88 
Art of making Gun-Flints. 
low, slaughter-houses, rag warehouses, manufactories of 
Prussian blue, varnish, glue, and sal ammoniac, potte- 
ries, &c. 
Such are the conclusions which we have the honour to 
lay before the class, and addressed to government, with 
invitation to make it the base of its decisions* 
No. 4. 
A Memofir on the Art of making Gun-Flints • 
By Citizen Dolomieu.^ 
With an Engraving. 
THE art of making gun-llints, which has been long 
practised in a small territory situated between the two 
neighbouring departments of Loir- Cher and LTndre, is 
directed to an object, of which the whole value, commer- 
cially considered, is of little magnitude ; but which is of 
the first necessity in the use of fire-arms of every de- 
scription. The author of the present Memoir was de- 
sirous of acquiring some information respecting it,- but 
found that it was to no purpose that he extended his re- 
searches to a variety of works on mineralogy and differ- 
ent subjects of the arts and trade. The Encyclopedic 
is silent on this process ; excepting in the repetition of a 
ridiculous prejudice concerning the re-production of flints 
in places whence they were excavated. From the pre- 
cision with which the figure is given to these stones, it 
* Nich. Phil. Jour. vol. 1. p. 88. from Mem. de 1’Institute Nationale, 3. 348. 
Note. Whether the true gun-flint has been found in America I do not at pre* 
sent recollect ; there can however be little doubt that it exists among us ; it is 
of too great national importance to depend for our supplies from foreign 
sources, of an article of such prime necessity, and it may be hoped that 
the present communication will lead to a due investigation of the subject* 
Dr. Seybert states in the Philadelphia Medical Museum, Vol. 5. p. 157. 
that “ large masses of common flint are found near Easton, Northampton 
county, and near Reading, Berks county, Pennsylvania, and appropriates to it 
the name by which the author of the present essay describes the true gun* 
flint. Ed. 
YoL, I, » 
