» Gum Sandarach: See Cuemistry, p. 123. 
4 
GUN 
Tmeon’s tlsed in. doops io pestzable tn-that wich i 
’s in is to ich is 
-nuine dragon’s blood readily melts and flames, but is 
not soluble in water. The following quantities were 
imported by the East India Company : 
y , Average Price 
Cwt. per Cwt. 
1804 53 £11 0 0 
1805 103 3.13.0 
1806 26 9 19 11 
.1808 19 ll 6 9 
Gum Soammony. See Cuemistry, page 128, and 
ScaMMONY. 
- Gum Senegal. See Cuemistry, p. 109. This gum 
exudes from a epeaies, shrub, of the same genus with. 
that from which gum arabic is obtained. It is chiefly 
‘used by calico printers, and in other trades where gums 
are € ed. It dries more slowly than gum arabic. 
, Gum Tacamahae. 
Gui Thus, or Frankincense. 
and OxiBaNnuM. 
_« Gum. Tragacanth, 
. 109, ; 
iP There are many other gums than those which have 
been mentioned, but they are not, of much im 
as articles of commerce. Dr Francis Buchanan informs 
us, that gums are collected between Seringapatam and 
Bangalore from the following trees : 
~~ Andersonia panshmoum, (DrRoxburgh’s MSS. ) 
_.. Melia azadirachta. 
 Chirongia glabra. (Dr Buchanan’s MSS.) 
‘ Mangifera Indica, 
+ Cassia auriculata, 
JEgle marmelos. 
Shorea jala. (Dr Buchanan’s MSS.) 
_Chloroxylon dupada. (Do.) 
- Bomboe gossypinum. | 
See Buchanan’s Journey from Madras, &c. vol. i. 
p- 169. Seealso Milburn’s Oriental Commerce, passim. 
'. GUN-Fuints, are small pieges of flint cut into regu- 
lar shapes, for the purpose of setting. fire by their col- 
lision against a piece of steel, to the priming of fowling 
pieces, muskets, &c. 
The first stones used for this purpose were a kind of 
compact pyrites, or marcasite, and they were long 
known by that name. Thes 
greater part of Europe, is called by Wallerius stlerigni- 
arius, and by Linneus silex cretaceus. In Germany it 
was called flins or vlins; in the Swedish and Danish 
flinta; and in English flint. This name is said to be 
of great antiquity, as Wends had a Pagan deity 
which th on a stone called flynsleim. From 
the word flint arose the names of flintgewehr, flint, or 
See Cuemistry, p 123.. 
See Gum Olibanum, 
or Gum Dragon, See Curmisrry, 
flinte, which the Germans have given to guns fired by. 
that stone: Stones seem to have been first used about 
the middle of the 16th century. 
- The manufacture of gun flints has been long kept a 
profound secret ; and we are indebted to Dolomieu for 
the first exposition of the method oyed in France. 
The masses of flint which are best fitted for this pur- 
ad es are of a convex surface, approaching to globular. 
knob 
bed and branched flints are co’ y full of 
ions: |The best flint nodules are generally 
between 2 and 20 pounds weight. They should be 
unctuous, or rather shining internally, with a grain. so 
4 : A. 
557° 
more pure and compact. Ge-, 
pecies of stone used in the. 
GUN 
fine as to be im ble to the eye. 
should be uniform in the same nodule, and may vary 
from honey yellow to a blackish brown. The fracture 
should be smooth and equal, and the fragments slightly 
conchoidal ; and the ey should be such as to 
allow letters to be distinguished through a thickness of 
one-fourth of a line when laid close to the paper. When 
flints do not possess these properties, either naturally, 
or after a long exposure to the air, they are rejected by 
the workmen. 
Four tools are n 
The colour Gun-Plints, 
—— 
in the manufacture of gan Tools for 
flints. 1. An iron hammer with a square head, a han- making 
dle seven or eight inches long, and not exceeding two gun-flints. 
ds in wei 
t. ‘This instrument is shewn in Fig: 9. ppare 
late CCLXXXIV. 2. A hammer of 'well-hardened steel, couxxxrv. 
with two points, a handle seven inches long, and from Fig. 3 
10 to 16 ounces in weight. The handle must pass 
through in such a manner that the two points may be 
nearer the hand of the workman than the centre of 
wity of the mass. ‘This hammer is represented in 
ig. 4, 3. A disk hammer, or roller, like a solid pig. 4, 
wheel, or the section of a cylinder, two inches and four 
lines in diameter, and not exceeding 12 ounces in 
weight. It is made of steel, not hardened, and has a 
handle six inches long, which passes through a square 
hole in the centre. It is shewn in Fig. 5. 4. A 
pr goes and bevelled at both ends. it should be made 
of steel, not-hardened, and six, seven, or eight inches 
long, and two inches wide. This chisel is represented 
in Fig. 6. This is set on a wooden block, which is 
also used, as a bench for the workman. A file is ne- 
for restoring the edge of the chisel. With these 
tools the flints are formed in the following manner, 
which we have abridged from Dolomieu’s Memoir. 
1. To break the block. 'The workman seated on the 
ground, places the nodule of flint on his left thigh, and 
one slight strokes with the square hammer, to di- 
vide it into smaller pieces of about a pound and a half 
each, with broad surfaces, and almost even fracture. 
2. To cleave or chip the flint. The workman holds 
the piece of flint in his left hand, not supported, and 
strikes with the pointed hammer, No. 2. on the edges 
of the great planes produced by the first breaking, by 
which means the white coating of the flint is removed 
in the form of small scales, and the mass of the flint 
itself laid bare in the manner resented, Fig. 7. 
After which he continues to chip off similar scaly por- 
tions frorg the pure mass of the flint. These scaly por- 
tions are nearly one inch and a half wide, two inches 
and a half long ; and their thickness in the middle is 
of about two lines. They are slightly convex below, 
and consequently leave in the part of the flint from 
which they were separated, a space slightly concave, 
longitudinally bordered by two rather projecting straight 
lines, or ridges, Fig. 8. 
separation of the first scales, must naturally constitute 
nearly the middle of the subsequent piece ; and such 
seales alone as have their ridges thus placed in the 
middle are fit to be made into gun flints. In this man- 
ner the workman continues to split or chip the mass of 
flint in various directions, until the defects usually 
found in the interior render it impossible to make the 
fracture required, or until the piece is reduced too 
much.to receive the small blows by which the flint is 
divided, rsa fi wits dads 
8.) To shape the int. Five t parts may 
be distinguished rps flint. 1st, The sloping facet, 
or bevel part, which is impelled against the er of 
the lock of the gun, 
Its width should be from two to - 
isel, Pig. 5 
Fig. 6. 
Fig. 7. 
se ridges, produced by the pig. g, 
