Lamb’s time, mainly through the appreciative criticisms of S. T. Coleridge, Robert Southey and others, Fuller’s works have received much attention.
There is an elaborate account of the life and writings of Fuller by William Oldys in the Biographia Britannica, vol. iii. (1750), based on Fuller’s own works and the anonymous Life of . . . Dr Thomas Fuller (1661; reprinted in a volume of selections by A. L. J. Gosset, 1893). The completest account of him is The Life of Thomas Fuller, with Notices of his Books, his Kinsmen and his Friends (1874), by J. E. Bailey, who gives a detailed bibliography (pp. 713-762) of his works. The Worthies of England was reprinted by John Nichols (1811) and by P. A. Nuttall (1840). His Collected Sermons were edited by J. E. Bailey and W. E. A. Axon in 1891. Fuller’s quaint wit lends itself to selection, and there are several modern volumes of extracts from his works.
FULLER, WILLIAM (1670–c. 1717), English impostor, was born at Milton in Kent on the 20th of September 1670. His paternity is doubtful, but he was related to the family of Herbert. After 1688 he served James II.’s queen, Mary of Modena, and
the Jacobites, seeking at the same time to gain favour with
William III.; and after associating with Titus Oates, being
imprisoned for debt and pretending to reveal Jacobite plots, the
House of Commons in 1692 declared he was an “imposter,
cheat and false accuser.” Having stood in the pillory he was
again imprisoned until 1695, when he was released; and at this
time he took the opportunity to revive the old and familiar
story that Mary of Modena was not the mother of the prince of
Wales. In 1701 he published his autobiographical Life of
William Fuller and some Original Letters of the late King James.
Unable to prove the assertions made in his writings he was put
in the pillory, whipped and fined. He died, probably in prison,
about 1717. Fuller’s other writings are Mr William Fuller’s
trip to Bridewell, with a full account of his barbarous usage in the
pillory; The sincere and hearty confession of Mr William Fuller
(1704); and An humble appeal to the impartial judgment of all
parties in Great Britain (1716).
He must be distinguished from William Fuller (1608–1675), dean of St Patrick’s (1660), bishop of Limerick (1663), and bishop of Lincoln (1667), the friend of Samuel Pepys; and also from William Fuller (c. 1580–1659), dean of Ely and later dean of Durham.
FULLER’S EARTH (Ger. Walkererde, Fr. terre à foulon, argile
smectique)—so named from its use by fullers as an absorbent of
the grease and oil of cloth,—a clay-like substance, which from
its variability is somewhat difficult to define. In colour it is
most often greenish, olive-green or greenish-grey; on weathering
it changes to a brown tint or it may bleach. As a rule it falls
to pieces when placed in water and is not markedly plastic;
when dry it adheres strongly to the tongue; since, however,
these properties are possessed by many clays that do not exhibit
detergent qualities, the only test of value lies in the capacity
to absorb grease or clarify oil. Fuller’s earth has a specific gravity
of 1.7–2.4, and a shining streak; it is usually unctuous to the
touch. Microscopically, it consists of minute irregular-shaped
particles of a mineral that appears to be the result of a chloritic
or talcose alteration of a felspar. The small size of most of the
grains, less than .07 mm., makes their determination almost
impossible. Chemical analysis shows that the peculiar properties
of this earth are due to its physical rather than its chemical
nature.
The following analyses of the weathered and unweathered condition of the earth from Nutfield, Surrey, represent the composition of one of the best known varieties:—
Blue Earth (dried at 100° C.).
| Insoluble residue | 69.96 | Insoluble residue— | |
| Fe2O3 | 2.48 | SiO2 | 62.81 |
| Al2O3 | 3.46 | Al2O3 | 3.46 |
| CaO | 5.87 | Fe2O3 | 1.30 |
| MgO | 1.41 | CaO | 1.53 |
| P2O5 | 0.27 | MgO | 0.86 |
| SO3 | 0.05 | ——— | |
| NaCl | 0.05 | 69.96 | |
| K2O | 0.74 | ——— | |
| H2O (combined) | 15.57 | ||
| ——— | |||
| 99.86 | |||
| ——— | |||
Yellow Earth (dried at 100° C.).
