(J. Bt.)
FOUNDING(from Lat.fundere, to pour), the process of casting in metal, of making a reproduction of a given object by running molten metal into a mould taken in sand, loam or plaster from that object. To enable the founder to prepare a mould for the casting, he must receive a pattern similar to the casting required. Some few exceptions occur, to be noted presently, but the above statement is true of perhaps 98% of all castings produced. The construction of such patterns gives employment to a large number of highly skilled men, who can only acquire the necessary knowledge through an apprenticeship lasting from five to seven years. A knowledge of two trades at least is involved in the work of pattern construction—that of the craft itself and that of the moulder and founder. Patterns have to be constructed strongly. They are generally of wood, and they thus require skill in the use of woodworking tools and the making of timber joints, together with a knowledge of the behaviour of timber, &c. Some few patterns are made in iron, brass or white metal alloys. They have to be embedded in a matrix of sand by the founder, and being enclosed, they have to be withdrawn without inflicting any damage in the way of fracture in the sand. Since cast work involves shapes that are often very intricate, including projections and hollow spaces of all forms, it is obvious that the withdrawal of the patterns without entailing tearing up and fracture of the sand must involve many difficult problems that have to be as fully understood by the pattern-maker as by the moulder. It is from this point of view that the work of the pattern-maker should be approached in the first place. No closed mould can possibly be made without one or more joints, for if a pattern is wholly enclosed in a matrix of sand it cannot be withdrawn except by making a parting in the sand, and it is not difficult to conceive that the parting in the pattern might advantageously be made to coincide, either exactly or approximately, with that of the mould. Nor must obstacles exist to the free withdrawal of patterns. They must therefore not be wider or larger in the lower than in the upper parts; actually they are made a trifle smaller or “tapered.” Nor may they have any lateral extensions into the lower sand, unless these can be made to withdraw separately from the main portion of the pattern. Finally, there are many internal spaces which cannot be formed by a pattern directly in the sand, but provision for which must be made by some means extraneous to the pattern, as by cores.
A single example must illustrate the main principles which have just been stated. The object selected is a bracket which involves questions of joints, of cores, of pattern construction and of moulding. The casting, the pattern, and its mould are illustrated. Fig. 1 illustrates in plan the casting of a double bracket, the end elevation of which is seen in fig. 2; the pattern of which presents obvious difficulties in the way of withdrawal from a mould, supposing it were made just like its casting. But if it be made as in fig. 3, with the open spaces A, B, in fig. 2, occupied with core prints, and the pieces A, A in fig. 3 left loosely skewered on, everything will “deliver” freely. Moreover the pattern might be made solidly as shown in fig. 3, or else jointed and dowelled in the plane a-a, as in fig. 4, or along the upper faces of the prints b-b, fig. 3. Thetimber shadings in figs. 3 and 4 illustrate points in the most suitable arrangement of material. The prints are “boxed up.” Fig. 4 shows a certain stage of the moulding, in which one half of the pattern has been “rammed” in sand, and turned over in the “bottom box,” and the upper half is ready to be rammed in the “top box,” with “runner pin” or “git stick” A, set in place. The lower loose piece has had its skewer removed during the ramming. Fig. 5 illustrates the mould completed and ready for pouring. The boxes have been parted, the pattern has been withdrawn, cores inserted in the impressions left by the prints, vents taken from the central body of cinders, the pouring basin made and the boxes cottered together.Fig. 3.Every single detail now briefly noted in connexion with this bracket is applied and modified in an almost infinite number of ways to suit the ever varying character of foundry work. Yet this process does not touch some of the great subdivisions of moulding and casting. There is a large volume of large and heavy work for which complete patterns and core boxes are never made, because of the great expense that would be involved in the pattern construction. There are also some cases in which the methods adopted would not permit of the use of patterns, as in that group of work in which the sand or loam is “swept” to the form required for the moulds and cores by means of striking boards, loam boards, core boards or strickles. In these classes of moulding the loose green sands and core sands are not much used; instead, loam—a wet and plastic sand mixture—is employed, supported against bricks (loam moulds) or against core bars and plates, and hay ropes (loam cores). All heavy marine engine cylinders are thus made by sweeping, and all massive cores for engine cylinders and large pipes, besides much large circular and cylindrical work, as foundation cylinders, soap pans, lead pans, mortar pans, large propeller blades, &c. In these cases the edge of the striking board is a counterpart of the profile of the work swept up. Joints also have to be made in such moulds, not of course in order to provide for the removal of a pattern, but for the exposure of the separate parts in course of construction, and for closing them up, or putting them together in their due relations. These joints also are swept by the boards, generally cut to produce suitable “checks,” or “registers” to ensure that they accurately fit together. Fig. 6, showing a portion of a swept-up mould, illustrates the general arrangement. A plate, A, carries a quantity of bricks, B, which are embedded in loam, and break joint. To a striking bar, C, supported in a step, a striking board or sweeping board, D, is bolted, and is swept round against plastic loam, which is afterwards dried. The check on the board at A corresponds with a similar check on the board which strikes the interior of the pan, and by which top and bottom portions of the mould are registered together. This is indicated in dotted outline. Its mould also is swept on bricks, and turned over into place, and the metal is poured into the space b, b, between the two moulds. There is also a large group of swept-up work which is not symmetrical about a centre of rotation. Then the movements of the sweeping boards are controlled by the edges of “core plates,” or of “core irons” (fig. 7). Bend pipes, and the volute casings of centrifugal pumps and pipes, afford examples of this kind. In fig. 7, A is the core iron, held down by weights, and B the “strickle,” sweeping up the half bend C, two such halves pasted together completing the core.Fig. 4.Fig. 5.Fig. 6.Core-making is a special department of foundry work, often involving as much detail as the construction and moulding of patterns. Two perfectly plain boxes are shown in figs. 8 and 9, in both of which provision exists for removing the box parts from the core after the latter has been rammed. Core boxes are jointed and tapered, and often have loose pieces within them, and also prints, into the impressions of which other cores are inserted.
A single example must illustrate the main principles which have just been stated. The object selected is a bracket which involves questions of joints, of cores, of pattern construction and of moulding. The casting, the pattern, and its mould are illustrated. Fig. 1 illustrates in plan the casting of a double bracket, the end elevation of which is seen in fig. 2; the pattern of which presents obvious difficulties in the way of withdrawal from a mould, supposing it were made just like its casting. But if it be made as in fig. 3, with the open spaces A, B, in fig. 2, occupied with core prints, and the pieces A, A in fig. 3 left loosely skewered on, everything will “deliver” freely. Moreover the pattern might be made solidly as shown in fig. 3, or else jointed and dowelled in the plane a-a, as in fig. 4, or along the upper faces of the prints b-b, fig. 3. Thetimber shadings in figs. 3 and 4 illustrate points in the most suitable arrangement of material. The prints are “boxed up.” Fig. 4 shows a certain stage of the moulding, in which one half of the pattern has been “rammed” in sand, and turned over in the “bottom box,” and the upper half is ready to be rammed in the “top box,” with “runner pin” or “git stick” A, set in place. The lower loose piece has had its skewer removed during the ramming. Fig. 5 illustrates the mould completed and ready for pouring. The boxes have been parted, the pattern has been withdrawn, cores inserted in the impressions left by the prints, vents taken from the central body of cinders, the pouring basin made and the boxes cottered together.
