Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/522

 510 FRONTIER FROST FRONTIER, a S. W. county of Nebraska, formed since the census of 1870, drained by affluents of Frenchman's fork of the Republi- can river ; area, about 675 sq. m. FROSINONE (anc. Frusino), a town of Italy, formerly capital of a papal legation of the same name, now in the province and 48 m. E. S. E. of the city of Rome; pop. about 8,000. It contains several churches and convents and an episcopal palace ; and near it are remains of a Roman amphitheatre. It is a favorite resort for artists on account of the picturesque dress of the women. Good wine is produced in the vicinity, wool is manufactured, and there are two annual fairs. The ancient Frusino was originally a town of the Hernici in Latium, and subsequently a Roman colony, and long retained some prosperity, mainly on account of its situation on the Via Latina. The lega- tion of Frosinone was styled the Tyrol of the pope, on account of its mountainous character and the simple habits of the people. FROSSARD, Charles Angnste, a French soldier, born in 1807. He was educated at the poly- technic school in Paris and the military school in Metz, entered the army in 1827, participated in the Belgian campaign of 1831-'2, was made a captain, went to Algeria in 1833, and return- ed to Paris in 1846 with the rank of major. Three years later he commanded the corps of engineers in Rome. 'In 1853 he was director of the fortifications of Oran in Algeria. Du- ring the Crimean war he acted as chief of en- gineers of the army of the East. He returned again to Algeria, where he remained till 1859, when he was ordered to Italy with the rank of general. At the close of the war he was made grand officer of the legion of honor, and appointed governor of the imperial prince. At the beginning of the Franco-German war he obtained command of the 2d corps of the army of the Rhine, and opened the war by an attack upon Saarbriick, Aug. 2, 1870. Four days later he was defeated at the Spichern heights, between that town and Forbach, and withdrew to Metz, fought at Courcelles, Mars- la-Tour, and Gravelotte, was made a prisoner at the surrender of the fortress, and was de- tained in Frankfort till the close of the war. He published, in justification of himself, Rap- port sur les operations du 2" 1 * corps de Varmee du Ellin dans la campagne de 1870 (2 vols., Paris, 1872). FROST (from the root of freeze), in a general sense, the act or process of freezing, but more commonly used to signify crystals of frozen dew ; in the latter case called also hoar frost. "When the atmosphere contains so little aqueous vapor or is itself already at so low a tempera- ture that a reduction to a point below 32 F. is necessary before condensation can take place, the deposit will be frozen, and instead of being technically dew it will have the form of hoar frost. The process is precisely similar to the deposition of crystals of salts from their solu- tion in water. In this latter case the operation must be conducted slowly and at a certain low temperature; if the water be evaporated by violent ebullition, we have an amorphous pow- der,, but no true crystals. In a similar manner the atmosphere deposits its aqueous burden in crystals or liquid form according to the temperature. The most remarkable forma- tions of frost are witnessed on the summit of Mount Washington during the autumn and winter, when crystals a foot or more in length attach themselves to every object. The con- ditions favorable to frost are but an exagge- ration of those that facilitate the formation of dew. The destructive eifects of frosts on tender vegetation, and their beneficial influ- ences in a sanitary point of view, have caused much attention to be given to this phenom- enon. In the Mississippi valley it is com- monly said that the spread of the yellow fever is completely checked by a heavy frost. This however was notably not the case in 1873 ; and it may be fairly questioned whether some other agency, especially the dryness of the air, be not the true antagonistic element. What- ever hinders the deposition of dew acts also to mitigate the severity of a frost ; to this end a thin or loose covering of cloth, straw, &c., is sufficient. In low flat regions it is found practicable to produce clouds of smoke, which, lying quiescent above the regions to be pro- tected, serves to completely protect the ground from the radiation and consequent frost. The i word frost is somewhat loosely applied also to the action of winter's cold in freezing the solid ground and the water it may contain, when the frost is said to be in the ground ; again, in the spring, the frost is said to come out of the ground. These expressions allude of course to the simple phenomenon of freezing, and not to the frost deposited on the surface of grass, plants, &c. The effect of cold in freez- ing the water within the earth and the crev- ices of wells is recognized as a powerful agent in the preparation of the earth, for cultiva- tion and the growth of forests, and is some- times called into requisition in the quarrying of rocks. The term frostwork is applied to the formation of ice crystals on the inside sur- face of the window panes of a warm room. During cold weather the glass panes are cooled to a temperature below the freezing point, and a coating of true dew is deposited upon them ; this dew water is then cooled and frozen by the continued cold of the pane of glass. The phenomenon is that of the freezing of a thin film of water, not that of the direct deposition of ice crystals as in the true frost. A similar distinction is to be made in the case of the formation of snow and of hail. In the former the minute crystals are deposited at a temper- ature lower than the freezing point; but in the formation of hail the water is deposited first, and the freezing is a subsequent process. Black frost is the effect produced when the moisture within a plant is frozen, but without any hoar frost being deposited on its exterior.