| Insoluble residue | 76.13 | Insoluble residue— | |
| Fe2O3 | 2.41 | SiO2 | 59.37 |
| Al2O3 | 1.77 | Al2O3 | 10.05 |
| CaO | 4.31 | Fe2O3 | 3.86 |
| MgO | 1.05 | CaO | 1.86 |
| P2O5 | 0.14 | MgO | 1.04 |
| SO3 | 0.07 | ——— | |
| NaCl | 0.14 | 76.18 | |
| K2O | 0.84 | ——— | |
| H2O (combined) | 13.19 | ||
| ——— | |||
| 100.05 | |||
| ——— | |||
(Analysis by P. G. Sanford, Geol. Mag., 1889, 6, pp. 456, 526.)
Of other published analyses, not a few show a lower silica content (44%, 50%), along with a higher proportion of alumina (11%, 23%).
Fuller’s earth may occur on any geological horizon; at Nutfield in Surrey, England, it is in the Cretaceous formations; at Midford near Bath it is of Jurassic age; at Bala, North Wales, it occurs in Ordovician strata; in Saxony it appears to be the decomposition product of a diabasic rock. In America it is found in California in rocks ranging from Cretaceous to Pleistocene age; in S. Dakota, Custer county and elsewhere a yellow, gritty earth of Jurassic age is worked; in Florida and Georgia occurs a brittle, whitish earth of Oligocene age. Other deposits are worked in Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts and South Carolina.
Fuller’s earth is either mined or dug in the open according to local circumstances. It is then dried in the sun or by artificial heat and transported in small lumps in sacks. In other cases it is ground to a fine powder after being dried; or it is first roughly ground and made into a slurry with water, which is allowed to carry off the finer from the coarser particles and deposit them in a creamy state in suitable tanks. After consolidation this fine material is dried artificially on drying floors, broken into lumps, and packed for transport. The use of fuller’s earth for cleansing wool and cloth has greatly decreased, but the demand for the material is as great or greater than it ever was. It is now used very largely in the filtration of mineral oils, and also for decolourizing certain vegetable oils. It is employed in the formation of certain soaps and cleansing preparations.
The term “Fuller’s Earth” has a special significance in geology, for it was applied by W. Smith in 1799 to certain clays in the neighbourhood of Bath, and the use of the expression is still retained by English geologists, either in this form or in the generalized “Fullonian.” The Fullonian lies at the base of the Great Oolite or Bathonian series, but its palaeontological characters place it between that series and the underlying Inferior Oolite. The zonal fossils are Perisphinctes arbustigerus and Macrocephalus subcontractus with Ostrea acuminata, Rhynchonella concinna and Goniomya angulifera. The formation is in part the equivalent of the “Vesulien” of J. Marcou (Vesoul in Haute-Saône). In Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, where it is best developed, it is represented by an Upper Fuller’s Earth Clay, the Fuller’s Earth Rock (an impersistent earthy limestone, usually fossiliferous), and the Lower Fuller’s Earth Clay. Commercial fuller’s earth has been obtained only from the Upper Clay. In eastern Gloucestershire and northern Oxfordshire the Fuller’s Earth passes downwards without break into the Inferior Oolite; northward it dies out about Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire and passes laterally into the Stonesfield Slates series; in the midland counties it may perhaps be represented by the “Upper Estuarine Series.” In parts of Dorsetshire the clays have been used for brickmaking and the limestone (rock) for local buildings.
See H. B. Woodward, “Jurassic Rocks of Great Britain,” vol. iv. (1894), Mem. Geol. Survey (London). (J. A. H.)
FULLERTON, LADY GEORGIANA CHARLOTTE (1812–1885), English novelist and philanthropist, youngest daughter of the 1st Earl Granville, was born at Tixall Hall in Staffordshire on the 23rd of September 1812. In 1833 she married Alexander George Fullerton, then an Irish officer in the guards. After living in Paris for some eight years she and her husband accompanied Lord Granville to Cannes and thence to Rome. In 1843