Every single detail now briefly noted in connexion with this bracket is applied and modified in an almost infinite number of ways to suit the ever varying character of foundry work. Yet this process does not touch some of the great subdivisions of moulding and casting. There is a large volume of large and heavy work for which complete patterns and core boxes are never made, because of the great expense that would be involved in the pattern construction. There are also some cases in which the methods adopted would not permit of the use of patterns, as in that group of work in which the sand or loam is “swept” to the form required for the moulds and cores by means of striking boards, loam boards, core boards or strickles. In these classes of moulding the loose green sands and core sands are not much used; instead, loam—a wet and plastic sand mixture—is employed, supported against bricks (loam moulds) or against core bars and plates, and hay ropes (loam cores). All heavy marine engine cylinders are thus made by sweeping, and all massive cores for engine cylinders and large pipes, besides much large circular and cylindrical work, as foundation cylinders, soap pans, lead pans, mortar pans, large propeller blades, &c. In these cases the edge of the striking board is a counterpart of the profile of the work swept up. Joints also have to be made in such moulds, not of course in order to provide for the removal of a pattern, but for the exposure of the separate parts in course of construction, and for closing them up, or putting them together in their due relations. These joints also are swept by the boards, generally cut to produce suitable “checks,” or “registers” to ensure that they accurately fit together. Fig. 6, showing a portion of a swept-up mould, illustrates the general arrangement. A plate, A, carries a quantity of bricks, B, which are embedded in loam, and break joint. To a striking bar, C, supported in a step, a striking board or sweeping board, D, is bolted, and is swept round against plastic loam, which is afterwards dried. The check on the board at A corresponds with a similar check on the board which strikes the interior of the pan, and by which top and bottom portions of the mould are registered together. This is indicated in dotted outline. Its mould also is swept on bricks, and turned over into place, and the metal is poured into the space b, b, between the two moulds. There is also a large group of swept-up work which is not symmetrical about a centre of rotation. Then the movements of the sweeping boards are controlled by the edges of “core plates,” or of “core irons” (fig. 7). Bend pipes, and the volute casings of centrifugal pumps and pipes, afford examples of this kind. In fig. 7, A is the core iron, held down by weights, and B the “strickle,” sweeping up the half bend C, two such halves pasted together completing the core.
Core-making is a special department of foundry work, often involving as much detail as the construction and moulding of patterns. Two perfectly plain boxes are shown in figs. 8 and 9, in both of which provision exists for removing the box parts from the core after the latter has been rammed. Core boxes are jointed and tapered, and often have loose pieces within them, and also prints, into the impressions of which other cores are inserted.
Machine-moulding.—There is a development of modern methods of founding which is effecting radical changes in some departments of foundry practice, namely, moulding by machines. The advantages of this method are manifold, and its limitationsare being lessened continually. There are two broad departments between which machine-moulding is divided. One, of less importance, is that of toothed wheels; the other is that of general work, except of a very massive character.
Gear-wheel moulding machines are essentially a special adaptation of the mechanism of the dividing engine, by means of which, instead of using a complete pattern of a toothed wheel, two or three pattern teeth are used, and the machine takes charge of the correct pitching or division of the teeth moulded therefrom, leaving to the moulder the work only of turning the handle of the division plate, and ramming the sand around the pattern teeth. The result is accurate pitching, and the use of two or three teeth instead of a full pattern, together with any core boxes and striking boards that are necessary for the arms.
The other department of machine moulding includes nearly every conceivable class of work of small and medium dimensions. There are some dozens of distinct types of machines in use, for no one type is suitable for all classes of moulds, while some are designed specially for one or two kinds only.
The fundamental principles of operation are briefly these: The pattern parts constitute, by their method of attachment to a plate or table A (fig. 10), an integral portion of the machine, so that they must partake of certain movements which are imparted to it. Often patterns mounted, as in fig. 10, are moulded by hand, without any aid from a machine, by methods of “plate-moulding.” The delivery of the pattern from the sand is invariably accomplished by a perpendicular movement of a portion of the machine (fig. 11), withdrawing either the pattern from the mould or the mould from the pattern. The important point is that the perpendicular movement, being under the coercion of the vertical guides provided in the hand machines, or the hydraulic ram in fig. 11, is free from the unsteadiness which is incidental to withdrawal by the hands of the moulder; and if the machine performed nothing more than this it would justify its existence. Little or no taper is required in the pattern, and the moulds are more nearly uniform in dimensions than hand-made moulds. But there are other advantages. In machine-moulding the joint faces for parting moulds are produced by the faces of the plates on which the pattern is mounted (figs. 10 and 11), instead of by the hands and trowel of the moulder. When the joint face is of irregular outline, as it often is, this item alone saves a good deal of time, which again is multiplied by the number of moulds repeated, often amounting to thousands. Further, provision is generally made on machine plates for the ingates and runners (fig. 10) through which the metal enters the mould, the preparation of which in hand work occupies a considerable amount of time. Another great advantage applies especially to the case of deep moulds. These give much trouble in hand-moulding in consequence of the liability of the sand to become torn up during the withdrawal of the pattern. But in machine-moulding such patterns are encircled by a plate, termed a “stripping plate,” which is pierced to allow the patterns to pass through, and which, being maintained firmly on the sand during the lifting of the pattern, prevents it from becoming torn up. This is not merely a matter of convenience, but is a necessity in numerous instances. The most familiar example is that of the teeth of gear wheels, in which even a very slight amount of taper interferes with accurate engagement, and this is representative of many other portions of mechanism. These stripping plates are of metal, but in order to save the cost of filing them in iron or steel, many are cheaply made by casting a white metal alloy round the actual pattern itself in the first place, the white metal being enclosed and retained in a plain iron frame which forms the body of the plate. Lastly, many machines, but not the majority, include provision for mechanically ramming the sand around the pattern by power instead of by hand. This is really the least valuable feature of a moulding machine, because it is not applicable to any but rather shallow moulds. It is commonly used for these, but the consistence and homogeneity of a mass of sand round a pattern having deep perpendicular sides can only be ensured by careful hand ramming.Fig. 11.The highest economies of machine-moulding are obtained when (1) several small patterns are mounted and moulded at once on a single plate (fig. 10); (2) when top and bottom parts of a mould are produced on different machines, carrying each its moiety of the pattern; (3) when the machine and pattern details are simplified so much that the labour of trained moulders is displaced by that of unskilled attendants who are taught in a month or two the few simple operations required. That is the direction in which repetitive casting is now rapidly tending.In fig. 11 A is the plate, which in its essentials corresponds with the plate A in fig. 10, but which in the machine is made to swivel so as to bring each half of the pattern B, B in turn uppermost for ramming in the box parts C, C. The ramming is done by hand, the final squeeze being imparted against the presser D by the action of the hydraulic ram E pushing the plate, mould and box up against D. The plate being then lowered, and turned over, the further descent of the ram withdraws the bottom box from the pattern, which is the stage seen in the illustration. Then the half mould is run away on the carriage F, provided with wheels to run on rails.Though casting in iron, steel, the bronzes, aluminium, &c., iscarried on by different men in distinct shops, yet the foregoing principles and methods apply to all alike. Work is done in green,i.e.moist sand, in dry sand (the moulds being dried before being used), and in plastic loam (which is subsequently dried). Hand and machine moulding are practised in each, the last-named excepted. The differences in working are those due to the various characteristics of the different metals and alloys, which involve differences in the sand mixtures used, in the dimensions of the pouring channels, of the temperature at which the metal or alloy must be poured, of the fluxing and cleansing of the metal, and other details of a practical character. Hence the practice which is suitable for one department must be modified in others. Many castings in steel would inevitably fracture if poured into moulds prepared for iron, many iron castings would fracture if poured into moulds suitable for brass, and neither brass nor steel would fill a mould having ingates proportioned suitably for iron.A special kind of casting is that into “chill moulds,” adopted in a considerable number of iron castings, such as the railway wheels in the United States, ordinary tramway wheels, the rolls of iron and steel rolling mills, the bores of cast wheel hubs, &c. The chill ranges in depth from ¼ in. to 1 in., and is produced by pouring a special mixture of mottled, or strong, iron against a cold iron surface, the parts of the casting which are not required to be chilled being surrounded by an ordinary mould of sand. The purpose of chill-casting is to produce a surface hardness in the metal.The shrinkage of metal is a fact which has to be taken account of by the pattern-maker and moulder. A pattern and mould are made larger than the size of the casting required by the exact amount that the metal will shrink in cooling from the molten to the cold state. This amount varies from1⁄8in. in 15 in., in thin iron castings, to1⁄8in. in 12 in. in heavy ones. It ranges from3⁄16in. to5⁄16in. per foot in steel, brass and aluminium. Its variable amount has to be borne in mind in making light and heavy-castings, and castings with or without cores, for massive cores retard shrinkage. It is also a fruitful cause of fracture in badly proportioned castings, particularly of those in steel. Brass is less liable to suffer in this respect than iron, and iron much less than steel.
