should run so as to occupy the most. commanding spots; at which the artillery should be principally stationed.

Field fortification is full of variety; for it is perhaps scarcely possible to point out any two stations taken by any army in the course of many and active campaigns, that would suit the same form of defence. Hence the superior ability of an engineer becomes conspicuous. An inferior army is obliged to intrench on the strongest ground it can command, so as to check a superior, and conquering enemy, advancing rapidly to its attack. No time is left for deep re

search, for consultation, for substitution, or for the correction of errors: the thing must be done off hand! When such is the case, the engineer must first observe the weak points, and effectually secure them. He must then take every advantage of the strong parts; and, connecting the two, so that the former shall be supported by the latter, form such a powerful range of opposition, as may at once appal the eager assailants. The knowledge of component parts, of fit proportions, and of a thousand technical requisites, are attainable by most persons of common intellect; but many possess a great depth of learning in these particulars, who nevertheless are wanting in the indispensable qualities of quick perception, and of ready and appropriate decision.

FORTIFIED, an appellation given to places defended by ramparts, bastions, ditches, covert-ways, half-moons, ravelines, tenailles, and other out-works. See the preceding article.

FOSS, in fortification, a hollow place, commonly full of water, lying between the scarp and counterscarp, below the rampart; and turning round a fortified place, or a post that is to be defended.

Foss way, one of the four principal highways of England, that anciently led through the kingdom; supposed to be made by the Romans, having a ditch upon one side thereof.

FOSSA, in our ancient customs, was used to signify a ditch full of water, wherein women, convicted of felony, were drowned. See FURCA.

FOSSIL, in natural history, denotes, in general, every thing dug out of the earth, whether they be natives thereof, as metals, stones, salts, earths, and other minerals; or extraneous, reposited in the bowels of the earth by some extraordinary means, as earthquakes, the deluge, &c. See MINERALOGY.

FOTHERGILLA, in botany, so called in memory of John Fothergill, M. D. a genus of the Polyandria Digynia class and order. Natural order of Amentaceæ, JusEssential character: calyx ament, ovate; scales one-flowered; corolla calyxform, one-petalled, five-cleft. There is but one species.

sieu.

FOTHERING, in naval affairs, a peculiar method of endeavouring to stop a leak in the bottom of a ship, while she is afloat, either at sea or at anchor, which is performed by fastening a sail at the four corners, letting it down under the ship's bottom,

and then putting a quantity of chopped rope-yarns, oakum, wool, &c. between it and the ship's side; by repeating the latter part of this operation several times the leak generally sucks in a portion of the loose stuff, and thereby becomes, in part, or altogether, stopped.

FOUL, or FOULE, in the sea language, is used when a ship has been long untrimmed, so that the grass-weeds, or barnacles grow to her sides under water. A rope is also foul when it is either tangled in itself or hindered by another, so that it cannot run or be over-hawled.

FOUL, imports also the running of one ship against another. This happens sometimes by the violence of the wind, and sometimes by the carelessness of the people on board, to ships in the same convoy, and to ships in port by means of others coming in. The damages occasioned by running foul are of the nature of those in which both parties must bear a part. They are usually made half to fall upon the sufferer, and half upon the vessel which did the injury: but in cases where it is evidently the fault of the master of the vessel, he alone is to bear the damage.

FOUL water. A ship is said to make foul water when being under sail, she comes into such shoal water, that though her keel does not touch the ground, yet it comes so near it that the motion of the water under her raises the mud from the bottom.

FOUNDATION, in architecture, is that part of a building which is under ground. See ARCHITECTURE and BUILDING.

FOUNDATION, denotes also a donation or legacy, either in money or lands, for the maintenance and support of some community, hospital, school, lecture, &c.

FOUNDER, in a general sense, the person who lays a foundation, or endows a church, school, religious house, or other charitable institution. The founder of a church may preserve to himself the right of patronage, or presentation to the living.

FOUNDER, also implies an artist who casts metals in various forms, for different uses, as guns, bells, statues, printing characters, candlesticks, buckles, &c. whence they are denominated gun-founders, bellfounders, figure-founders, letter-founders, founders of small works, &c. See FOUN

DERY.

FOUNDER, in the sea language. A ship is said to founder when by an extraordinary leak, or by a great sea breaking in upon her, she is so filled with water that she can

not be freed of it; so that she can neither veer nor steer, but lie like a log; and not being able to swim along will at last sink.

FOUNDERY, or FOUNDRY, the art of casting all sorts of metals into different forms. It likewise signifies the work-house, or smelting-hut, wherein these operations are performed. See IRON FOUNDERY.

FOUNDERY of small-works, or casting in sand. The sand used for, casting smallworks is, at first, of a pretty soft, yellowish, and clammy nature: but it being necessary to strew charcoal dust in the mould, it at length becomes of a quite black colour. This sand is worked over and over, on a board, with a roller and a sort of knife; being placed over a trough to receive it, after it is by these means sufficiently prepared.

