Faenza majolica Nfa-'en-za-mo-'ja-li-koX Tin-glazed earthenware pro¬ duced in the Italian city of Faenza from the late 14th century. Early Faenza jugs were decorated in green and purple with Gothic lettering and heral¬ dic lions; the first major majolica piece is a wall plaque dated 1475. In the 15th century, Renaissance motifs appeared in dark blue, rich orange, and copper-green; vases with a peacock-feather design and a globular two- handled jar are characteristic of Faenza. The factory’s most outstanding wares date from the late 15th to the mid-16th century. See also faience.
Faeroe Islands See Faroe Islands
Fahrenheit, Daniel (Gabriel) (b. May 24, 1686, Gdansk, Pol.—d. Sept. 16, 1736, The Hague, Dutch Republic) German physicist and instru¬ ment maker. He spent most of his life in the Netherlands, where he devoted himself to the study of physics and the manufacture of precision meteorological instruments. He is best known for inventing a successful alcohol thermometer (1709) and mercury thermometer (1714) and for developing the Fahrenheit temperature scale, setting zero at the freezing point of an equal mixture of ice and salt. He discovered that water can remain liquid below its freezing point and that the boiling point of liq¬ uids varies with atmospheric pressure.
Faidherbe \fe-'derb\, Louis (-Leon-Cesar) (b. June 3, 1818, Lille, Fr.—d. Sept. 29, 1889, Paris) Governor of French Senegal (1854-61, 1863-65) and a founder of France’s colonial empire in Africa. Faidherbe was trained as a military engineer and served in Algeria and Senegal before becoming the colonial governor of Senegal. Alarmed by the grow¬ ing power of the Islamic leader 'Umar Tal, he took the offensive, driving off 'Umar Tal, subjugating the Moorish tribes in the north, and transform¬ ing his colony into the region’s dominant power. In 1857 he founded the capital city of Dakar.
faience \fa-'ans, fi-'a n s\ Tin-glazed earthenware made in France, Ger¬ many, Spain, and Scandinavia, simi¬ lar to Faenza majolica, for which it was named. The term is also applied to glazed earthenware made in ancient Egypt, where it was used for beads, amulets, jewelry, and small animal and human figures, most notably the blue-glazed hippopota¬ mus figures of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-c. 1670 bc). Faience tiles, first made in the early dynasties, were used to decorate the walls of the subterranean chambers of the pyramids. In the New Kingdom (c.
1550-c. 1070 bc), polychrome tiles with floral designs were used in houses and palaces.
fair Temporary market where buyers and sellers gather to transact busi¬ ness. Fairs are held at regular inter¬ vals, generally at the same location and time of year. An important form of commerce before the Industrial Revolution, fairs solved the problem of distribution and made possible the demonstration of arts and crafts and the sale and barter of goods. They were a fixture of the Roman Empire and medieval Europe, where they were held at major caravan crossroads and near religious festivals. The rules of the fairs eventually became the basis of European business law. Fairs began to die out as cities grew larger and transportation networks became more extensive, though some continued to exist as religious fes¬ tivals or recreational events. County, agricultural, and livestock fairs are still held in many countries. The trade fair or trade show, often an inter¬ national event in which exhibitors from one industry display their goods, gained popularity in the 20th century.
fair trade law In the U.S., any law allowing manufacturers of brand- name or trademarked goods to fix the actual or minimum resale prices of these goods. (Elsewhere the practice is called price maintenance.) Fair trade laws were passed by many states during the Great Depression in an effort to protect independent retailers from price-cutting by large chain stores and consequent loss of employment in distributive trades, but most were later repealed at the state level. Critics argued that such laws restricted competition; the complexity of post-World War II marketing channels also made enforcement impracticable. In 1975 the few that remained in existence were repealed by an act of Congress.
Fairbairn Vfer-.bernX, Sir William (b. Feb. 19, 1789, Kelso, Rox¬ burghshire, Scot.—d. Aug. 18, 1874, Moor Park, Surrey, Eng.) Scottish civil engineer and inventor. In 1835 he established a shipbuilding yard in London, where he constructed several hundred vessels. He was the first to use wrought iron for ship hulls, bridges, mill shafting, and structural beams. He experimented with the strength of iron and the relative merits of hot and cold blast in iron manufacture (see blast furnace). In 1845 he
German faience lobed dish painted with chinoiserie in blue and manga¬ nese, Frankfurt am Main, c. 1690; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Lon¬ don
COURTESY OF THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
654 I Fairbanks ► falcon
and Robert Stephenson designed two tubular railway bridges in Wales; Fairbairn designed the hydraulic riveters used in constructing one of them.
Fairbanks City (pop., 2000: 30,224), east-central Alaska, U.S., situ¬ ated at the junction of the Tanana and Chena rivers. Founded in 1902 after a gold strike, it was named for Charles W. Fairbanks. As the northern terminus of the Alaska Highway and the railroad, it is the main supply centre for the northern Alaskan oil business (see Trans-Alaska Pipeline). Located nearby are Fort Wainwright, Eielson Air Force Base, and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (1917). Fairbanks is the site of the annual 800-mi (1,290-km) Yukon Marathon boat race and the North American Championship Sled Dog Races.
Fairbanks, Douglas orig. Douglas Elton Ulman (b. May 23,
1883, Denver, Colo., U.S.—d. Dec. 12, 1939, Santa Monica, Calif.) U.S. film actor. Fairbanks was a Broadway star by 1910, noted for his exuber¬ ance and physical agility. Fie made his film debut in The Lamb (1915). As cofounder of United Artists (1919), he produced and starred in such films as The Mark ofZorro (1920), Robin Hood (1922), and The Thief of Baghdad (1924). His films were so popular that he was called the “King of Hollywood” in the 1920s. His 15-year marriage to Mary Pickford ended in 1935. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (b. Dec. 9, 1909, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. May 7, 2000, New York City), Fairbanks’s son by his first wife, was a debonair leading man in U.S. and British films, including Cathe¬ rine the Great (1934), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), and State Secret (1950). In the 1960s he hosted and sometimes acted in the British TV drama series Douglas Fairbanks Presents.
Fairchild, David (Grandison) (b. April 7, 1869, Lansing, Mich., U.S.—d. Aug. 6, 1954, Coconut Grove, Fla.) U.S. botanist and agricultural explorer. He studied at Kansas State University of Agriculture. From 1904 to 1928, as head of the section of plant pathology of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he supervised the introduction of many useful plants into the U.S., including alfalfa, dates, mangoes, horseradish, and bamboos.
Fairfax (of Cameron), Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Baron (b. Jan. 17, 1612, Denton, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. Nov. 12, 1671, Nun Appleton, York¬ shire) Commander in chief of the Parliamentary army during the English Civil Wars. His tactical skill and courage helped bring about many Parlia¬ mentary victories, including the Battle of Marston Moor. As commander in chief of the New Model Army, he defeated Charles I at the Battle of Naseby. Fairfax disapproved of the purge of Parliament by his soldiers in 1648 and refused to serve on the commission that condemned Charles to death. In 1650 he resigned as commander in chief to protest the proposed invasion of Scotland. In 1658 he helped George Monck restore Parliamen¬ tary rule in the face of opposition from the army. He was a member of the Parliament that invited Charles’s son to return to England as Charles II.