The fundamental principles of operation are briefly these: The pattern parts constitute, by their method of attachment to a plate or table A (fig. 10), an integral portion of the machine, so that they must partake of certain movements which are imparted to it. Often patterns mounted, as in fig. 10, are moulded by hand, without any aid from a machine, by methods of “plate-moulding.” The delivery of the pattern from the sand is invariably accomplished by a perpendicular movement of a portion of the machine (fig. 11), withdrawing either the pattern from the mould or the mould from the pattern. The important point is that the perpendicular movement, being under the coercion of the vertical guides provided in the hand machines, or the hydraulic ram in fig. 11, is free from the unsteadiness which is incidental to withdrawal by the hands of the moulder; and if the machine performed nothing more than this it would justify its existence. Little or no taper is required in the pattern, and the moulds are more nearly uniform in dimensions than hand-made moulds. But there are other advantages. In machine-moulding the joint faces for parting moulds are produced by the faces of the plates on which the pattern is mounted (figs. 10 and 11), instead of by the hands and trowel of the moulder. When the joint face is of irregular outline, as it often is, this item alone saves a good deal of time, which again is multiplied by the number of moulds repeated, often amounting to thousands. Further, provision is generally made on machine plates for the ingates and runners (fig. 10) through which the metal enters the mould, the preparation of which in hand work occupies a considerable amount of time. Another great advantage applies especially to the case of deep moulds. These give much trouble in hand-moulding in consequence of the liability of the sand to become torn up during the withdrawal of the pattern. But in machine-moulding such patterns are encircled by a plate, termed a “stripping plate,” which is pierced to allow the patterns to pass through, and which, being maintained firmly on the sand during the lifting of the pattern, prevents it from becoming torn up. This is not merely a matter of convenience, but is a necessity in numerous instances. The most familiar example is that of the teeth of gear wheels, in which even a very slight amount of taper interferes with accurate engagement, and this is representative of many other portions of mechanism. These stripping plates are of metal, but in order to save the cost of filing them in iron or steel, many are cheaply made by casting a white metal alloy round the actual pattern itself in the first place, the white metal being enclosed and retained in a plain iron frame which forms the body of the plate. Lastly, many machines, but not the majority, include provision for mechanically ramming the sand around the pattern by power instead of by hand. This is really the least valuable feature of a moulding machine, because it is not applicable to any but rather shallow moulds. It is commonly used for these, but the consistence and homogeneity of a mass of sand round a pattern having deep perpendicular sides can only be ensured by careful hand ramming.
The highest economies of machine-moulding are obtained when (1) several small patterns are mounted and moulded at once on a single plate (fig. 10); (2) when top and bottom parts of a mould are produced on different machines, carrying each its moiety of the pattern; (3) when the machine and pattern details are simplified so much that the labour of trained moulders is displaced by that of unskilled attendants who are taught in a month or two the few simple operations required. That is the direction in which repetitive casting is now rapidly tending.
In fig. 11 A is the plate, which in its essentials corresponds with the plate A in fig. 10, but which in the machine is made to swivel so as to bring each half of the pattern B, B in turn uppermost for ramming in the box parts C, C. The ramming is done by hand, the final squeeze being imparted against the presser D by the action of the hydraulic ram E pushing the plate, mould and box up against D. The plate being then lowered, and turned over, the further descent of the ram withdraws the bottom box from the pattern, which is the stage seen in the illustration. Then the half mould is run away on the carriage F, provided with wheels to run on rails.
Though casting in iron, steel, the bronzes, aluminium, &c., iscarried on by different men in distinct shops, yet the foregoing principles and methods apply to all alike. Work is done in green,i.e.moist sand, in dry sand (the moulds being dried before being used), and in plastic loam (which is subsequently dried). Hand and machine moulding are practised in each, the last-named excepted. The differences in working are those due to the various characteristics of the different metals and alloys, which involve differences in the sand mixtures used, in the dimensions of the pouring channels, of the temperature at which the metal or alloy must be poured, of the fluxing and cleansing of the metal, and other details of a practical character. Hence the practice which is suitable for one department must be modified in others. Many castings in steel would inevitably fracture if poured into moulds prepared for iron, many iron castings would fracture if poured into moulds suitable for brass, and neither brass nor steel would fill a mould having ingates proportioned suitably for iron.
A special kind of casting is that into “chill moulds,” adopted in a considerable number of iron castings, such as the railway wheels in the United States, ordinary tramway wheels, the rolls of iron and steel rolling mills, the bores of cast wheel hubs, &c. The chill ranges in depth from ¼ in. to 1 in., and is produced by pouring a special mixture of mottled, or strong, iron against a cold iron surface, the parts of the casting which are not required to be chilled being surrounded by an ordinary mould of sand. The purpose of chill-casting is to produce a surface hardness in the metal.
The shrinkage of metal is a fact which has to be taken account of by the pattern-maker and moulder. A pattern and mould are made larger than the size of the casting required by the exact amount that the metal will shrink in cooling from the molten to the cold state. This amount varies from1⁄8in. in 15 in., in thin iron castings, to1⁄8in. in 12 in. in heavy ones. It ranges from3⁄16in. to5⁄16in. per foot in steel, brass and aluminium. Its variable amount has to be borne in mind in making light and heavy-castings, and castings with or without cores, for massive cores retard shrinkage. It is also a fruitful cause of fracture in badly proportioned castings, particularly of those in steel. Brass is less liable to suffer in this respect than iron, and iron much less than steel.
(J. G. H.)
FOUNDLING HOSPITALS,originally institutions for the reception of “foundlings,”i.e.children who have been abandoned or exposed, and left for the public to find and save. The early history of such institutions is connected with the practice of infanticide, and in western Europe where social disorder was rife and famine of frequent occurrence, exposure and extensive sales of children were the necessary consequences. Against these evils, which were noticed by several councils, the church provided a rough system of relief, children being deposited (jactati) in marble shells at the church doors, and tended first by thematriculariior male nurses, and then by thenutricariior foster-parents.1But it was in the 7th and 8th centuries that definite institutions for foundlings were established in such towns as Trèves, Milan and Montpellier. In the 15th century Garcias, archbishop of Valencia, was a conspicuous figure in this charitable work; but his fame is entirely eclipsed by that of St Vincent de Paul, who in the reign of Louis XIII., with the help of the countess of Joigny, Mme le Gras and other religious ladies, rescued the foundlings of Paris from the horrors of a primitive institution named La Couche (rue St Landry), and ultimately obtained from Louis XIV. the use of the Bicêtre for their accommodation. Letters patent were granted to the Paris hospital in 1670. The Hôtel-Dieu of Lyons was the next in importance. No provision, however, was made outside the great towns; the houses in the cities were overcrowded and administered with laxity; and in 1784 Necker prophesied that the state would yet be seriously embarrassed by this increasing evil.2From 1452 to 1789 the law had imposed on theseigneurs de haute justicethe duty of succouring children found deserted on their territories. The first constitutions of the Revolution undertook as a state debt the support of every foundling. For a time premiums were given to the mothers of illegitimate children, the “enfants de la patrie.” By the law of 12 Brumaire, An II. “Toute recherche de la paternité est interdite,” while by art. 341 of the Code Napoléon, “la recherche de la matérnité est admise.”
