Fan, an implement for creating a current of air, generally with the view of cooling the person. The term comes from the Latin vannus, the broad, shallow basket into which corn and chaff from thrashing were received to be tossed in the air so that the wind might carry away the chaff. The ordinary fan may consist of any light, flat, expanded surface set in rapid reciprocating motion by the hand; but for many mechanical operations, such as sifting, winnowing, ventilating, and extracting gases, rotating fan-blades are mounted, under such names as Fans, Fanners (q.v.), or Fan-blasts, by which strong and continuous air-currents are raised. The Punkah (q.v.) employed in India for circulating air in apartments is simply an enormous fan.
The common hand-fan, used as a personal accessory, is an implement of great antiquity, which naturally was prized most in regions where the heat was greatest. It is known to have been in use among the ancient Assyrians and Egyptians, and from its frequent representation on early Greek vases it must have been a familiar implement among that people. These ancient fans were sometimes made of very large size, and carried on long shafts or poles by female slaves (flabelliferæ), eunuchs, or boys, whose duty was to keep the air in circulation, and to drive away flies from the table or the person. The flabellum, or fan to brush away flies from the sacred vessels, was used in the Western Church from the 4th till the 14th century; and gorgeous flabella of peacocks' feathers are still borne by the pope's attendants in solemn processions. Similar fans, used to keep flies from settling on the embroidered case of the torak, may be seen in Holman Hunt's picture of 'The Finding of Christ in the Temple'; and Mr Butler's Ancient Coptic Church contains several pages on the use of the fan in that communion. Among eastern nations generally the fan was an implement of great importance, and large fans—like sunshades, to which they are closely allied—possessed special significance as symbols of authority and emblems of royalty. In Japan, where to this day the fan is an indis- pensable adjunct of the daily life of all classes, large rich fans are used in ceremonial dances, in which they are accessories of peculiar significance.
Fans are of two kinds, the folding and the non-folding. To the latter class belong all state and ceremonial fans, while those carried about by ladies belong to the folding class. Beyond those distinctions, however, it is impossible to define the material, form, or structure of fans, these, especially in the case of non-folding fans, being endlessly diverse. The folding fan consists of two principal portions, the mount or leaf (Fr. feuille) and the stick (bois). The leaf, which forms a segment of a circle, consists of two equal pieces of paper, fine parchment, satin, crape, tulle, or cotton, folded into from twelve to twenty-four equal folds. The stick consists of a number of 'brins' equal to the folds in the leaf, with two stout outer guards (panaches). These may consist of wood, ivory, mother-of-pearl, or metal, richly carved, inlaid, or otherwise worked in the case of fine fans, the leaf of which may be elaborately painted. The upper part of the brins is continued by thin, flat strips of wood between the folds of the leaf. The brins with the outer guards are collected and held together at the head or end (tête) by a pin passing through them, which forms the pivot on which the fan opens or closes. The folding fan is said to have been a Japanese invention which originated in the 7th century, the idea having been supplied by the wing of the bat. From Japan the invention passed into China; but it was not till about the beginning of the 16th century that such fans began to be used in Europe. They first found their homes in Italy and Spain, but early in the 16th century they came into use in France, and their manufacture was established in Paris, where since that time they have formed the most prominent of the small industries known as articles de Paris. In 1673 the maîtres éventaillistes were formed into a corporation by Louis XIV. French fans of the 18th century became real works of art, on which frequently the ability and taste of the most skilful goldsmiths, jewellers, metal-workers, and carvers were combined with the decorative painting of artists of the foremost position. Fans painted by the 18th-century artists Watteau, Lancrêt, Pater, Boucher, &c. command very high prices; and such eminent artists of the 19th century as Diaz, Lami, Glaize, Isabey, Jacquemart, &c. have devoted their talents to fan-painting. See Uzzanne, The Fan (trans. 1883); English Fans, by Lady C. Schreiber (1889); Collection des Eventails (Par. 1891); and Salwey, Fans of Japan (1894).