54< FLINT. 
reddish, or brown. It is nearly thrice as heavy as water, and 
when broken will split, in every direction, into pieces which 
have a smooth surface. 
It is very common in several parts of England, generally 
among chalk, arranged in a kind of strata or beds, and in 
pieces that are for the most part either rounded or tubercular. 
The property which flint possesses of yielding sparks, 
when struck against steel, has rendered it an article of 
indispensable utility in the system of modern warfare. 
To this substance the sportsman also is indebted for 
a means of obtaining his game. The art of cutting, 
or rather of breaking, this stone into gun-flints is of 
modern date, and was for a long time kept secret. 
The most absurd and contradictory accounts have been 
given of it by various writers ; and it is only of late 
that the true mode has been rendered public. It con- 
sists in striking the stone repeatedly with a kind of 
mallet, and bringing off at each stroke a splinter which 
is sharp at one end and thick at the other. These 
splinters are afterwards shaped, by placing them upon 
a sharp iron instrument, and then giving them repeat- 
edly small blows with a mallet. During the whole 
operation the workman holds the stone in his hand, 
or merely supports it on his knee : and the ope- 
ration is so simple, that a good workman has no diffi- 
culty in making 1500 flints in a day. The manufacture 
of gun-flints is chiefly confined to England, and two 
or three departments in France. In Prussia an attempt 
was once made to substitute a kind of earthenware or 
porcelain for flint ; and such was, for some time, used 
by the Prussian soldiers. All the kinds of flint are 
not equally adapted for guns : the best are the yel- 
lowish grey; the dark smoke and ash-grey varieties are 
also used, but they are neither so easy to be split, nor 
do they afford such thin fragments as the other ; and, 
owing to their greater hardness, they wear the lock 
sooner. 
Flint is employed in the manufacture of porcelain 
and glass. For this purpose it is heated red hot, and, in 
