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 Guipúzcoa; 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 Condé 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
Castilian 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
