Part 14

The application of water gas as a fuel mainly depends upon the high temperatures which it is possible to attain by its aid, and these are principally due to the circumstance that it forms a much smaller flame than coal gas, not to speak of Siemens gas, which contains at most 33% of combustible matter against 90% or more in water gas. The latter circumstance also allows the gas to be conducted and distributed in pipes of moderate dimensions. Its application, apart from its use as an illuminant (with which we are not concerned here), was formerly retarded by its high cost in comparison with Siemens gas and other sources of heat, but as this state of affairs has been changed by the modern improvements, its use is rapidly extending, especially for metallurgical purposes.

C. _Mixed Gas (Semi-Water Gas)._--This class is sometimes called Dowson gas, irrespective of its method of production, although it was made and extensively used a long time before J.E. Dowson constructed his apparatus for generating such a gas principally for driving gas-engines. By a combination of the processes for generating Siemens gas and water gas, it is produced by injecting into a gas-producer at the same time a certain quantity of air and a corresponding quantity of steam, the latter never exceeding the amount which can be decomposed by the heat-absorbing reaction, C + H2O = CO + H2, at the expense of the heat generated by the action of the air in the reaction C + O = CO. Such gas used to be frequently obtained in an accidental way by introducing liquid water or steam into an ordinary gas-producer for the purpose of facilitating its working by avoiding an excessive temperature, such as might cause the rapid destruction of the brickwork and the fusion of the ashes of the fuel into troublesome cakes. It was soon found that by proceeding in this way a certain advantage could be gained in regard to the consumption of fuel, as the heat abstracted by the steam from the brickwork and the fuel itself was usefully employed for decomposing water, its energy thus reappearing in the shape of a combustible gas. It is hardly necessary to mention explicitly that the total heat obtained by any such process from a given quantity of carbon (or hydrogen) can in no case exceed that which is generated by direct combustion; some inventors, however, whether inadvertently or intentionally, have actually represented this to be possible, in manifest violation of the law of the conservation of energy.

Roughly speaking, this gas may be said to be produced by the combination of the reactions, described _sub_ A and B, to the joint reaction: 2C + O + H2O = 2CO + H2. The decomposition of H2O (applied in the shape of steam) absorbs 57.6 gram calories, the formation of 2CO produces 59 gram calories; hence there is a small positive excess of 1.4 calories at disposal. This in reality would not be sufficient to cover the loss by radiation, &c.; hence rather more free oxygen (i.e. atmospheric air) must be employed than is represented by the above equation. All this free oxygen is, of course, accompanied by nearly four times its volume of nitrogen.

The mixed gas thus obtained differs very much in composition, but is always much richer in hydrogen (of which it contains sometimes as much as 20%) and poorer in carbon monoxide (sometimes down to 20%) than Siemens gas; generally it contains more of CO2 than the latter. The proportion of nitrogen is always less, about 50%. It is therefore a more concentrated fuel than Siemens gas, and better adapted to the driving of gas-engines. It scarcely costs more to make than ordinary Siemens gas, except where the steam is generated and superheated in special apparatus, as is done in the Dowson producer, which, on the other hand, yields a correspondingly better gas. As is natural, its properties are some way between those of Siemens gas and of water gas; but they approach more nearly the former, both as to costs and as to fuel-value, and also as to the temperatures reached in combustion. This is easily understood if we consider that gas of just the same description can be obtained by mixing one volume of real water gas with the four volumes of Siemens gas made during the blowing-up stage--an operation which is certainly too expensive for practical use.

A modification of this gas is the _Mond gas_, which is made, according to Mond's patent, by means of such an excess of steam that most of the nitrogen of the coke is converted into ammonia (Grouven's reaction). Of course much of this steam passes on undecomposed, and the quantity of the gas is greatly increased by the reaction C + 2H2O = CO2 + 2H2; hence the fuel-value of this gas is less than that of semi-water gas made in other ways. Against this loss must be set the gain of ammonia which is recovered by means of an arrangement of coolers and scrubbers, and, except at very low prices of ammonia, the profit thus made is probably more than sufficient to cover the extra cost. But as the process requires very large and expensive plant, and its profits would vanish in the case of the value of ammonia becoming much lower (a result which would very probably follow if it were somewhat generally introduced), it cannot be expected to supplant the other descriptions of gaseous fuel to more than a limited extent.

Semi-water gas is especially adapted for the purpose of driving gas-engines on the explosive principle (gas-motors). Ordinary producer-gas is too poor for this purpose in respect of heating power; moreover, owing to the prevalence of carbon monoxide, it does not light quickly enough. These defects are sufficiently overcome in semi-water gas by the larger proportion of hydrogen contained in it. For the purpose in question the gas should be purified from tar and ashes, and should also be cooled down before entering the gas-engine. The Dowson apparatus and others are constructed on this principle.

