| | - fly-tying
- the hobby or business of imitating the live food of gamefish by attaching various materials to a hook. Most often used to imitate various life stages of insects, the craft also imitates minnows and other natural foods. It has been estimated that more than a quarter of a million persons ...
- flyball governor
- (from the article "control system") ...of the 17th century was kept facing the wind by the action of an auxiliary vane that moved the entire upper part of the mill. The most famous example from the Industrial Revolution is James Watt's flyball governor of 1769, a device that regulated steam flow to a steam engine ...
- flycatcher
- any of a number of perching birds (order Passeriformes) that dart out to capture insects on the wing, particularly members of the Old World songbird family Muscicapidae (q.v.) and of the New World family Tyrannidae, which consists of the tyrant flycatchers. Many taxonomists expand the family Muscicapidae to include the ... [3 Related Articles]
- flying boat
- (from the article "airport") Much long-distance air transport was handled by the large seaplanes known as flying boats or clippers. These aircraft, though slow and of limited range, offered a level of comfort that was necessary for long-distance travel. Air terminal facilities were necessarily constructed close to large open stretches of water. La Guardia ...
- Flying Burrito Brothers, the
- American popular musical group of the late 1960s and '70s that was one of the chief influences on the development of country rock. The original members were Chris Hillman (b. Dec. 4, 1942, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S., ), "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow (b. Aug. 20, 1934, South Bend, Ind., U.S., -d. ...
- flying buttress
- (from the article "Gothic art") ...outward thrust of the ribbed ceiling vaults was carried across the outside walls of the nave, first to an attached outer buttress and then to a freestanding pier by means of a half arch known as a flying buttress. The flying buttress leaned against the upper exterior of the nave ...
- Flying Cranes, The
- (from the article "circus") ...act, the Koch sisters, performed on a giant semaphore arm that revolved slowly as they balanced on the outside edge. In the late 20th century one of the most renowned Russian trapeze acts, "The Flying Cranes," used dramatic devices to tell the story of fallen Soviet war heroes whose souls ...
- flying doctor service
- method for supplying medical service by airplane to areas where doctors are few and communications difficult. The plan for the first service of this type was conceived in 1912 by the Rev. John Flynn, superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission of the Presbyterian Church. Flynn's plan came to fruition in ...
- Flying Dutchman
- in European maritime legend, spectre ship doomed to sail forever; its appearance to seamen is believed to signal imminent disaster. In the most common version, the captain, Vanderdecken, gambles his salvation on a rash pledge to round the Cape of Good Hope during a storm and so is condemned to ...
- flying fish
- any of about 40 species of oceanic fishes of the family Exocoetidae (order Atheriniformes), found worldwide in warm waters and noted for their ability to fly. They are all small, attaining a maximum length of about 45 cm (18 inches), and have winglike, rigid fins and an unevenly forked tail. ... [3 Related Articles]
- Flying Fish Cove
- (from the article "Christmas Island") ...of an oceanic mountain. The highest point on the island is Murray Hill, rising to 1,184 feet (361 m) above sea level in the western part of the island. The main settlement and chief port is at Flying Fish Cove on the northeastern part of the island.
- flying fox
- any of about 65 bat species found on tropical islands from Madagascar to Australia and Indonesia and mainland Asia. They are the largest bats; some attain a wingspan of 1.5 m (5 feet), with a head and body length of about 40 cm (16 inches). [4 Related Articles]
- flying frog
- (from the article "frog") ...on land, in burrows, or in trees. A number depart from the typical form. Sedge frogs (Hyperolius), for example, are climbing African frogs with adhesive toe disks. The flying frogs (Rhacophorus) are tree-dwelling, Old World rhacophorids; they can glide 12 to 15 metres (40 ...
- flying gurnard
- any of a small group of marine fish comprising the family Dactylopteridae (or Cephalacanthidae) and the order Dactylopteriformes (sometimes placed in Scorpaeniformes). Flying gurnards are similar to the sea robins, or gurnards (family Triglidae, order Scorpaeniformes), and are sometimes considered as relatives of that group (see sea robin). [1 Related Articles]
- flying jib boom
- (from the article "jib") ...close-hauled sailing and of setting extra sail with comparatively little labour demand. In some ships the number of jibs reached five or more, and often the jibboom itself required an extension, the flying jibboom, to carry them.
- flying lemur
- either of the two species of primitive gliding mammals found only in Southeast Asia and on some of the Philippine Islands. Flying lemurs resemble large flying squirrels, as they are arboreal climbers and gliders that have webbed feet with claws. The form of the head and the nocturnal habit, however, ... [2 Related Articles]
- flying machine
- (from the article "theatre") The permanent facade was also used to hide the stage properties and the machinery. Evidence for the use of the so-called flying machine, the mechane (Latin machina), in the 5th century is given in the comedies of Aristophanes; a character in his play Peace ascends to heaven on a dung ...
