iron ore, taken out of the mine, is melted down; ot it is more properly applied to another kind of furnace, wherein the iron-ore, melted down and sepa rated in a former furnace, and then cast into sows and pigs, is heated and fused over again, and beaten afterwards with large hammers, and thus rendered more soft, pure, ductile, and fit for use. Of these there are two kinds: the first is called the finery, where the pigs are worked into gross iron, and prepared for the second, which is called the chafery, where it is farther wrought into bars fit for use.

FORGERY, an offence which, at common law, is punishable with fine, imprisonment, and pillory, and by statute, in the generality of cases, with death. A forgery, to be capital, consists in affixing the name of an individual, in a manner purporting to be his hand writing, to a paper, the contents of which tend to the injury of his estate.

FORGING, in smithery, the beating or hammering iron on the anvil, after having first made it red-hot in the forge, in order to extend it into various forms, and fashion it into works. There are two ways of forging and hammering iron; one is by the force of the hand, in which there are usually several persons employed, one of them turning the iron and hammering likewise, and the rest only hammering. The other way is by force of a water-mill, which raises and works several huge hammers beyond the force of man; under the strokes whereof the work. men present large lumps or pieces of iron, which are sustained at one end by the anvils, and at the other by iron-chains fastened to the ceiling of the forge.

This last way of forging is only used in the

largest works, as anchors for ships, which usually weigh several thousand pounds. For the lighter works, a single man serves to hold heat, and turn with one hand, while he hammers with the other.

Every purpose the work is designed for, requires its proper heat; for if it be too cold, it will not feel the weight of the hammer, as the smiths call it, when it will not batter under the hammer; and if it be too hot, it will red-sear, that is, break, or crack, under the hammer.

The several degrees of heats the smiths give their irons are, first, a blood-red heat; secondly, a white flame-heat; and, thirdly, a sparkling or welding-heat.

FORLORN-HOPE, in the military art, signifies men detached from several regiments, or otherwise ap pointed, to make the first attack in the day of battle; or, at a siege, to storm the counterscarpe, or mount the breach. They are so called from the great danger to which they are unavoidably exposed; but the word is old, and begins to be obsolete.

FORM, Printer's an assemblage of letters, words, and lines, ranged in order, and so disposed into pages by the compositor; from which, by means of ink and a press, the printed sheets are drawn. Every form is inclosed in an iron chase, wherein it is firmly locked by a number of pieces of wood, some long and narrow, and others of the form of wedges. There are two forms required for every sheet, one for each side; and each form consists of more or fewer pages, according to the size of the book.

FORMIE acid, ia chemistry, the acid of ants,

which is extracted from them either by distillation or expression with water; in the living insect it reddens blue flowers, goes off in the form of a vapour, smelling like musk, and destroys animals, Under this gaseous form it is capable of serving economical purposes like vinegar; is decomposed by a great heat, takes oxygen from oxygenated muriatic acid; and forms salts with alkalies and earths, which are chrystallizable and not deliques

cent.

FORMICA, the ant, a genus of insects of the order hymenoptera: females and neuters are armed with a concealed sting; males and females with wings; neuters wingless. This is a gregarious and proverbially industrious family, consisting like bees of males, females, and a third kind, which are yet called neuters. These last are the well known little insects who construct the nest, or ant hills, who labour with such unremitting assiduity for the support of themselves and the idle males and females, and who guard with such ferocity the larvæ, or what are commonly called ants eggs. They wander about all day in search of food or materials for the nest, and assist each other in bringing home what is too cumbersome for such as have attempted it. They every day bring out of their nest and expose to the warmth of the sun the newly hatched larvæ and feed them till they are able to provide for themselves. In the evening they consume together whatever has been collected during the day, and do not as is commonly supposed lay up store for the winter, but probably against that season become torpid and die.

-FORT, in the military art, a small fortified place,

environed on all sides with a moat, rampart, and parapet. Its use is to secure some high ground, or the passage of a river, to make good an advantageous post, to defend the lines and quarters of a siege, &c. Forts are made of different figures and extents, according as the ground requires. Some are fortified with bastions, others with demi-bastions. Some again are in form of a square, others of a pentagon. A fort differs from a citadel, as this last is built to command some town.

** FORTIFICATION, the art of fortifying a town, or other place; or of putting it in such a posture of defence, that every one of its parts defends, and is defended, by some other parts, by means of ramparts, parapets, moats, and other bulwarks; to the end, that a small number of men within may be able to defend themselves for a considerable time against the assaults of a numerous army without ; so that the enemy, in attacking them, must of necessity suffer great loss.

Fortification is either ancient or modern, regular or irregular. Ancient fortification, at first, consisted of walls or defences made of trunks, and other branches of trees, mixed with earth, to secure them against the attacks of the enemy. This was afterwards altered to stone-walls, on which were raised breast works, behind which they made use of their darts and arrows in security. Modern fortification, is that which is flanked and defended by bastions and out-works, the ramparts of which are so solid, that they cannot be beat down but by the continual tire of several batteries of cannon. Regular fortiЯcation is that built in a regular polygon, the sides and angles of which are all equal, being commonly

about a musket-shot from each other. Irregular fortification, on the contrary, is that where the sides and angles are not uniform, equidistant, or equal; which is owing to the irregularity of the ground, valleys, rivers, hills, and the like.and The principal maxims of fortification are these: 1. That every part of the works be seen and defended by other parts, so that the enemy, can lodge no where without being exposed to the fire of the place. 2. A fortress should command all places round it; and therefore all the out-works ought to be lower than the body of the place, 3. The works farthest from the centre, ought always to be open to those more near. 4. No line of defence should exceed a point blank musket-shot, which is about an hundred and twenty or an hundred and twenty-five fathoms. 5. The more acute the angle at the centre is, the stronger will be the place. 6. In great places, dry trenches are preferable to those filled with water, because sallies, retreats, and succours are frequently necessary; but, in small fortresses, water-trenches, that cannot be drained, are best, as standing in need of no sallies. Differ, ent authors recommend different methods of fortification; but the principal are those of Pagan, Blondel, Vauban, and Scheiter.

FORTITUDE, a quality of the mind, sometimes but erroneously considered as the same with courage. Courage may be a virtue or a vice: fortitude is always a virtue: we speak of a desperate courage, but never of a desperate fortitude. A mere contempt of danger may be called courage, and this is found in some brutes as well as in the human race. In man it depends partly on habit,