France.—The laws of France relating to this part of what is called L’Assistance Publique are the decree of January 1811, the instruction of February 1823, the decree of the 5th of March 1852, the law of the 5th of May 1869, the law of the 24th of July 1889 and the law of the 27th of June 1904. These laws carry out the general principles of the law of 7 Frimaire An V., which completely decentralized the system of national poor relief established by the Revolution. Theenfants assistésinclude, besides (1) orphans and (2) foundlings proper, (3) children abandoned by their parents, (4) ill-treated, neglected or morally abandoned children whose parents have been deprived of their parental rights by the decision of a court of justice, (5) children, under sixteen years of age, of parents condemned for certain crimes, whose parental rights have been delegated by a tribunal to the state. Children classified under 1-5 are termedpupilles de l’assistance, “wards of public charity,” and are distinguished by the law of 1904 from children under the protection of the state, classified as: (1)enfants secourus,i.e.children whose parents or relatives are unable, through poverty, to support them; (2)enfants en dépôt,i.e.children of persons undergoing a judicial sentence and children temporarily taken in while their parents are in hospital, and (3)enfants en garde,i.e.children who have either committed or been the victim of some felony or crime and are placed under state care by judicial authority. The asylum which receives all these children is a departmental (établissement dépositaire), and not a communal institution. The établissement dépositaire is usually the ward of an hospice, in which—with the exception of childrenen dépôt—the stay is of the shortest, for by the law of 1904, continuing the principle laid down in 1811, all children under thirteen years of age under the guardianship of the state, except the mentally or physically infirm, must be boarded out in country districts. They are generally apprenticed to some one engaged in the agricultural industry, and until majority they remain under the guardianship of the administrative commissioners of the department. The state pays the whole of the cost of inspection and supervision. The expenses of administration, the “home” expenses, for the nurse (nourrice sédentaire) or the wet nurse (nourrice au sein), theprime de survie(premium on survival), washing, clothes, and the “outdoor” expenses, which include (1) temporary assistance to unmarried mothers in order to prevent desertion; (2) allowances to the foster-parents (nourriciers) in the country for board, school-money, &c.; (3) clothing; (4) travelling-money for nurses and children; (5) printing, &c.; (6) expenses in time of sickness and for burials and apprentice fees—are borne in the proportion of two-fifths by the state two-fifths by the department, and the remaining fifth by the communes. The following figures show the number of children (exclusive ofenfants secourus) relieved at various periods:Year.Number relieved.189095,7011895121,2011900138,3081905149,803Thedroit de rechercheis conceded to the parent on payment of a small fee. The decree of 1811 contemplated the repayment of all expenses by a parent reclaiming a child. The same decree directed atouror revolving box (Drehcylinderin Germany) to be kept at each hospital. These have been discontinued. The “Assistance Publique” of Paris is managed by a “directeur” appointed by the minister of the interior, and associated with a representativeconseil de surveillance. The Paris Hospice des Enfants-Assistés contains about 700 beds. There are also in Paris numerous private charities for the adoption of poor children and orphans. It is impossible here to give even a sketch of the long and able controversies which have occurred in France on the principles of management of foundling hospitals, the advantages oftoursand the system of admissionà bureau ouvert, the transfer of orphans from one department to another, the hygiene and service of hospitals and the inspection of nurses, the education and reclamation of the children and the rights of the state in their future. Reference may be made to the works noticed at the end of this article.Belgium.—In this country the arrangements for the relief of foundlings and the appropriation of public funds for that purpose very much resemble those in France, and can hardly be usefully described apart from the general questions of local government and poor law administration. The Commissions des Hospices Civiles, however, are purely communal bodies, although they receive pecuniary assistance from both the departments and the state. A decree of 1811 directed that there should be an asylum and a wheel for receiving foundlings in every arrondissement. The last “wheel,” that of Antwerp, was closed in 1860. (SeeDes Institutions de bienfaisance et de prévoyance en Belgique, 1850 à 1860, par M.P. Lentz.)Italyis very rich in foundling hospitals, pure and simple, orphans and other destitute children being separately provided for. (SeeDella carità preventiva in Italia, by Signor Fano.) In Rome one branch of the Santo Spirito in Sassia (so called from the Schola Saxonum built in 728 by King Ina in the Borgo) has, since the time of Pope Sixtus IV., been devoted to foundlings. The average annual number of foundlings supported is about 3000. (SeeThe Charitable Institutions of Rome, by Cardinal Morichini.) In Venice the Casa degli Esposti or foundling hospital, founded in 1346, and receiving 450 children annually, is under provincial administration. The splendid legacy of the last doge, Ludovico Manin, is applied to thesupport of about 160 children by the “Congregazione di Carità” acting through 30 parish boards (deputazione fraternate).Austria.—In Austria foundling hospitals occupied a very prominent place in the general instructions which, by rescript dated 16th of April 1781, the emperor Joseph II. issued to the charitable endowment commission. In 1818 foundling asylums and lying-in houses were declared to be state institutions. They were accordingly supported by the state treasury until the fundamental law of 20th October 1860 handed them over to the provincial committees. They are now local institutions, depending on provincial funds, and are quite separate from the ordinary parochial poor institute. Admission is gratuitous when the child is actually found on the street, or is sent by a criminal court, or where the mother undertakes to serve for four months as nurse or midwife in an asylum, or produces a certificate from the parish priest and “poor-father” (the parish inspector of the poor-law administration) that she has no money. In other cases payments of 30 to 100 florins are made. When two months old the child is sent for six or ten years to the houses in the neighbourhood of respectable married persons, who have certificates from the police or the poor-law authorities, and who are inspected by the latter and by a special medical officer. These persons receive a constantly diminishing allowance, and the arrangement may be determined by 14 days’ notice on either side. The foster-parents may retain the child in their service or employment till the age of twenty-two, but the true parents may at any time reclaim the foundling on reimbursing the asylum and compensating the foster-parents.Russia.—Under the old Russian system of Peter I. foundlings were received at the church windows by a staff of women paid by the state. But since the reign of Catherine II. the foundling hospitals have been in the hands of the provincial officer of public charity (prykaz obshestvennago pryzrenya). The great central institutions (Vospitatelnoi Dom), at Moscow and St Petersburg (with a branch at Gatchina), were founded by Catherine. When a child is brought the baptismal name is asked, and a receipt is given, by which the child may be reclaimed up to the age of ten. The mother may nurse her child. After the usual period of six years in the country very great care is taken with the education, especially of the more promising children. The hospital is a valuable source of recruits for the public service. Malthus (The Principles of Population, vol. i. p. 434) has made a violent attack on these Russian charities. He argues that they discourage marriage and therefore population, and that the best management is unable to prevent a high mortality. He adds: “An occasional child murder from false shame is saved at a very high price if it can be done only by the sacrifice of some of the best and most useful feelings of the human heart in a great part of the nation.” It does not appear, however, that the rate of illegitimacy in Russia is comparatively high; it is so in the two great cities. The rights of parents over the children were very much restricted, and those of the government much extended by a ukase issued by the emperor Nicholas in 1837. The most eminent Russian writer on this subject is M. Gourov. See hisRecherches sur les enfants trouvés, andEssai sur l’histoire des enfants trouvés(Paris, 1829).InAmerica, foundling hospitals, which are chiefly private charities, exist in most of the large cities.Great Britain.—The Foundling Hospital of London was incorporated by royal charter in 1739 “for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children.” The petition of Captain Thomas Coram, who is entitled to the whole credit of the foundation,3states as its objects “to prevent the frequent murders of poor miserable children at their birth, and to suppress the inhuman custom of exposing new-born infants to perish in the streets.” At first no questions were asked about child or parent, but a distinguishing mark was put on each child by the parent. These were often marked coins, trinkets, pieces of cotton or ribbon, verses written on scraps of paper. The clothes, if any, were carefully recorded. One entry is, “Paper on the breast, clout on the head.” The applications became too numerous, and a system of balloting with red, white and black balls was adopted. In 1756 the House of Commons came to a resolution that all children offered should be received, that local receiving places should be appointed all over the country, and that the funds should be publicly guaranteed. A basket was accordingly hung outside the hospital; the maximum age for admission was raised from two to twelve months, and a flood of children poured in from the country workhouses. In less than four years 14,934 children were presented, and a vile trade grew up among vagrants of undertaking to carry children from the country to the hospital,—an undertaking which, like the Frenchmeneurs, they often did not perform or performed with great cruelty. Of these 15,000 only 4400 lived to be apprenticed out. The total expense was about £500,000. This alarmed the House of Commons. After throwing out a bill which proposed to raise the necessary funds by fees from a general system of parochial registration, they came to the conclusion that the indiscriminate admission should be discontinued. The hospital, being thus thrown on its own resources, adopted a pernicious system of receiving children with considerable sums (e.g.