- flying shuttle
- (from the article "mass production") ...reduce production costs by specialized labour and the use of machines appeared in the 18th century in England. They were signaled by five important inventions in the textile industry: (1) John Kay's flying shuttle in 1733, which permitted the weaving of larger widths of cloth and significantly increased weaving speed; ...
- flying snake
- any of five species of nonvenomous snakes constituting the genus Chrysopelea of the family Colubridae. These slender arboreal snakes are found in South Asia and the Indonesian archipelago. They are able to glide short distances through the air by drawing up their ventral scales to make their undersides concave. Flying ...
- flying spot scanner
- (from the article "television") A form of television pickup device, used to record images from film transparencies, either still or motion-picture, is the flying spot scanner. The light source is a cathode-ray tube (CRT) in which a beam of electrons, deflected in the standard scanning pattern, produces a spot on the fluorescent phosphor surface. ...
- flying squirrel
- any of 43 species of gliding squirrels. Two species are North American, two live in northern Eurasia, and all others are found in the temperate and tropical forests of India and Asia. Although these rodents do not fly, glides of up to 450 metres (almost 1,500 feet) have been recorded ... [3 Related Articles]
- flying system
- (from the article "stage design") Flying systems are an important piece of stage machinery for proscenium-stage theatres. These systems are used to lift (or fly) scenery from the stage into a space above the stage (the fly loft) by means of mechanical hoists. There are two main types of flying systems: hand-operated and machine-driven. Hand-operated ...
- Flying Tigers
- American volunteer pilots recruited by Claire L. Chennault, a retired U.S. Army captain, to fight the Japanese in Burma (Myanmar) and China during 1941-42, at a time when Japan's control over China's ports and transportation system had almost cut off China's Nationalist government from the outside world. Facing chronic shortages ... [1 Related Articles]
- flying trapeze
- (from the article "acrobatics") ...up"), the specialized and ancient art of jumping, tumbling, and balancing, often later with the use of such apparatus as poles, one-wheel cycles, balls, barrels, tightropes, trampolines, and flying trapezes.circus actscircusActs of skillActs of human skill experienced a resurgence in ...
- flying wedge
- (from the article "football, gridiron") ...speedy backs streaking around the ends. The new rule resulted in the rise of mass plays, an offensive strategy that massed players on a single point of the defense, most famously in Harvard's "flying wedge" in 1892. This style of play proved so brutal that the game was nearly abolished ...
- flying wing
- (from the article "airplane") Another configuration limited to military craft is the so-called flying wing, a tailless craft having all its elements encompassed within the wing structure (as in the Northrop B-2 bomber). Unlike the flying wing, the lifting-body aircraft (such as the U.S. space shuttle) generates lift in part or totally by the ...
- Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley
- American labour organizer, political radical, and communist.
- Flynn, Errol
- Australian actor, celebrated during his short but colourful lifetime as the screen's foremost swashbuckler. [2 Related Articles]
- Flynn, John
- moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Australia (1939-42) and missionary to the country's wild central and northern inland, who in 1928 founded what later became the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. [1 Related Articles]
- flysch
- sequence of shales rhythmically interbedded with thin, hard, graywacke-like sandstones. The total thickness of such sequences is commonly many thousands of metres, but the individual beds are thin, only a few centimetres to a few metres thick. The presence of rare fossils indicates marine deposition. Flysch facies are now generally ... [2 Related Articles]
- flyting
- (Scots: "quarreling," or "contention"), poetic competition of the Scottish makaris (poets) of the 15th and 16th centuries, in which two highly skilled rivals engaged in a contest of verbal abuse, remarkable for its fierceness and extravagance. Although contestants attacked each other spiritedly, they actually had a professional respect for their ...
- flyway
- route used regularly by migrating birds, bats, or butterflies. The large majority of such migrants move from northern breeding grounds to southern wintering grounds and back, and most of the well-used flyways follow north-south river valleys (e.g., the Mississippi River valley), coastlines (especially those of North America and East Asia), ... [1 Related Articles]
- flywheel
- heavy wheel attached to a rotating shaft so as to smooth out delivery of power from a motor to a machine. The inertia of the flywheel opposes and moderates fluctuations in the speed of the engine and stores the excess energy for intermittent use. To oppose speed fluctuations effectively, a ... [1 Related Articles]
- Fo, Dario
- Italian avant-garde playwright, manager-director, and actor-mime, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. A theatrical caricaturist with a flair for social agitation, he often faced government censure. [3 Related Articles]
- Fo-shan Chih-liu
- (from the article "Xi River system") ...the Dong. At Sanshui the Xi and Bei are linked by a short channel but then divide. The larger branch, the Xi, bends to the south and forms the western border of the delta, while a lesser branch, the Foshan, flows eastward into the delta itself. The Dong flows from ...