_Air Gas._--By forcing air over or through volatile inflammable liquids a gaseous mixture can be obtained which burns with a bright flame and which can be used for illumination. Its employment for heating purposes is quite exceptional, e.g. in chemical laboratories, and we abstain, therefore, from describing any of the numerous appliances, some of them bearing very fanciful names, which have been devised for its manufacture. (G. L.)

FUENTE OVEJUNA [_Fuenteovejuna_], a town of Spain, in the province of Cordova; near the sources of the river Guadiato, and on the Fuente del Arco-Belmez-Cordova railway. Pop. (1900) 11,777. Fuente Ovejuna is built on a hill, in a well-irrigated district, which, besides producing an abundance of wheat, wine, fruit and honey, also contains argentiferous lead mines and stone quarries. Cattle-breeding is an important local industry, and leather, preserved meat, soap and flour are manufactured. The parish church formerly belonged to the knights of Calatrava (c. 1163-1486).

FUENTERRABIA (formerly sometimes written _Fontarabia_; Lat. _Fons Rapidus_), a town of northern Spain, in the province of Guipuzcoa; on the San Sebastian-Bayonne railway; near the Bay of Biscay and on the French frontier. Pop. (1870) about 750; (1900) 4345. Fuenterrabia stands on the slope of a hill on the left bank of the river Bidassoa, and near the point where its estuary begins. Towards the close of the 19th century the town became popular as a summer resort for visitors from the interior of Spain, and, in consequence, its appearance underwent many changes and much of its early prosperity returned. Hotels and villas were built in the new part of the town that sprang up outside the picturesque walled fortress, and there is quite a contrast between the

## part inside the heavy, half-ruined ramparts, with its narrow, steep

streets and curious gable-roofed houses, its fine old church and castle and its massive town hall, and the new suburbs and fishermen's quarter facing the estuary of the Bidassoa. Many industries flourish on the outskirts of the town, including rope and net manufactures, flour mills, saw mills, mining railways, paper mills.

Fuenterrabia formerly possessed considerable strategic importance, and it has frequently been taken and retaken in wars between France and Spain. The rout of Charlemagne in 778, which has been associated with Fontarabia, by Milton (_Paradise Lost_, i. 587), is generally understood to have taken place not here but at Roncesvalles (q.v.), which is nearly 40 m. E.S.E. Unsuccessful attempts to seize Fuenterrabia were made by the French troops in 1476 and again in 1503. In a subsequent campaign (1521) these were more successful, but the fortress was retaken in 1524. The prince of Conde sustained a severe repulse under its walls in 1638, and it was on this occasion that the town received from Philip IV. the rank of city (_muy noble, muy leal, y muy valerosa ciudad_, "most noble, most loyal, and most valiant city"), a privilege which involved some measure of autonomy. After a severe siege, Fuenterrabia surrendered to the duke of Berwick and his French troops in 1719; and in 1794 it again fell into the hands of the French, who so dismantled it that it has never since been reckoned by the Spaniards among their fortified places. It was by the ford opposite Fuenterrabia that the duke of Wellington, on the 8th of October 1813, successfully forced a passage into France in the face of an opposing army commanded by Marshal Soult. Severe fighting also took place here during the Carlist War in 1837.

