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 FLUTE FLY 293 places, however, it continued a favorite. The Spartan flutists were a hereditary order, and the Spartan soldiers marched to battle to the sound " of Dorian flutes and soft recorders." The Egyptians appear, from their ancient pic- tures and sculptures, to have blown the instru- ment through a lateral opening near one end, producing the modulations by means of holes on the sides; hence it differed little from the modern fife. The flute of the Greeks and Eomans was probably more in the nature of the pipe, and was often composed of two per- forated tubes of reed or wood, played togeth- er. Until the early part of the 18th century the instrument retained the form of the pipe, and was called the English or common flute, and sometimes the flute d lee, from the resem- blance of the mouthpiece to the beak of a bird. It was played in the manner of the clarinet, and had seven finger holes, but no keys. This gave place somewhat more than a century ago to the German flute, which in its most perfect form consists of a tube of hard wood or ivory about 27 in. long, separable into four joints, and having from six to twelve finger keys for semitones. It is blown through a lateral hole at one end, and has a compass of nearly three octaves, from below the treble staff to in altissimo. The modern flute is highly effective in an orchestra, but has fallen into some disre- pute for the performance of solos, in conse- quence of the flimsy and tasteless character of the music too frequently written for it, and which serves to exhibit the skill of the player rather than the capacity of the instrument. The octave flute, called also the piccolo, is a small shrill instrument, an octave higher than the common flute. Its piercing sounds are only effective in a large orchestra or in military bands. The flute stop, on the organ, is a range of pipes tuned in unison with the diapason, and intended to imitate the sounds of the flute. One of the best German flutists of the 18th century was Quanz, the flutist of Frederick II. of Prussia; Francois Devienne (died in 1802) and Berbiguier (born in 1781) acquired a high reputation in France ; and among the great flutists of the present century in Germany were Furstenau and his son (died respectively in 1819 and 1852), and in England Charles Nichol- son, whose father had also been celebrated in the preceding century. Among celebrated flutists are the following: Theobald Bohm, flutist of the king of Bavaria, born about 1802, who invented about 1833 a new flute known as the Bohm flute, which is said to combine im- provements in nearly every part of the instru- ment, and wrote in 1847 a treatise on recent improvements in the manufacture of flutes, which was translated into French (Paris, 1848) ; Jean Louis Tulou, born in Paris, 1786, and for Years professor of the conservatory there; and Louis Drouet, born in Amsterdam in 1792, who was for some time Tulou's rival in Paris, and removed in 1831 to Belgium and engaged in manufacturing musical instruments. FLUVAMA, a central county of Virginia, bounded S. by the James river and intersected by Bivanna river ; area, 170 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 9,875, of whom 5,097 were colored. The sur- face is partly level and partly broken. In parts the soil is fertile and in other places barren. The James River canal extends along the S. border. The chief productions in 1870 were 77,486 bushels of wheat, 126,448 of Indian corn, 67,247 of oats, and 894,023 Ibs. of tobac- co. There were 1,138 horses, 1,648 milch cows, 2,122 other cattle, 7,248 swine; marble works, and a flour mill. Capital, Palmyra. FLUX (Lat. fluere, to flow), a substance used to facilitate the fusion of minerals, and fre- quently their decomposition. A great variety of materials serve this purpose, and one or an- other is used according to the nature of the body to be treated, and the chemical action desired. Some by their ready fusibility induce the same condition in bodies in contact with them which are difficult to melt ; others, though they may be as infusible as the compounds they are brought in contact with, present ingredients which possess affinities for some of those in the body to be acted upon, and fusion then takes place, with mutual decomposition and recombination of elements. Thus in treating the common silicious ores of iron, which are extremely difficult to melt, limestone, still more infusible, is employed, and the lime uniting with the silica enters at once into fusion, while the oxide of iron, freed from its original com- bination, is at the same time decomposed by the carbon of the fuel combining with its oxy- gen, and the iron flows free. The carbon it- self may be regarded also as a flux, its action being to facilitate this process in the same man- ner as the limestone does. Should the iron ores be calcareous, the mineral flux to aid their decomposition must be silicious, that the same fusible silicates may be produced. Borax is a flux of very general application, from the readi- ness with which it forms fusible compounds with silica and other bases. The subject will be considered, as to the application of particu- lar fluxes, in describing the metallurgic treat- ment of the ores of the various metals. (See also BLACK FLUX, and BOEAX.) FLUXIONS. See CALCULUS. FLY, the popular name of the diptera, or two-winged insects, of which a familiar exam- ple is the common house fly. They have a sucking proboscis, two veined and membranous wings, and two poisers behind the wings ; they undergo a complete transformation. The char- acters of the order have been sufficiently de- tailed in the article DIPTEKA, and therefore only some of the most common flies of the family muscidce will be noticed here. The house fly (musca domestica, Linn.) of Europe is considered distinct from the American species by Dr. Harris, who calls the latter M. Jiarpyia ; it begins to appear in houses in July, sometimes a little earlier, becomes very abundant toward the end of August, and does not disappear until