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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926)",
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    "title": "FLAG",
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    "verified_text": "as one of the international attributes of a state or a sovereign, a flag has in modern times been liable to assume a new form or disappear, according to the vicissitudes of the individual political entity to which it is appurtenant. the years since 1910 witnessed greater transformations in the flags of the world than were occasioned even by the napoleonic wars and the congress of vienna. as a result of the world war three imperial houses came to an end, some european states ceased to exist as such, new states emerged and old states assumed new forms. a necessary consequence of this was that historic ban- ners such as the standards of the hohenzollerns, the habsburgs and the czars ceased to exist or became obsolete, new national 39 flags appeared and the blazonry of some of the old flags was materially changed. most of the states brought into existence by the treaty of versailles adopted flags which, though varying in design, embodied heraldic features of older banners. for example, the republic of austria adopted the former flag of the austro-hun- garlan impcrial navy without the charge, whereas the new flag of hungary is that of the former kingdom of hungary. the new flag of the german republic substitutes the national colours, black, red and gold, in place of the black, white and red which had been the distinguishing colours of the german mercantile marine. on the other hand, the former russian national colours gave place to a new design, which departed from all traditions of heraldic law, 7.e., a flag bearing the letters pccp (russian socialist federation of soviet republics) imposed on a red ground. of the new baltic states, finland, latvia and lithuania adopted flags devised in historic affinity with mediaeval banners associated with their respective localities. estonia, however, brought into existence a new flag of no heraldic value, bearing three horizontal bars, blue, black and white, signifying respec- tively the blue sky, the black earth and the white shirt of the peasant. the port of danzig adopted with modifications the flag of the city when it was an independent member of the hanseatic league. the historic flag of poland—before the par- tition—consisted of a scarlet field with a white eagle in the cen- tre, but the flag of the new republic is of scarlet and white, the eagle being discarded. the former design is used, however, as a badge in the shape of a shield when necessary. the flag of the kingdom of the serbs, croats and slovenes is a combination of the old serbian royal flag with that of croatia, both these older flags having red, blue and white in differing orders, and the montenegrin flag has disappeared. outside of europe the changes have not been so marked. egypt, as a sign of release from turkish suzerainty, has in her flag discarded the red ground and substituted green, the design otherwise remaining intact. the republic of china has rejected the historic dragon on a yellow ground, replacing it with a flag of five horizontal bars of different colours representing her five racial elements, 7.e., mongol, chinese, manchu, mahomedan and tibetan. the flag of morocco, as an acknowledgment of french suzerainty, now carries a tricolour canton. an entirely new flag is that of the kingdoms of the hejaz and ‘iraq, whilst the flags of portugal, panama, turkey and siam have undergone changes of varying importance. sce the plate of flags here given; also adnuralty book of flags of all nations, printed for h.m. stationery office, london, 1916, kept up to date by the publication periodically of errata officially issued. : flagg, ernest (1857- }, american architect, was bern at brooklyn, n.y., feb. 6 1857. he studied at the ecole des beaux-arts, paris, and in 1891 began to practise as an architect in new york city. he designed st. luke’s hospital and the singer building, new york city, the tower of the latter (612 ft.) being the highest commercial structure in america at the time of its erection (1908). other public buildings designed by him include the corcoran art gallery, washington, d.c., and the u.s. naval academy, annapolis, maryland. he also designed many private residences and wrote small houses—their economic design and construction (1922). flamethrower (ger.: flammenwerfer)—this weapon was first used by the germans in the winter of 1914-5, and with marked success in the bois d’avocourt (verdun) on feb. 26 1915. the french followed in their use. the british used them on the somme and in the zeebrugge attack, st. george’s day, 1918. the american expeditionary force did not use them at all. structure —a flamethrower consists of (a) the container filled with some mixture of heavy and light oils, (6) the strong walled vessel filled with air, nitrogen, co», etc., under high pres- sure, and (c) a discharge tube, with nozzle and, in most cases, an ignition device. between (a) and (6) is a reducing valve, and between (6) and the nozzle a firing valve or trigger. flame- throwers were short-range weapons, and were of two types, the 40 heavy and the portable. the heavy type attained an extreme range of 134 yd. (british model), while with the portable british model a range of 45 yd. was attained, and maintained some 15 to 18 shots from a single filling of three gallons. the most satis- factory propellant was found to be nitrogen—ceither the pure product or a “ deoxygenated air” produced in one field by a mobile plant. | ignition was effected in the british types by two sparking plugs mounted in a cup containing petrol and fired by a magneto generator. the french fixed to the nozzle a tubular magazine which held a long stick of alumino-thermic composition kept up by a coiled spring and primarily ignited by a cerium steel briquet. the germans used a double-walled cylinder, attached to the nozzle and charged with an alumino-thermic composition open to the air at the top. inside the hollow of the cylinder and in prolongation of the bore of the nozzle tube were a piston, a spring, a striker needle, mounted on a pellet, and a cap with powder-relay. between the cap and the needle was a fixed disk of cardboard. on release the impact of the jet on the piston compressed the spring and the striker against the cardboard disk, the needle penetrated the disk, and the spring, depressing itself, forced it on to the cap and fired the powder-relay which ignited the composition. | it is not possible to formulate any definite opinion as to the tactical value of heavy flamethrowers of the battery type. the portable type was found on occasions to be more useful than other close range auxiliaries of the infantryman. flats: see architecture. flecker, james elroy (1884-1015), british poet, was born at lewisham, london, on nov. 5 1884. he was educated at dean close school, cheltenham, of which his father, w. h. flecker, was headmaster; at uppingham school; trinity col- lege, oxford (1902-6), and caius college, cambridge (1908-10). he then entered the british consular service and went to con- stantinople in roro, in the same year issuing his thirty-six poems, reissued in tg11 as forty-two poems. the golden journey to samarkand, with its notable preface summing up flecker's parnassian theory of poetry, appeared in 1913, after he had been compelled by consumption to leave his post at beirut for treat- ment in switzerland. he died at davos-platz jan. 3 rors and was buried at cheltenham. later in 1915 appeared the old ships. his spectacular oriental drama, hassan, was published in 1922 and produced in 1923, and an earlier play, don juan, appeared in 1925. his collected poems were issued in 1916. the most interesting of his few prose works was a novel, the king of alsander (1914). see life by geraldine hodgson (1925). fleming, sir sandford (1827-1915), canadian engineer and publicist (see 10.494), died at halifax, n.s., july 22 rors. flettner rudder.—the design of this rudder constituted a radical departure from the design which for so long remained unaltered. all rudders may be said to be current-operated, but in this type the current is also used for altering the position of the rudder. the forces necessary to move the rudder of a big ship against the action of the current are very great; and a ship’s steering engine requires to be of considerable horse-power, and of very robust construction. the gearing attached is heavy and more or less complicated. such powerful steering gears should no longer be necessary. with the current-operated rud- der, large ships can be steered direct by hand by the utilisation of the variations in pressure of the current on the rudder. the principle of the invention is that of inducing negative pres- sure by moving the after-portion of the blade of the rudder, and of using the lateral effect thus caused by the difference of pres- sures on its after-part to move the rudder itself. for ships up to about 10,c0o0 tons the flettner rudder requires no engine to operate it, whilst in larger vessels the only additional effort necessary is that to overcome the friction in the transmission gear. the saving in effort is round about 95%. instead of the large rudder it is only necessary to move a small one, having superficial area equal to about one-twentieth of that of the large rudder. again, the small secondary rudder can never be placed in a position relative to the current which would cause the flats—flint centre of pressure to move backwards at high speeds of ship. manoeuvring power is greatly increased, because the rudder adjusts itself to the stream. the rudders are made either single or three-bladed, the most favoured design being the single- bladed spade type of more or less square form, which will be described in some detail. . description of the rudder.