This done they take a wooden board, of a length and breadth proportional to the things to be cast, and putting a ledge round it they fill it with sand, a little moistened, to make it duly cohere. Then they take either wood or metal models of what they intend to cast, and apply them so to the mould, and press them into the sand, as to leave their impression there. Along the middle of the mould is laid half a small brass cylinder, as the chief canal for the metal to run through, when melted, into the models, or patterns; and from this chief canal are placed several others which extend to each model or pattern placed in the frame. After this frame is finished they take ont the patterns, by first loosening them all round, that the sand may not give way.

Then they proceed to work the other balf of the mould with the same patterns in just such another frame, only that it has pins, which, entering into holes that correspond to it in the other, make the two cavities of the pattern fall exactly on each other.

The frame thus moulded is carried to the melter, who, after extending the chief canal of the counterpart, and adding the cross canals to the several models in both, and strewing mill dust over them, dries them in a kind of oven for that purpose.

Both parts of the mould being dry, they are joined together by means of the pins; and to prevent their giving way, by reason of the melted metal passing through the chief cylindrical canal, they are screwed or wedged up like a kind of a press.

While the moulds are thus preparing the metal is fusing in a crucible, of a size pro

portionate to the quantity of metal intended to be cast.

Some of these small-work founder's furnaces are like a smith's forge, others stand a few feet under ground, for the more easily and safely taking out a weighty pot of metal; which is done by means of a circular tongs that grasps round the top of the crucible. When the metal is melted the workman pours it through the chief canal of each mould, which conveys it to every distinct pattern.

When the moulds are cool the frames are unscrewed, or unwedged, and the castwork taken out of the sand, which sand is worked over again for other castings.

FOUNDERY of statues. The casting of statues depends on the due preparation of the pit, the core, the wax, the outer mould, the inferior furnace to melt off the wax, and the upper to fuse the metal. The pit is a hole dug in a dry place something deeper than the intended figure, and made according to the prominence of certain parts thereof. The inside of the pit is commonly lined with stone, or brick; or, when the figure is very large, they sometimes work on the ground, and raise a proper fence to resist the impulsion of the melted metal.

The inner mould, or core, is a rude mass, to which is given the intended attitude and contours. It is raised on an iron-grate, strong enough to sustain it, and is strengthened within by several bars of iron. It is generally made either of potter's clay, mixed with hair and horse-dung, or of plaster of Paris mixed with brick-dust. The use of the core is to support the wax, the shell, and lessen the weight of the metal. The iron bars and the core are taken out of the brass figure through an aperture left in it for that purpose, which is soldered up afterwards. It is necessary to leave some of the iron bars of the core that contribute to the steadiness of the projecting part within the brass figure.

The wax is a representation of the intended statue. If it be a piece of sculpture, the wax should be all of the sculptor's own hand, who usually forms it on the core; though it may be wrought separately, in cavities, moulded on a model, and afterwards arranged on the ribs of iron over the grate; filling the vacant space in the middle with liquid plaster and brick-dust, whereby the inner core is proportioned as the sculptor carries on the wax.

When the wax, which is the intended VOL. III.

thickness of the metal, is finished, they fill small waxen tubes perpendicular to it from top to bottom, to serve both as canals for the conveyance of the metal to all parts of the work, and as vent-holes to give passage to the air, which would otherwise occasion great disorder when the hot metal came to encompass it.

The work being brought thus far must be covered with its shell, which is a kind of crust laid over the wax, and which being of a soft matter easily receives the impression of every part, which is afterwards communicated to the metal upon its taking the place of the wax, between the shell and the mould. The matter of this outer mould is varied according as different layers are applied. The first is generally a composition of clay and old white crucibles well ground and sifted, and mixed up with water to the consistence of a colour fit for painting: accordingly they apply it with a pencil, laying it seven or eight times over, and letting it dry between whiles. For the second impression they add horse-dung and natural earth to the former composition. The third impression is only horse-dung and earth. Lastly, the shell is finished by laying on several more impressions of this last matter, made very thick with the hand.

The shell thus finished is secured by several iron girts bound round it, at about half a foot distance from each other, and fastened at the bottom to the grate under the statue, and at top to a circle of iron where they all terminate.

If the statue be so big that it would not be easy to move the moulds with safety, they must be wrought on the spot where it is to be cast. This is performed two ways: in the first a square hole is dug under ground, much bigger than the mould to be made therein, and its inside lined with walls of free-stone or brick. At the bottom is made a hole of the same materials with a kind of furnace, having its aperture outwards in this is a fire made to dry the mould, and afterwards melt the wax. Over this furnace is placed the grate, and upon this the mould, &c. formed as above. Lastly, at one of the edges of the square pit is made another large furnace to melt the metal. In the other way it is sufficient to work the mould above ground, but with. the like precaution of a furnace and grate underneath. When finished, four walls are to be run around it, and by the side thereof a massive made for a melting furnace. For the rest, the method is the same in

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