£100), which sometimes led to the children being reclaimed by the parent. This was finally stopped in 1801; and it is now a fundamental rule that no money is received. The committee of inquiry must now be satisfied of the previous good character and present necessity of the mother, and that the father of the child has deserted it and the mother, and that the reception of the child will probably replace the mother in the course of virtue and in the way of an honest livelihood. All the children at the Foundling hospital are those of unmarried women, and they are all first children of their mothers. The principle is in fact that laid down by Fielding inTom Jones—“Too true I am afraid it is that many women have become abandoned and have sunk to the last degree of vice by being unable to retrieve the first slip.” At present the hospital supports about 500 children up to the age of fifteen. The average annual number of applications is over 200, and of admissions between 40 and 50. The children used to be named after the patrons and governors, but the treasurer now prepares a list. Children are seldom taken after they are twelve months old. On reception they are sent down to the country, where they stay until they are about four or five years old. At sixteen the girls are generally apprenticed as servants for four years, and the boys at the age of fourteen as mechanics for seven years. There is a small benevolent fund for adults. The musical service, which was originally sung by the blind children only, was made fashionable by the generosity of Handel, who frequently had the “Messiah” performed there, and who bequeathed to the hospital a MS. copy (full score) of his greatest oratorio. The altar-piece is West’s picture of Christ presenting a little Child. In 1774 Dr Burney and Signor Giardini made an unsuccessful attempt to form in connexion with the hospital a public music school, in imitation of the Conservatorium of the Continent. In 1847, however, a successful “Juvenile Band” was started. The educational effects of music have been found excellent, and the hospital supplies many musicians to the best army and navy bands. The early connexion between the hospital and the eminent painters of the reign of George II. is one of extreme interest. The exhibitions of pictures at the Foundling, which were organized by the Dilettanti Club, undoubtedly led to the formation of the Royal Academy in 1768. Hogarth painted a portrait of Captain Coram for the hospital, which also contains his March to Finchley, and Roubillac’s bust of Handel. (SeeHistory and Objects of the Foundling Hospital, with Memoir of its Founder, by J. Brownlow.)In 1704 the Foundling hospital of Dublin was opened. No inquiry was made about the parents, and no money received. From 1500 to 2000 children were received annually. A large income was derived from a duty on coal and the produce of car licences. In 1822 an admission fee of £5 was charged on the parish from which the child came. This reduced the annual arrivals to about 500. In 1829 the select committee on the Irish miscellaneous estimates recommended that no further assistance should be given. The hospital had not preserved life or educated the foundlings. The mortality was nearly 4 in 5, and the total cost £10,000 a year. Accordingly in 1835 Lord Glenelg (then Irish Secretary) closed the institution.Scotland never seems to have possessed a foundling hospital. In 1759 John Watson left funds which were to be applied to the pious and charitable purpose “of preventing child murder” by the establishment of a hospital for receiving pregnant women and taking care of their children as foundlings. But by an act of parliament in 1822, which sets forth “doubts as to the propriety” of the original purpose, the money was given to trustees to erect a hospital for the maintenance and education of destitute children.Authorities.—Histoire statistique et morale des enfants trouvésby MM. Terme et Montfalcon (Paris, 1837) (the authors were eminent medical men at Lyons, connected with the administration of the foundling hospital); Remacle,Des hospices d’enfants trouvés en Europe(Paris, 1838); HügelDie Findelhäuser und das Findelwesen Europas(Vienna, 1863); Emminghaus, “Das Armenwesen und die Armengesetzgebung,” inEuropäischen Staaten(Berlin, 1870); Sennichon,Histoire des enfants abandonnés(Paris, 1880); the annualRapport sur le service des enfants assistés du département de la Seine; Epstein,Studien zur Frage der Findelanstalten(Prague, 1882); Florence D. Hill,Children of the State(2nd ed., 1889). For United States, see H. Folks,Care of Neglected and Dependent Children(1901); A.G. Warner,American Charities(enlarged, 1908) andReports of Massachusetts State Board of Charities. Information may also be got in theReports on Poor Laws in Foreign Countries, communicated to the Local Government Board by the foreign secretary;Accounts and Papers(1875), vol. lxv. c. 1225;Report of Committee on the Infant Life Protection Bill(1890);Report of Lords Committee on the Infant Life Protection Bill(1896). (See alsoCharity and Charities.)
France.—The laws of France relating to this part of what is called L’Assistance Publique are the decree of January 1811, the instruction of February 1823, the decree of the 5th of March 1852, the law of the 5th of May 1869, the law of the 24th of July 1889 and the law of the 27th of June 1904. These laws carry out the general principles of the law of 7 Frimaire An V., which completely decentralized the system of national poor relief established by the Revolution. Theenfants assistésinclude, besides (1) orphans and (2) foundlings proper, (3) children abandoned by their parents, (4) ill-treated, neglected or morally abandoned children whose parents have been deprived of their parental rights by the decision of a court of justice, (5) children, under sixteen years of age, of parents condemned for certain crimes, whose parental rights have been delegated by a tribunal to the state. Children classified under 1-5 are termedpupilles de l’assistance, “wards of public charity,” and are distinguished by the law of 1904 from children under the protection of the state, classified as: (1)enfants secourus,i.e.children whose parents or relatives are unable, through poverty, to support them; (2)enfants en dépôt,i.e.children of persons undergoing a judicial sentence and children temporarily taken in while their parents are in hospital, and (3)enfants en garde,i.e.children who have either committed or been the victim of some felony or crime and are placed under state care by judicial authority. The asylum which receives all these children is a departmental (établissement dépositaire), and not a communal institution. The établissement dépositaire is usually the ward of an hospice, in which—with the exception of childrenen dépôt—the stay is of the shortest, for by the law of 1904, continuing the principle laid down in 1811, all children under thirteen years of age under the guardianship of the state, except the mentally or physically infirm, must be boarded out in country districts. They are generally apprenticed to some one engaged in the agricultural industry, and until majority they remain under the guardianship of the administrative commissioners of the department. The state pays the whole of the cost of inspection and supervision. The expenses of administration, the “home” expenses, for the nurse (nourrice sédentaire) or the wet nurse (nourrice au sein), theprime de survie(premium on survival), washing, clothes, and the “outdoor” expenses, which include (1) temporary assistance to unmarried mothers in order to prevent desertion; (2) allowances to the foster-parents (nourriciers) in the country for board, school-money, &c.; (3) clothing; (4) travelling-money for nurses and children; (5) printing, &c.; (6) expenses in time of sickness and for burials and apprentice fees—are borne in the proportion of two-fifths by the state two-fifths by the department, and the remaining fifth by the communes. The following figures show the number of children (exclusive ofenfants secourus) relieved at various periods:
Thedroit de rechercheis conceded to the parent on payment of a small fee. The decree of 1811 contemplated the repayment of all expenses by a parent reclaiming a child. The same decree directed atouror revolving box (Drehcylinderin Germany) to be kept at each hospital. These have been discontinued. The “Assistance Publique” of Paris is managed by a “directeur” appointed by the minister of the interior, and associated with a representativeconseil de surveillance. The Paris Hospice des Enfants-Assistés contains about 700 beds. There are also in Paris numerous private charities for the adoption of poor children and orphans. It is impossible here to give even a sketch of the long and able controversies which have occurred in France on the principles of management of foundling hospitals, the advantages oftoursand the system of admissionà bureau ouvert, the transfer of orphans from one department to another, the hygiene and service of hospitals and the inspection of nurses, the education and reclamation of the children and the rights of the state in their future. Reference may be made to the works noticed at the end of this article.