FUERO, a Spanish term, derived from the Latin _forum_. The Castillan use of the word in the sense of a right, privilege or charter is most probably to be traced to the Roman _conventus juridici_, otherwise known as _jurisdictiones_ or _fora_, which in Pliny's time were already numerous in the Iberian peninsula. In each of these provincial _fora_ the Roman magistrate, as is well known, was accustomed to pay all possible deference to the previously established common law of the district; and it was the privilege of every free subject to demand that he should be judged in accordance with the customs and usages of his proper forum. This was especially true in the case of the inhabitants of those towns which were in possession of the _jus italicum_. It is not, indeed, demonstrable, but there are many presumptions, besides some fragments of direct evidence, which make it more than probable that the old administrative arrangements both of the provinces and of the towns, but especially of the latter, remained practically undisturbed at the period of the Gothic occupation of Spain.[1] The Theodosian Code and the Breviary of Alaric alike seem to imply a continuance of the municipal system which had been established by the Romans; nor does the later Lex Visigothorum, though avowedly designed in some points to supersede the Roman law, appear to have contemplated any marked interference with the former _fora_, which were still to a large extent left to be regulated in the administration of justice by unwritten, immemorial, local custom. Little is known of the condition of the subject populations of the peninsula during the Arab occupation; but we are informed that the Christians were, sometimes at least, judged according to their own laws in separate tribunals presided over by Christian judges;[2] and the mere fact of the preservation of the name _alcalde_, an official whose functions corresponded so closely to those of the _judex_ or _defensor civitatis_, is fitted to suggest that the old municipal _fora_, if much impaired, were not even then in all cases wholly destroyed. At all events when the word _forum_[3] begins to appear for the first time in documents of the 10th century in the sense of a liberty or privilege, it is generally implied that the thing so named is nothing new. The earliest extant written fuero is probably that which was granted to the province and town of Leon by Alphonso V. in 1020. It emanated from the king in a general council of the kingdom of Leon and Castile, and consisted of two separate parts; in the first 19 chapters were contained a series of statutes which were to be valid for the kingdom at large, while the rest of the document was simply a municipal charter.[4] But in neither portion does it in any sense mark a new legislative departure, unless in so far as it marks the beginning of the era of written charters for towns. The "fuero general" does not profess to supersede the _consuetudines antiquorum jurium_ or Chindaswint's codification of these in the Lex Visigothorum; the "fuero municipal" is really for the most part but a resuscitation of usages formerly established, a recognition and definition of liberties and privileges that had long before been conceded or taken for granted. The right of the burgesses to self-government and self-taxation is acknowledged and confirmed, they, on the other hand, being held bound to a constitutional obedience and subjection to the sovereign, particularly to the payment of definite imperial taxes, and the rendering of a certain amount of military service (as the ancient municipia had been). Almost contemporaneous with this fuero of Leon was that granted to Najera (Naxera) by Sancho el Mayor of Navarre (_ob._ 1035), and confirmed, in 1076, by Alphonso VI.[5] Traces of others of perhaps even an earlier date are occasionally to be met with. In the fuero of Cardena, for example, granted by Ferdinand I. in 1039, reference is made to a previous forum Burgense (Burgos), which, however, has not been preserved, if, indeed, it ever had been reduced to writing at all. The phraseology of that of Sepulveda (1076) in like manner points back to an indefinitely remote antiquity.[6] Among the later fueros of the 11th century, the most important are those of Jaca (1064) and of Logrono (1095). The former of these, which was distinguished by the unusual largeness of its concessions, and by the careful minuteness of its details, rapidly extended to many places in the neighbourhood, while the latter charter was given also to Miranda by Alphonso VI., and was further extended in 1181 by Sancho el Sabio of Navarre to Vitoria, thus constituting one of the earliest written _fora_ of the "Provincias Vascongadas." In the course of the 12th and 13th centuries the number of such documents increased very rapidly; that of Toledo especially, granted to the Mozarabic population in 1101, but greatly enlarged and extended by Alphonso VII. (1118) and succeeding sovereigns, was used as a basis for many other Castilian fueros. Latterly the word fuero came to be used in Castile in a wider sense than before, as meaning a general code of laws; thus about the time of Saint Ferdinand the old Lex Visigothorum, then translated for the first time into the vernacular, was called the Fuero Juzgo, a name which was soon retranslated into the barbarous Latin of the period as Forum Judicum;[7] and among the compilations of Alphonso the Learned in like manner were an _Espejo de Fueros_ and also the _Fuero de las leyes_, better known perhaps as the _Fuero Real_. The famous code known as the _Ordenamiento Real de Alcala_, or _Fuero Viejo de Castilla_, dates from a still later period. As the power of the Spanish crown was gradually concentrated and consolidated, royal pragmaticas began to take the place of constitutional laws; the local fueros of the various districts slowly yielded before the superior force of imperialism; and only those of Navarre and the Basque provinces (see BASQUES) have had sufficient vitality to enable them to survive to comparatively modern times. While actually owning the lordship of the Castilian crown since about the middle of the 14th century, these provinces rigidly insisted upon compliance with their consuetudinary law, and especially with that which provided that the _senor_, before assuming the government, should personally appear before the assembly and swear to maintain the ancient constitutions. Each of the provinces mentioned had distinct sets of fueros, codified at different periods, and varying considerably as to details; the main features, however, were the same in all. Their rights, after having been recognized by successive Spanish sovereigns from Ferdinand the Catholic to Ferdinand VII., were, at the death of the latter in 1833, set aside by the government of Castanos. The result was a civil war, which terminated in a renewed acknowledgment of the fueros by Isabel II. (1839). The provisional government of 1868 also promised to respect them, and similar pledges were given by the governments which succeeded. In consequence, however, of the Carlist rising of 1873-1876, the Basque fueros were finally extinguished in 1876. The history of the _Foraes_ of the Portuguese towns, and of the _Fors du Bearn_, is precisely analogous to that of the fueros of Castile.