- foal
- (from the article "livestock farming") Oats are the preferred grain for horses because of their bulk. Corn (maize), barley, wheat, and milo can be used, however, whenever they are less expensive. Weanling foals require three pounds of feed per hundred pounds of live weight per day; as they approach maturity, this requirement drops to one ...
- foam
- in physical chemistry, a colloidal system (i.e., a dispersion of particles in a continuous medium) in which the particles are gas bubbles and the medium is a liquid. The term also is applied to material in a lightweight cellular spongy or rigid form. Liquid foams are sometimes made relatively long-lasting-e.g., ... [4 Related Articles]
- foam fractionation
- (from the article "Separations based on phase equilibria") There are a few methods that employ foams to achieve separations. In these, the principle of separation is adsorption on gas bubbles or at the gas-liquid interface. Two of these methods are foam fractionation, for the separation of molecular species, and flotation, for the separation of particles. When dissolved in ...
- foam glass
- lightweight, opaque glass material having a closed-cell structure. It is made in molds that are packed with crushed or granulated glass mixed with a chemical agent such as carbon or limestone. At the temperature at which the glass grains become soft enough to cohere, the agent gives off a gas ... [1 Related Articles]
- foam rubber
- flexible, porous substance made from a natural or synthetic latex compounded with various ingredients and whipped into a froth. The resulting product contains roughly 85 percent air and 15 percent rubber and can be molded and vulcanized. Its uses include padding for furniture, mattresses, and pillows. In special processes, a ... [1 Related Articles]
- foam stabilizer
- (from the article "foam") ...of particles in a continuous medium) in which the particles are gas bubbles and the medium is a liquid. The term also is applied to material in a lightweight cellular spongy or rigid form. Liquid foams are sometimes made relatively long-lasting-e.g., for fire fighting-by adding some substance, called a stabilizer, ...
- foamed plastic
- synthetic resin converted into a spongelike mass with a closed-cell or open-cell structure, either of which may be flexible or rigid, used for a variety of products including cushioning materials, air filters, furniture, toys, thermal insulation, sponges, plastic boats, panels for buildings, and even lightweight beams. Under appropriate conditions almost ... [1 Related Articles]
- foamed thermoplastic
- (from the article "plastic") Polystyrene pellets can be impregnated with isopentane at room temperature and modest pressure. When the pellets are heated, they can be made to fuse together at the same time that the isopentane evaporates, foaming the polystyrene and cooling the assembly at the same time. Usually the pellets are prefoamed to ...
- foamed thermoset
- (from the article "plastic") The rapid reaction of isocyanates with hydroxyl-bearing prepolymers to make polyurethanes is mentioned above in Reaction injection molding. These materials also can be foamed by incorporating a volatile liquid, which evaporates under the heat of reaction and foams the reactive mixture to a high degree. The rigidity of the network ...
- foaming agent
- (from the article "food additive") ...the water phase. Thus, they prevent the coalescence of the oil droplets, promoting the separation of the oil phase from the aqueous phase (i.e., creaming). The formation and stabilization of foam in a food product occurs by a similar mechanism, except that the oil phase is replaced by a gas ...
- focal area
- (from the article "dialect") Dialectologists often distinguish between focal areas-which provide sources of numerous important innovations and usually coincide with centres of lively economic or cultural activity-and relic areas-places toward which such innovations are spreading but have not usually arrived. (Relic areas also have their own innovations, which, however, usually extend over a smaller...
- focal attention
- (from the article "attention") Broadly speaking, the two types of attention can be characterized as focal and automatic. Someone who is focally attentive is highly aware, consciously in control, and selective in handling sensory phenomena. A person in such a state also uses the brain for short-term storage. (Indeed, some focal attention is almost ...
- focal dystonia
- (from the article "dystonia") ...dystonia appears only with a specific action, such as the contraction of hand muscles when writing is attempted (writer's cramp). Another means of classification is the extent of muscle involvement: focal, affecting only one muscle group, such as the vocal cords (e.g., spastic dysphonia); segmental, involving two adjacent muscle groups, ...
- focal length
- (from the article "photoreception") ...on the other hand, compensate for the loss of optical power in water by squeezing the lens into the bony ring around the iris, forming a high curvature blip on the lens surface, which shortens its focal length (the distance from the retina to the centre of the lens). One ...
- focal point
- (from the article "lens") ...light beam are refracted through different angles, so that an entire beam of parallel rays can be caused to converge on, or to appear to diverge from, a single point. This point is called the focal point, or principal focus, of the lens, as shown on the right of Figure ...
- focal-plane shutter
- (from the article "shutter") ...types. The leaf shutter, positioned between or just behind the lens components, consists of a number of overlapping metal blades opened and closed either by spring action or electronically. The focal-plane shutter, located directly in front of the image plane, consists of a pair of overlapping blinds that form an ...
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