fan

fan, device for agitating air or gases or moving them from one location to another. Mechanical fans with revolving blades are used for ventilation, in manufacturing, in winnowing grain, to remove dust, cuttings, or other waste, or to provide draft for a fire. They are also used to move air for cooling purposes, as in automotive engines and air-conditioning systems, and are driven by belts or by direct motor. The axial-flow fan (e.g., an electric table fan) has blades that force air to move parallel to the shaft about which the blades rotate. The centrifugal fan has a moving component, called an impeller, that consists of a central shaft about which a set of blades form a spiral pattern. When the impeller rotates, air that enters the fan near the shaft is moved away perpendicularly from the shaft and out of an opening in the scroll-shaped fan casing. As a light, flat instrument manipulated by hand to cool the body or ward off insects, the fan is of tropical origin and probably stems from the primitive use of palm or other leaves. The long-handled, disk-shaped fan carried by attendants was from ancient times associated with regal and religious ceremonies. In China an early form of the hand fan was a row of feathers mounted in the end of a handle; in Greece linen was often stretched over a leaf-shaped frame; and in Rome wooden fans, gilded and painted, were used. In Europe during the Middle Ages the fan virtually disappeared until the 13th and 14th cent., when fans from the Middle East were brought back by Crusaders and became fashionable for the wealthy. After 1500 the fan became generally popular; flag fans, disk-shaped fans, and tuft fans of ostrich plumes or peacock feathers, with handles of carved ivory or gold set with jewels, were common in women's wardrobes. In c.1600 the folding fan, developed in medieval Japan and introduced into Europe by way of China, became popular. The slats, of ivory, bone, mica, mother-of-pearl, or tortoiseshell, were delicately carved and covered with paper or fabric. The fan reached a high degree of artistry, especially in France, in the 17th and 18th cent. Delicately folded fans of lace, silk, or parchment were decorated with original designs and paintings by contemporary artists. The management of the fan became a highly regarded feminine art. The function and employment of the fan reached its high point of social significance in Japan.

Accumulation of land-derived sediment on the seafloor; a fan is shaped like the section of a cone, with its apex at the mouth of a subbmarine canyon. The sediments consist largely of sandy material that drops from the canyon current in successively finer layers. Submarine fan valleys, with low relief and natural levees, often occur on submarine fans. Several fans may coalesce laterally.

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Any of about 500 coral species (genus Gorgonia) especially abundant in shallow waters along the Atlantic coasts of Florida, Bermuda, and the West Indies. Polyps grow colonially in a flat, fanlike pattern. Each polyp has some multiple of six tentacles, which it spreads out to form a plankton-catching net. An internal skeleton supports all branches of the colony. The living tissues (often red, yellow, or orange) entirely cover the skeleton. The fan-shaped colonies usually grow across the current, increasing their ability to ensnare prey. All species grow to about 2 ft (60 cm) high.

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Rigid or folding handheld device used for cooling, air circulation, or ceremony or as a sartorial accessory throughout the world from ancient times. As evidenced by Egyptian reliefs, early fans were of the rigid type, with a handle or stick attached to a rigid leaf or to feathers. In China, the folding fan came into fashion during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644); much significance came to be attached to the fan in East Asia, and many great Chinese painters devoted their talents to fan decoration. Portuguese traders in the 15th century brought fans to Europe from China and Japan. Through the 19th century in the West, fan decoration and size varied with European fashion.

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or Tseng Kuo-fan

(born Nov. 26, 1811, Xiangxiang, Hunan province, China—died March 12, 1872, Nanjing) Chinese military leader most responsible for suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, thus staving off the collapse of the Qing dynasty. Having passed the highest examinations in the Chinese examination system, Zeng entered the Hanlin Academy and worked successfully as a bureaucrat. In 1852 he was asked to help combat the Taiping rebels, who had reached the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) valley and were threatening the dynasty's survival. The imperial troops being weak, Zeng and other members of the scholar-gentry organized local militias. His army seized the rebels' supply areas along the upper Yangtze and besieged and captured their capital, Nanjing, in 1864. In 1865 he was called on to help suppress the Nian Rebellion; a year later he asked that Li Hongzhang take over the campaign. Seealso Zhang Zhidong.

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Fan or FANS may refer to the following:

Ventilation

A device to agitate or move air or other gas

The human powered Fan (implement) is a hand-held implement used by waving it back and forth.

Motor powered Fans: mechanical fans such as oscillating fans, ceiling fans, blowers, etc.

• Centrifugal fan
• Ceiling fan, also available as a floor verity in tropical countries
• Computer fan, also found in a larger form in applications like radio transmitters
• Engine fan - used to cool the engine's coolant when the car is stationary or moving slowly

Names

• Fan (surname) (Chinese character: 范, pinyin: Fàn), a common Chinese surname, singer-songwriter Mavis Fan would be an example.

Words

• Fan, a Swedish profanity roughly translated as devil
• Fan (person), someone who has an intense appreciation for something(s) or someone(s)
• fan (分), or candareen, a Chinese weight unit for 10 cash

Entertainment

• Fans (Web Series)*
• The Fan (film) is the title of three films
• The Fan is another name for the La Belle Lucie solitaire game
• Card fan or flourish,, a display of cards in a manner that looks like folding fan
• "Fans" (song), a track of the Kings of Leon album Because of the Times.
• Fans (webcomic), a webcomic by T Campbell

Places

• The Fan or Fan district is a historic district in Richmond, Virginia
• the Fan is the nickname for the Beijing National Indoor Stadium

Biology

• Sea fan, a marine animal of the Cnidarian phylum

Geometry

• Triangle fan, a data structure to describe polygons in computer graphics
• fan (geometry), the set of all planes through a given line

Misc

• Japanese war fan, an object used in Japanese feudal warfare, also used in martial arts

FAN as an acronym can also mean

• File Area Network
• Fluoride Action Network
• Fuerza Armada Nacional, Spanish for National Armed Forces, the military of Venezuela
• Forces Armées du Nord, French for Armed Forces of the North, a Chadian rebel army active during the Chadian Civil War
• Free Amino Nitrogen, in brewing, amino acids available for yeast metabolism
• Future Air Navigation System or FANS is an air traffic control scheme from ICAO also known as CNS/ATM

See also

• Fandom
• The Fan
• Fan death
• fan coil