Belgium.—In this country the arrangements for the relief of foundlings and the appropriation of public funds for that purpose very much resemble those in France, and can hardly be usefully described apart from the general questions of local government and poor law administration. The Commissions des Hospices Civiles, however, are purely communal bodies, although they receive pecuniary assistance from both the departments and the state. A decree of 1811 directed that there should be an asylum and a wheel for receiving foundlings in every arrondissement. The last “wheel,” that of Antwerp, was closed in 1860. (SeeDes Institutions de bienfaisance et de prévoyance en Belgique, 1850 à 1860, par M.P. Lentz.)
Italyis very rich in foundling hospitals, pure and simple, orphans and other destitute children being separately provided for. (SeeDella carità preventiva in Italia, by Signor Fano.) In Rome one branch of the Santo Spirito in Sassia (so called from the Schola Saxonum built in 728 by King Ina in the Borgo) has, since the time of Pope Sixtus IV., been devoted to foundlings. The average annual number of foundlings supported is about 3000. (SeeThe Charitable Institutions of Rome, by Cardinal Morichini.) In Venice the Casa degli Esposti or foundling hospital, founded in 1346, and receiving 450 children annually, is under provincial administration. The splendid legacy of the last doge, Ludovico Manin, is applied to thesupport of about 160 children by the “Congregazione di Carità” acting through 30 parish boards (deputazione fraternate).
Austria.—In Austria foundling hospitals occupied a very prominent place in the general instructions which, by rescript dated 16th of April 1781, the emperor Joseph II. issued to the charitable endowment commission. In 1818 foundling asylums and lying-in houses were declared to be state institutions. They were accordingly supported by the state treasury until the fundamental law of 20th October 1860 handed them over to the provincial committees. They are now local institutions, depending on provincial funds, and are quite separate from the ordinary parochial poor institute. Admission is gratuitous when the child is actually found on the street, or is sent by a criminal court, or where the mother undertakes to serve for four months as nurse or midwife in an asylum, or produces a certificate from the parish priest and “poor-father” (the parish inspector of the poor-law administration) that she has no money. In other cases payments of 30 to 100 florins are made. When two months old the child is sent for six or ten years to the houses in the neighbourhood of respectable married persons, who have certificates from the police or the poor-law authorities, and who are inspected by the latter and by a special medical officer. These persons receive a constantly diminishing allowance, and the arrangement may be determined by 14 days’ notice on either side. The foster-parents may retain the child in their service or employment till the age of twenty-two, but the true parents may at any time reclaim the foundling on reimbursing the asylum and compensating the foster-parents.
Russia.—Under the old Russian system of Peter I. foundlings were received at the church windows by a staff of women paid by the state. But since the reign of Catherine II. the foundling hospitals have been in the hands of the provincial officer of public charity (prykaz obshestvennago pryzrenya). The great central institutions (Vospitatelnoi Dom), at Moscow and St Petersburg (with a branch at Gatchina), were founded by Catherine. When a child is brought the baptismal name is asked, and a receipt is given, by which the child may be reclaimed up to the age of ten. The mother may nurse her child. After the usual period of six years in the country very great care is taken with the education, especially of the more promising children. The hospital is a valuable source of recruits for the public service. Malthus (The Principles of Population, vol. i. p. 434) has made a violent attack on these Russian charities. He argues that they discourage marriage and therefore population, and that the best management is unable to prevent a high mortality. He adds: “An occasional child murder from false shame is saved at a very high price if it can be done only by the sacrifice of some of the best and most useful feelings of the human heart in a great part of the nation.” It does not appear, however, that the rate of illegitimacy in Russia is comparatively high; it is so in the two great cities. The rights of parents over the children were very much restricted, and those of the government much extended by a ukase issued by the emperor Nicholas in 1837. The most eminent Russian writer on this subject is M. Gourov. See hisRecherches sur les enfants trouvés, andEssai sur l’histoire des enfants trouvés(Paris, 1829).
InAmerica, foundling hospitals, which are chiefly private charities, exist in most of the large cities.
Great Britain.—The Foundling Hospital of London was incorporated by royal charter in 1739 “for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children.” The petition of Captain Thomas Coram, who is entitled to the whole credit of the foundation,3states as its objects “to prevent the frequent murders of poor miserable children at their birth, and to suppress the inhuman custom of exposing new-born infants to perish in the streets.” At first no questions were asked about child or parent, but a distinguishing mark was put on each child by the parent. These were often marked coins, trinkets, pieces of cotton or ribbon, verses written on scraps of paper. The clothes, if any, were carefully recorded. One entry is, “Paper on the breast, clout on the head.” The applications became too numerous, and a system of balloting with red, white and black balls was adopted. In 1756 the House of Commons came to a resolution that all children offered should be received, that local receiving places should be appointed all over the country, and that the funds should be publicly guaranteed. A basket was accordingly hung outside the hospital; the maximum age for admission was raised from two to twelve months, and a flood of children poured in from the country workhouses. In less than four years 14,934 children were presented, and a vile trade grew up among vagrants of undertaking to carry children from the country to the hospital,—an undertaking which, like the Frenchmeneurs, they often did not perform or performed with great cruelty. Of these 15,000 only 4400 lived to be apprenticed out. The total expense was about £500,000. This alarmed the House of Commons. After throwing out a bill which proposed to raise the necessary funds by fees from a general system of parochial registration, they came to the conclusion that the indiscriminate admission should be discontinued. The hospital, being thus thrown on its own resources, adopted a pernicious system of receiving children with considerable sums (e.g.£100), which sometimes led to the children being reclaimed by the parent. This was finally stopped in 1801; and it is now a fundamental rule that no money is received. The committee of inquiry must now be satisfied of the previous good character and present necessity of the mother, and that the father of the child has deserted it and the mother, and that the reception of the child will probably replace the mother in the course of virtue and in the way of an honest livelihood. All the children at the Foundling hospital are those of unmarried women, and they are all first children of their mothers. The principle is in fact that laid down by Fielding inTom Jones—“Too true I am afraid it is that many women have become abandoned and have sunk to the last degree of vice by being unable to retrieve the first slip.” At present the hospital supports about 500 children up to the age of fifteen. The average annual number of applications is over 200, and of admissions between 40 and 50. The children used to be named after the patrons and governors, but the treasurer now prepares a list. Children are seldom taken after they are twelve months old. On reception they are sent down to the country, where they stay until they are about four or five years old. At sixteen the girls are generally apprenticed as servants for four years, and the boys at the age of fourteen as mechanics for seven years. There is a small benevolent fund for adults. The musical service, which was originally sung by the blind children only, was made fashionable by the generosity of Handel, who frequently had the “Messiah” performed there, and who bequeathed to the hospital a MS. copy (full score) of his greatest oratorio. The altar-piece is West’s picture of Christ presenting a little Child. In 1774 Dr Burney and Signor Giardini made an unsuccessful attempt to form in connexion with the hospital a public music school, in imitation of the Conservatorium of the Continent. In 1847, however, a successful “Juvenile Band” was started. The educational effects of music have been found excellent, and the hospital supplies many musicians to the best army and navy bands. The early connexion between the hospital and the eminent painters of the reign of George II. is one of extreme interest. The exhibitions of pictures at the Foundling, which were organized by the Dilettanti Club, undoubtedly led to the formation of the Royal Academy in 1768. Hogarth painted a portrait of Captain Coram for the hospital, which also contains his March to Finchley, and Roubillac’s bust of Handel. (SeeHistory and Objects of the Foundling Hospital, with Memoir of its Founder, by J. Brownlow.)