Among the numerous works that more or less expressly deal with this subject, that of Marina (_Ensayo historico-critico sobre la antigua legislacion y principales cuerpos legales de los reynos de Leon y Castilla_) still continues to hold a high place. Reference may also be made to Colmeiro's _Curso de derecho politico segun la historia de Leon y de Castilla_ (Madrid, 1873); to Schafer's _Geschichte von Spanien_, ii. 418-428, iii. 293 seq.; and to Hallam's _Middle Ages_, c. iv.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The nature of the evidence may be gathered from Savigny, _Gesch. d. rom. Rechts_. See especially i. pp. 154, 259 seq.

[2] Compare Lembke u. Schafer, _Geschichte von Spanien_, i. 314; ii. 117.

[3] Or rather _forus_. See Ducange, s.v.

[4] Cap. xx. begins: "Constituimus etiam ut Legionensis civitas, quae depopulata fuit a Sarracenis in diebus patris mei Veremundi regis, repopulatur _per hos foros subscriptos_."

[5] "Mando et concedo et confirmo ut ista civitas cum sua plebe et cum omnibus suis pertinentiis sub tali lege et sub tali foro maneat per saecula cuncta. Amen. Isti sunt fueros quae habuerunt in Naxera in diebus Sanctii regis et Gartiani regis."

[6] "Ego Aldefonsus rex et uxor mea Agnes confirmamus ad Septempublica suo foro quod habuit in tempore antiquo de avolo meo et in tempore comitum Ferrando Gonzalez et comite Garcia Ferdinandez et comite Domno Santio."

[7] This Latin is later even than that of Ferdinand, whose words are: "Statuo et mando quod Liber Judicum, quo ego misi Cordubam, translatetur in vulgarem et vocetur forum de Corduba ... et quod per saecula cuncta sit pro foro et nullus sit ausus istud forum aliter appellare nisi forum de Corduba, et jubeo et mando quod omnis morator et populator ... veniet ad judicium et ad forum de Corduba."

FUERTEVENTURA, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, forming part of the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands (q.v.). Pop. (1900) 11,669; area 665 sq. m. Fuerteventura lies between Lanzarote and Grand Canary. It has a length of 52 m., and an average width of 12 m. Though less mountainous than the other islands, its aspect is barren. There are only two springs of fresh water, and these are confined to one valley. Lava streams and other signs of volcanic action abound, but there has been no igneous activity since the Spaniards took possession. At each extremity of the island are high mountains, which send off branches along the coast so as to enclose a large arid plain. The highest peak reaches 2500 ft. In external appearance, climate and productions, Fuerteventura greatly resembles Lanzarote. An interval of three years without rain has been known. Oliva (pop. 1900, 2464) is the largest town. A smaller place in the centre of the island named Betancuria (586) is the administrative capital. Cabras (1000) on the eastern coast is the chief port. Dromedaries are bred here.

FUGGER, the name of a famous German family of merchants and bankers. The founder of the family was Johann Fugger, a weaver at Graben, near Augsburg, whose son, Johann, settled in Augsburg probably in 1367. The younger Johann added the business of a merchant to that of a weaver, and through his marriage with Clara Widolph became a citizen of Augsburg. After a successful career he died in 1408, leaving two sons, Andreas and Jakob, who greatly extended the business which they inherited from their father. Andreas, called the "rich Fugger," had several sons, among them being Lukas, who was very prominent in the municipal politics of Augsburg and who was very wealthy until he was ruined by the repudiation by the town of Louvain of a great debt owing to him, and Jakob, who was granted the right to bear arms in 1452, and who founded the family of Fugger vom Reh--so called from the first arms of the Fuggers, a roe (_Reh_) or on a field azure--which became extinct on the death of his great-grandson, Ulrich, in 1583. Johann Fugger's son, Jakob, died in 1469, and three of his seven sons, Ulrich (1441-1510), Georg (1453-1506) and Jakob (1459-1525), men of great resource and industry, inherited the family business and added enormously to the family wealth. In 1473 Ulrich obtained from the emperor Frederick III. the right to bear arms for himself and his brothers, and about the same time he began to act as the banker of the Habsburgs, a connexion destined to bring fame and fortune to his house. Under the lead of Jakob, who had been trained for business in Venice, the Fuggers were interested in silver mines in Tirol and copper mines in Hungary, while their trade in spices, wool and silk extended to almost all parts of Europe. Their wealth enabled them to make large loans to the German king, Maximilian I., who pledged to them the county of Kirchberg, the lordship of Weissenhorn and other lands, and bestowed various privileges upon them. Jakob built the castle of Fuggerau in Tirol, and erected the Fuggerei at Augsburg, a collection of 106 dwellings, which were let at low rents to poor people and which still exist. Jakob Fugger and his two nephews, Ulrich (d. 1525) and Hieronymus (d. 1536), the sons of Ulrich, died without direct heirs, and the family was continued by Georg's sons, Raimund (1489-1535) and Anton (1493-1560), under whom the Fuggers attained the summit of their wealth and influence.