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FUERO
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FUERO , a See also:Spanish See also:term, derived from the Latin See also:forum. The Castilian use of the word in the sense of a right, See also:privilege or See also:charter is most probably to be traced to the See also:Roman conventus juridici, otherwise known as jurisdictions or fora, which in See also:Pliny's See also:time were already numerous in the Iberian See also:peninsula. In each of these provincial fora the Roman See also:magistrate, as is well known, was accustomed to pay all possible deference to the previously established See also:common See also:law of the See also:district; and it was the privilege of every See also:free subject to demand that he should be judged in accordance with the customs and usages of his proper forum. This was especially true in the See also:case of the inhabitants of those towns which were in See also:possession of the See also:jus italicum. It is not, indeed, demonstrable, but there are many presumptions, besides some fragments of See also:direct See also:evidence, which make it more than probable that the old administrative arrangements both of the provinces and of the towns, but especially of the latter, remained practically undisturbed at the See also:period of the See also:Gothic occupation of See also:Spain.l The Theodosian See also:Code and the See also:Breviary of See also:Alaric alike seem to imply a continuance of the municipal See also:system which had been established by the See also:Romans; nor does the later Lex Visigothorum, though avowedly designed in some points to supersede the Roman Iaw, appear to have contemplated any marked interference with the former fora, which were still to a large extent See also:left to be regulated in the See also:administration of See also:justice by unwritten, immemorial, See also:local See also:custom. Little is known of the See also:condition of the subject populations of the peninsula during the Arab occupation; but we are informed that the Christians were, sometimes at least, judged according to their own See also:laws in See also:separate tribunals presided over by See also:Christian See also:judges; 2 and the See also:mere fact of the preservation of the name See also:alcalde, an See also:official whose functions corresponded so closely to those of the judex or defensor civitalis, is fitted to suggest that the old municipal fora, if much impaired, were not even then in all cases wholly destroyed. At all events when the word forum 3 begins to appear for the first time in documents of the loth See also:century in the sense of a See also:liberty or 1 The nature of the evidence may be gathered from See also:Savigny, Gesch. d. rom. Rechts. See especially i. pp. 154, 259 seq. 2 Compare Lembke u. Schafer, Geschichte von Spanien, i. 314;11. 117. s Or rather forus. See See also:Ducange, s.v. 286 but is always much richer in See also:hydrogen (of which it contains sometimes as much as 20%) and poorer in See also:carbon monoxide (sometimes down to 20%) than See also:Siemens See also:gas ; generally it contains more of See also:CO2 than the latter. The proportion of See also:nitrogen is always less, about 5o%. It is therefore a more concentrated See also:fuel than Siemens gas, and better adapted to the See also:driving of gas-engines. It scarcely See also:costs more to make than See also:ordinary Siemens gas, except where the See also:steam is generated and superheated in See also:special apparatus, as is done in the Dowson.producer, which, on the other See also:hand, yields a correspondingly better gas. As is natural, its properties are some way between those of Siemens gas and of See also:water gas; but they approach more nearly the former, both as to costs and as to fuel-value, and also as to the temperatures reached in See also:combustion. This is easily understood if we consider that gas of just the same description can be obtained by mixing one See also:volume of real water gas with the four volumes of Siemens gas made during the blowing-up stage—an operation which is certainly too expensive for See also:practical use. A modification of this gas is the See also:Mond gas, which is made, according to Mond's patent, by means of such an excess of steam that most of the nitrogen of the See also:coke is converted into See also:ammonia (Grouven's reaction). Of course much of this steam passes on undecomposed, and the quantity of the gas is greatly increased by the reaction C+2H20=CO2+2H2; hence the fuel-value of this gas is less than that of semi-water gas made in other ways. Against this loss must be set the gain of ammonia which is recovered by means of an arrangement of coolers and scrubbers, and, except at very See also:low prices of ammonia, the profit thus made is probably more than sufficient to See also:cover the extra cost. But as the See also:process requires very large and expensive plant, and its profits would vanish in the case of the value of ammonia becoming much See also:lower (a result which would very probably follow if it were somewhat generally introduced), it cannot be expected to sup-plant the other descriptions of gaseous fuel to more than a limited extent. Semi-water gas is especially adapted for the purpose of driving gas-engines on the explosive principle (gas-See also:motors). Ordinary producer-gas is too poor for this purpose in respect of See also:heating See also:power; moreover, owing to the prevalence of carbon monoxide, it does not See also:light quickly enough. These defects are sufficiently overcome in semi-water gas by the larger proportion of hydrogen contained in it. For the purpose in question the gas should be purified from See also:tar and ashes, and should also be cooled down before entering the gas-See also:engine. The Dowson apparatus and others are constructed on this principle. See also:Air Gas.—By forcing air over or through volatile inflammable liquids a gaseous mixture can be obtained which See also:burns with a See also:bright See also:flame and which can be used for See also:illumination. Its employment for heating purposes is quite exceptional, e.g. in chemical laboratories, and we abstain, therefore, from describing any of the numerous appliances, some of them bearing very fanciful names, which have been devised for its manufacture. (G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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