In 1704 the Foundling hospital of Dublin was opened. No inquiry was made about the parents, and no money received. From 1500 to 2000 children were received annually. A large income was derived from a duty on coal and the produce of car licences. In 1822 an admission fee of £5 was charged on the parish from which the child came. This reduced the annual arrivals to about 500. In 1829 the select committee on the Irish miscellaneous estimates recommended that no further assistance should be given. The hospital had not preserved life or educated the foundlings. The mortality was nearly 4 in 5, and the total cost £10,000 a year. Accordingly in 1835 Lord Glenelg (then Irish Secretary) closed the institution.
Scotland never seems to have possessed a foundling hospital. In 1759 John Watson left funds which were to be applied to the pious and charitable purpose “of preventing child murder” by the establishment of a hospital for receiving pregnant women and taking care of their children as foundlings. But by an act of parliament in 1822, which sets forth “doubts as to the propriety” of the original purpose, the money was given to trustees to erect a hospital for the maintenance and education of destitute children.
Authorities.—Histoire statistique et morale des enfants trouvésby MM. Terme et Montfalcon (Paris, 1837) (the authors were eminent medical men at Lyons, connected with the administration of the foundling hospital); Remacle,Des hospices d’enfants trouvés en Europe(Paris, 1838); HügelDie Findelhäuser und das Findelwesen Europas(Vienna, 1863); Emminghaus, “Das Armenwesen und die Armengesetzgebung,” inEuropäischen Staaten(Berlin, 1870); Sennichon,Histoire des enfants abandonnés(Paris, 1880); the annualRapport sur le service des enfants assistés du département de la Seine; Epstein,Studien zur Frage der Findelanstalten(Prague, 1882); Florence D. Hill,Children of the State(2nd ed., 1889). For United States, see H. Folks,Care of Neglected and Dependent Children(1901); A.G. Warner,American Charities(enlarged, 1908) andReports of Massachusetts State Board of Charities. Information may also be got in theReports on Poor Laws in Foreign Countries, communicated to the Local Government Board by the foreign secretary;Accounts and Papers(1875), vol. lxv. c. 1225;Report of Committee on the Infant Life Protection Bill(1890);Report of Lords Committee on the Infant Life Protection Bill(1896). (See alsoCharity and Charities.)
1SeeCapitularia regum Francorum, ii. 474.2De l’administration des finances, iii. 136; see also the article “Enfant exposé” in Diderot’sEncyclopédie, 1755, and Chamousset’sMémoire politique sur les enfants,1757.3Addison had suggested such a charity (Guardian, No. 3).
1SeeCapitularia regum Francorum, ii. 474.
2De l’administration des finances, iii. 136; see also the article “Enfant exposé” in Diderot’sEncyclopédie, 1755, and Chamousset’sMémoire politique sur les enfants,1757.
3Addison had suggested such a charity (Guardian, No. 3).
FOUNTAIN(Late Lat.fontana, fromfons, a spring), a term applied in a restricted sense to such outlets of water as, whether fed by natural or artificial means, have contrivances of human art at a point where the water emerges. A very early existing example is preserved in the carved Babylonian basin (about 3000B.C.) found at Tello, the ancient Lagash, and Layard mentions an Assyrian fountain, found by him in a gorge of the river Gomel,which consists of a series of basins cut in the solid rock and descending in steps to the stream. The water had been originally led from one to the other by small conduits, the lowest of which was ornamented by two rampant lions in relief. The term is applied equally to the simpler arrangements for letting water gush into an ornamental basin or to the more elaborate ones by which water is mechanically forced into high jets; and a “fountain” may be either the ornamental receptacle or the jet of water itself. In modern times the examples of ornamental or useful fountains are legion, and it will suffice here to mention some of the more important facts of historical interest.
Among the Greeks fountains were very common in the cities. Springs being very plentiful in Greece, little engineering skill was required to convey the water from place to place. Receptacles of sufficient size were made for it at the springs; and to maintain its purity, structures were raised enclosing and covering the receptacle. In Greece they were dedicated to gods and goddesses, nymphs and heroes, and were frequently placed in or near temples. That of Pirene at Corinth (mentioned also by Herodotus) was formed of white stone, and contained a number of cells from which the pleasant water flowed into an open basin. Legend connects it with the nymph Pirene, who shed such copious tears, when bewailing her son who had been slain by Diana, that she was changed into a fountain. The city of Corinth possessed many fountains. In one near the statues of Diana and Bellerophon the water flowed through the hoofs of the horse Pegasus. The fountain of Glauce, enclosed in the Odeum, was dedicated to Glauce, because she was said to have thrown herself into it believing that its waters could counteract the poisons of Medea. Another Corinthian fountain had a bronze statue of Poseidon standing on a dolphin from which the water flowed. The fountain constructed by Theagenes at Megara was remarkable for its size and decorations, and for the number of its columns. One at Lerna was surrounded with pillars, and the structure contained a number of seats affording a cool summer retreat. Near Pharae was a grove dedicated to Apollo, and in it a fountain of water. Pausanias gives a definite architectural detail when he says that a fountain at Patrae was reached from without by descending steps. Mystical, medicinal, surgical and other qualities, as well as supernatural origin, were ascribed to fountains. One at Cyane in Lycia was said to possess the quality of endowing all persons descending into it with power to see whatever they desired to see; while the legends of fountains and other waters with strange powers to heal are numerous in many lands. The fountain Enneacrunus at Athens was called Callirrhoe before the time the water was drawn from it by the nine pipes from which it took its later name. Two temples were above it, according to Pausanias, one dedicated to Demeter and Persephone, and the other to Triptolemus. The fountain in the temple of Erechtheus at Athens was supplied by a spring of salt water, and a similar spring supplied that in the temple of Poseidon Hippios at Mantinea.
The water-supply of Rome and the works auxiliary to it were on a scale to be expected from a people of such great practical power. The remains of the aqueducts which stretched from the city across the Campagna are amongst the most striking monuments of Italy. Vitruvius (book viii.) gives minute particulars concerning the methods to be employed for the discovery, testing and distribution of water, and describes the properties of different waters with great care, proving the importance which was attached to these matters by the Romans. The aqueducts supplied the baths and the public fountains, from which last all the populace, except such as could afford to pay for a separate pipe to their houses, obtained their water. These fountains were therefore of large size and numerous. They were formed at many of thecastellaof the aqueducts. According to Vitruvius, eachcastellumshould have three pipes,—one for public fountains, one for baths and the third for private houses. Considerable revenue was drawn from the possessors of private water-pipes. The Roman fountains were generally decorated with figures and heads. Fountains were often also the ornament of Roman villas and country houses; in those so situated the water generally ally fell from above into a large marble basin, with at times a second fall into a still lower receptacle. Two adjacent houses in Pompeii had very remarkable fountains. One, says Gell, “is covered with a sort of mosaic consisting of vitrified tesserae of different colours, but in which blue predominates. These are sometimes arranged in not inelegant patterns, and the grand divisions as well as the borders are entirely formed and ornamented with real sea-shells, neither calcined by the heat of the eruption nor changed by the lapse of so many centuries” (Pompeiana, i. 196). Another of large size was similarly decorated with marine shells, and is supposed to have borne two sculptured figures, one of which, a bronze, is in the museum at Naples. This fountain projects 5 ft. 7 in. from the wall against which it is placed, and is 7 ft. wide in front, while the height of the structure up to the eaves of the pediment is 7 ft. 7 in. On a central column in the piscina was a statue of Cupid, with a dove, from the mouth of which water issued. Cicero had, at his villa at Formiae, a fountain which was decorated with marine shells.
