ART OF MAKING GUN-FLINTS.' $*l 



The whole operation of fafhioning a gun-flint is performed 

 in lefs than one minute. 



A good workman can prepare a thoufand good chips or The rate of 

 fcales in a day, if his flints be of good quality, and hecanalfo T ,rk f in j , fli ? ne 

 fafhion five hundred gun-flints in a day ; confequently in three , n three days. 

 days he will cleave and finifh a thoufand gun-flints without 

 further afliflance. 



This manufacture leaves a great quantity of refufe ; that is Much refufe or 

 to fay, about three fourths of the whole Hone; For there are wafte * 

 not more than half the fcales which prove to be well figured, 

 and nearly half the mafs in the heft flints is incapable of being 

 chipped out : fo that it feldom happens that the Iargeft piece 

 will afford more than fifty gun-flints. The larger pieces of 

 refufe are fold for the culinary purpofe of finking a light. 



The gun-flints when completed are forted out, and fold at 

 different prices, according to their degrees of perfection, from 

 4 to 6 decimes (or pence) the hundred. They are clafled into 

 fine flints and common flints ; and according to their applica- 

 tion into flints for piftols, fowling pieces, and mufkets. 



The fabrication and commerce of gun-flints in France is in Local fituatlon 

 fome meafure confined to three communes of the department of the manufac- 

 r- t • /-.i i i r i t i i tones in Franc«» 



ot L,oir-et-Cher, and one department or the Indre, as was be- 

 fore mentioned, namely, the commune of Noyers, 2,400 me- 

 tres eaft north-eaft of St. Aignan j the commune of CourTy at 

 5,600 metres, and that of Meunes at one miriameter eaft fouth- 

 eaft, and in the latter department, the commune of Lye 9 ki- 

 lometers to the fouth-weit of St. Aignan. The inhabitants of 

 thefe communes employed in this fpecies of induftry are about 

 800, and they have excavated great part of the plain they 

 inhabit. 



A fingle workman named Stephen Buffet, who emigrated Elfewher* 

 from the commune of Meunes to the banks of the Seine, where P ra &* fcd * 

 he has carried on this art for about thirty years by himfelf, was 

 the perfon from whom Dolomieu obtained the prefent inftruc- 

 tions. There are a few other places in France where this art 

 is praclifed, but in none to the extent of the places before 

 mentioned. The author has not met with this manufactory in 

 any other countries, except in the territory of Vicenza, and 

 one of the cantons of Sicily. He remarks that it may be car* 

 ried on elfewhere, though probably overlooked by travellers, 

 on account of its apparent infignificance. I believe it is prac- * — «■ 



tifed at Purfleet, in the county of Kent, and in various other 

 parts of England. 



Vol. I.— February. H III. letter 