—the partially balanced main rudder, which is free to rotate about its axis, is steered by the secondary rudder, also balanced, hung at its after-edge. move- ment by the secondary rudder is effected by the operating gear contained in a housing fixed to the main rudder. a vertical shaft leads downwards from the operating gear through the hollow rudder stock, and terminates in a yoke which is coupled to a similar yoke on the secondary rudder by a pair of connecting rods. the operating gear is driven direct through a system of shafts and bevel wheels from alternative steering positions situated respectively on the bridge and the poop deck. in addition to the hand wheel, automatic steering is also provided by a gyroscopic compass gear, working through a 3-h.p. electric motor coupled to the steering wheel on the bridge by a chain. the horizontal section of the rudder is of stream-line form. this shape avoids the disturbance in the even flow of water over the surface of the rudder which would otherwise be caused by the protrusion of the thick rudder-stock. it also adds to the stability of the rudder in the midship position. moreover, this shape gives room for the protection of the connecting rods operating the secondary rudder except at the after-end, where an additional sheet-steel covering is built on as previously stated. the main rudder, which is free to rotate about its axis, is steered by the secondary rudder on its after-edge. when the latter is moved by its connecting rods, relatively to the main rudder dur- ing movement of the ship or in the slipstream of the propeller, the resulting deviation of the slipstream causes a different balance of pressures as between main and secondary rudders, i.e., the main rudder being free to move, is deflected by the cur- rent through a certain angle. in going astern the balance of pressures is reversed through 180 degrees so at the moment when change of direction of the slipstream occurs the rudder auto- matically ¢#rms round through half a circle. the operating gear on the rudder-head determines the movements of the secondary rudder with relation to the steering wheel, the main rudder and the ship. (f. j. d.) flexner, simon (1863- ), american pathologist, was born at louisville, ky., march 25 1863. graduating from the university of louisville in 1889, he pursued his studies further at johns hopkins university and the universities of strasbourg, berlin and prague, and at the pasteur institute, paris. he was associate professor and later professor of pathological anatomy at johns hopkins during 1889-99, becoming in the latter year professor of pathology at the university of pennsylvania. in 1903 he was appointed director of the laboratories of the rocke- feller institute for medical research, new york. dr. flexner became widely known in 1905 for his successful treatment of cerebrospinal fever by the use of a serum, the administration of which reduced the mortality rate from go% in untreated cases to 46:3 % in cases where the serum was used. he has published numerous monographs, including the pathology of toxalbumin intoxication and mode of infection, means of prevention and specific treatment of epidemic meningitis (1917). his brother abraham flexner (b.1866) became, in 1917, secre- tary of the general education board. his views on education as set forth in a afodern school (1916) and a afodern college (1923) occasioned much discussion. he wrote also prostitution in europe (1914) and works on medical education. (sce spinal meningitis.) flint, robert (1838-1910), british divine and philosopher (see to.521), died in edinburgh nov. 25 roro. flint, mich., u.s.a. (see 10.521), had a population in ro10 of 38,550, and in 1920 of 91,599, of whom 15,213 were foreign born; in 1925 the census bureau estimated the population at 130,316. the area in 1910 was 8,120 ac.; in 1925, 19,115 acres florida the manufacture of motors and trucks, and of such contribu- tory articles as sparking plugs, carburetters, motor-axles, paints and colours, and malleable iron castings is the backbone of its prosperity. postal receipts mcreased fourfold between roro and 1924. industrial development was paralleled in the building of homes, including noteworthy projects by some of the large motor companies; street paving and lighting; and the construc- tion of hotels, banks, department stores, theatres and office build- ings. a city-planning board was created in 1917. the park area was increased to 882 ac. by 1925. schools were built rapidly and sites acquired to provide for future expansion. in 1923 a belt- line railway was opened. -",
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