Fountains were very common in the open spaces and at the crossways in Pompeii. They were supplied by leaden pipes from the reservoirs, and had little ornament except a human or animal head, from the mouth of which it was arranged that the water should issue. Not only did simple running fountains exist, but the remains ofjets d’eauhave been found; and a drawing exists representing a vase with a double jet of water, standing on a pedestal placed in what is supposed to have been the impluvium of a house. There was also ajet d’eauat the eastern end of the peristyle of the Fullonica at Pompeii.
As among the Greeks, so with the early Celts, traces of superstitious beliefs and usages with relation to fountains can be traced in monumental and legendary remains. Near the village of Primaleon in Brittany was a very remarkable monument,—one possibly unique, as giving distinct proof of the existence of an ancient cult of fountains. Here is a dolmen composed of a horizontal table supported by two stones only, one at each end. All the space beneath this altar is occupied by a long square basin formed of large flat stones, which receives a fountain of water. At Lochrist is another vestige of the Celtic cult of fountains. Beneath the church, and at the foot of the hill upon which it is built, is a sacred fountain, near which is erected an ancient chapel, which with its ivy-covered walls has a most romantic appearance. A Gothic vault protects this fountain. Miraculous virtues are still attributed to its water, and on certain days the country people still come with offerings to draw it (see La Poix de Freminville,Antiquités de la Bretagne, i. p. 101). In the enchanted forest of Brochelande, so famous from its connexion with Merlin, was the fountain of Baranton, which was said to possess strange characteristics. Whoever drew water from it, and sprinkled the steps therewith, produced a tremendous storm of thunder and hail, accompanied with thick darkness.
Christianity transferred to its own uses the ancient religious feeling concerning fountains. Statues of the Virgin or of saints were erected upon the rude structures that collected the water and preserved its purity. There is some uniformity in the architectural characteristics of these structures during the middle ages. A very common form in rural districts was that in which the fountain was reached by descending steps (fontaine grotte). A large basin received the water, sometimes from a spout, but often from the spring itself. This basin was covered by a sort of porch or vault, with at times moulded arches and sculptured figures and escutcheons. On the bank of the Clain at Poitiers is a fountain of this kind, the Fontaine Joubert, which though restored in 1597 was originally a structure of the 14th century. This kind of fountain is frequently decorated with figures of the Virgin or of saints, or with the family arms of its founder; often, too, the water is the only ornament of the structure, which bears a simple inscription. A large number of these fountains are to be found in Brittany and indeed throughout France, and the great antiquity of some of them is proved by the superstitions regarding them which still exist amongst the peasantry. A form more common in populous districts was that of a large open basin, round, square, polygonal, or lobed inform, with a columnar structure at the centre, from the lower part of which it was arranged that spouts should issue, playing into an open basin, and supplying vessels brought for the purpose in the cleanest and quickest manner. The columns take very various forms, from that of a simple regular geometrical solid, with only grotesque masks at the spouts, to that of an elaborate and ornate Gothic structure, with figures of virgins, saints and warriors, with mouldings, arches, crockets and finials. At Provins there is a fountain said to be of the 12th century, which is in form an hexagonal vase with a large column in the centre, the capital of which is pierced by three mouths, which are furnished with heads of bronze projecting far enough to cast the water into the basin. In the public market-place at Brunswick is a fountain of the 15th century, of which the central structure is made of bronze. Many fountains are still existing in France and Germany which, though their actual present structure may date no earlier than the 15th or 16th century, have been found on the place of, and perhaps may almost be considered as restorations of, pre-existing fountains. Except in Italy few fountains are of earlier date than the 14th century. Two of that date are at the abbey of Fontaine Daniel, near Mayenne, and another, of granite, is at Limoges. Some of these middle-age fountains are simple, open reservoirs enclosed in structures which, however plain, still carry the charm that belongs to the stone-work of those times. There is one of this kind at Cully, Calvados, walled on three sides, and fed from the spring by two circular openings. Its only ornamentation is a small empty niche with mouldings. At Lincoln is a fountain of the time of Henry VIII., in front of the church of St Mary Wickford. At Durham is one of octangular plan, which bears a statue of Neptune.
The decay of architectural taste in the later centuries is shown by the fountain of Limoges. It is in form a rock representing Mount Parnassus, upon which are carved in relief Apollo, the horse Pegasus, Philosophy and the Nine Muses. At the top Apollo, in the 16th-century costume, plays a harp. Rocks, grass and sheep fill up the scene.
Purely ornamental fountains andjets d’eauare found in or near many large cities, royal palaces and private seats. The celebrated Fontana di Trevi, at Rome, was erected early in the 18th century under Pope Clement XII., and has all the characteristics of decadence. La Fontana Paolina and those in the piazza of St Peter’s are perhaps next in celebrity to that of Trevi, and are certainly in better taste. At Paris the Fontaine des Innocens (the earliest) and those of the Place Royal, of the Champs Elysées and of the Place de la Concorde are the most noticeable. The fountain of the lions and other fountains in the Alhambra palace are, with their surroundings, a very magnificent sight. The largestjets d’eauare those at Versailles, at the Sydenham Crystal Palace and at San Ildefonso.
About the earliest drawing of any drinking fountain in England occurs in Moxon’sTutor to Astronomie and Geographie(1659); it is “surmounted by a diall, which was made by Mr John Leak, and set upon a composite column at Leadenhall corner, in the majoralty of Sir John Dethick, Knight.” The water springs from the top and base of the column, which stands upon a square pedestal and bears four female figures, one at least of which represents the costume of the period.
In the East the public drinking fountains are a very important institution. In Cairo alone there are three hundred. These “sebeels” are not only to be seen in the cities, but are plentiful in the fields and villages.
The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Association (1859) has done much to provide facilities in London for both man and beast to get water to drink in the streets. And in the United States liberal provision has also been made by private and public enterprise.
FOUNTAINS ABBEY,one of the most celebrated ecclesiastical ruins in England. It lies in the sequestered valley of the river Skell, 3 m. S.W. of the city of Ripon in Yorkshire. The situation is most beautiful. The little Skell descends from the uplands of Pateley Moor to the west a clear swift stream, traversing a valley clothed with woods, conspicuous among which are some ancient yew trees which may have sheltered the monks who first sought retreat here. Steep rocky hills enclose the vale. Mainly on the north side of the stream, in an open glade, rise the picturesque and extensive ruins, the church with its stately tower, and the numerous remnants of domestic buildings which enable the great abbey to be almost completely reconstructed in the mind. The arrangements are typical of a Cistercian house (seeAbbey). Building began in earnest about 1135, and was continued steadily until the middle of the 13th century, after which the only important erection was Abbot Huby’s tower (c.1500). The demesne of Studley Royal (marquess of Ripon) contains the ruins. It is in part laid out in the formal Dutch style, the work of John Aislabie, lord of the manor in the early part of the 18th century. Near the abbey is the picturesque Jacobean mansion of Fountains Hall.
In 1132 the prior and twelve monks of St Mary’s abbey, York, being dissatisfied with the easy life they were living, left the monastery and with the assistance of Thurstan, archbishop of York, founded a house in the valley of the Skell, where they adopted the Cistercian rule. While building their monastery the monks are said to have lived at first under an elm and then under seven yew trees called the Seven Sisters. Two years later they were joined by Hugh, dean of St Peter’s, York, who brought with him a large sum of money and a valuable collection of books. His example was followed by Serlo, a monk of St Mary’s abbey, York, and by Tosti, a canon of York, and others. Henry I. and succeeding sovereigns granted them many privileges. During the reign of Edward I. the monks appear to have again suffered from poverty, partly no doubt owing to the invasion of the Scots, but partly also through their own “misconduct and extravagance.” On account of this Edward I. in 1291 appointed John de Berwick custodian of the abbey so that he might pay their debts from the issues of their estates, allowing them enough for their maintenance, and Edward II. in 1319 granted them exemption from taxes. After the Dissolution Henry VIII. sold the manor and site of the monastery to Sir Richard Gresham, and from him after passing through several families it came to the marquess of Ripon.