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Flint (or flintstone) is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz,[1][2] categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones.[3][4] Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in color, and often has a glassy or waxy appearance. A thin layer on the outside of the nodules is usually different in color, typically white, and rough in texture. From a petrological point of view, "flint" refers specifically to the form of chert which occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Similarly, "common chert" (sometimes referred to simply as "chert") occurs in limestone.
The exact mode of formation of flint is not yet clear but it is thought that it occurs as a result of chemical changes in compressed sedimentary rock formations, during the process of diagenesis. One hypothesis is that a gelatinous material fills cavities in the sediment, such as holes bored by crustaceans or molluscs and that this becomes silicified. This theory certainly explains the complex shapes of flint nodules that are found. The source of dissolved silica in the porous media could arise from the spicules of silicious sponges.[3]. Certain types of flint, such as that from the south coast of England, contains trapped fossilised marine flora. Pieces of coral and vegetation have been found preserved like Amber inside the flint. Thin slices of the stone often reveal this effect.
Puzzling giant flint formations known as paramoudra and flint circles are found around Europe but especially in Norfolk, England on the beaches at Beeston Bump and West Runton.[5]
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Flint was used for the manufacture of flint tools during the Stone Age as it splits into thin, sharp splinters called flakes or blades (depending on the shape) when struck by another hard object (such as a hammerstone made of another material). This process is referred to as knapping.
In Europe, some of the best toolmaking flint has come from Belgium (Obourg, flint mines of Spiennes[6]), the coastal chalks of the English Channel, the Paris Basin, Thy in Jutland (flint mine at Hov), the Sennonian deposits of Rügen, Grimes Graves in England and the Jurassic deposits of the Kraków area in Poland. Flint mining is attested since the Palaeolithic, but became more common since the Neolithic (Michelsberg culture, Funnelbeaker culture).
When struck against steel, a flint edge will produce sparks. The hard flint edge shaves off a particle of the steel that, heated by the friction, reacts with oxygen from the atmosphere and can ignite the proper tinder. Prior to the wide availability of steel, rocks of iron pyrites would be used along with the flint, in a similar (but more time-consuming) way. These methods are popular in woodcraft, bushcraft, and among those who wish to use traditional skills.
Striking sparks with flint and steel is not a particularly easy or convenient method to start a fire, although it is much easier than other primitive fire-making methods such as using a bow drill. As with most skills, practice improves results.
It is important to note that while flints may be used as above in fire-lighting, they should never be used in the construction of camp-fire hearths, or otherwise be exposed to heating by fire - as they can explode when hot.[7]
A later, major use of flint and steel was in the Flintlock mechanism, used primarily in flintlock firearms, but also used on dedicated fire-starting tools. A piece of flint held in the jaws of a spring-loaded hammer, when released by a trigger, strikes a hinged piece of steel ("frizzen") at an angle, creating a shower of sparks and exposing a charge of priming powder. The sparks ignite the priming powder and that flame, in turn, ignites the main charge propelling the ball, bullet, or shot in the barrel. While the military use of the flintlock declined after the adoption of the percussion cap from the 1840s onward, the flintlock is still popular on hunting rifles and shotguns used in the United States.
Use of flint and steel should not be confused with use of ferrocerium (aka "hot spark", "metal match", or "fire steel"). This man-made material, when scraped with any hard, sharp edge, produces sparks that are much hotter than obtained with natural flint and steel, allowing use of a wider range of tinders. Because it can produce sparks when wet and can start hundreds or thousands of fires when used correctly, ferrocerium is a common item included in survival kits. Called "flint", ferrocerium is also used in many cigarette lighters.
Flint, knapped or unknapped, has been used since antiquity (for example at the Late Roman fort of Burgh Castle in Norfolk) up to the present day as a material for building stone walls, using lime mortar, and often combined with other available stone or brick rubble. It was most common in parts of southern England, where no good building stone was available locally, and brick-making not widespread until the later Middle Ages. It is especially associated with East Anglia, but also used in chalky areas stretching through Sussex, Surrey and Kent to Somerset. Flint was used in the construction of many churches, houses, and other buildings, for example the large stronghold of Framlingham Castle. Many different decorative effects have been achieved by using different types of knapping or arrangement and combinations with stone (flushwork), especially in the 15th and early 16th centuries.
 Elaborate 15th century flint and limestone flushwork at Long Melford |
 A typical medieval wall (with modern memorial) at Canterbury Cathedral - knapped and unknapped ("cobble") flints are mixed with pieces of brick and other stones |
 Ruins of Thetford Priory show flints and mortar through the whole depth of the wall |
 Elaborate patterned flushwork at top (restored in 19th century) and flint and limestone chequers below. Norwich Cathedral |
Flint pebbles are used as the media in ball mills to grind glazes and other raw materials for the ceramics industry. The pebbles are hand-selected based on color; those having a tint of red (indicates iron content) are discarded. The remaining blue-grey stones have a low content of chromophoric oxides and so impart lesser amounts of coloring contaminants.
In the UK, flint pebbles were traditionally an important raw material for clay-based ceramic bodies. After calcination to remove organic impurities and induce certain physical reactions, and milling to fine particle size, flint was added as a filler to pottery bodies. However, flint is no longer used and has been replaced by quartz as is used in other countries.[8] Because of this historical use, the word "flint" is used by US potters to refer to siliceous materials which are not flint.[9]
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Flint is an industrial city located an hour northwest of Detroit in Michigan. Originally the home of numerous General Motors factories, including the Buick World Headquarters, Flint has fallen on hard times over the past 30 years due to the decline of the American automotive industry. Despite these misfortunes, the city has an outsized history, including decisive roles in the growth of the American labor movement and community schooling and evident in a host of extensive and well-endowed cultural institutions. Flint's crime numbers have dropped dramatically in recent years and funding for redevelopment projects has topped $400 Million.
Sometimes considered a suburb of Detroit, Flint is more accurately described as a "satellite" city. Like Saginaw, Pontiac, and other factory towns in Michigan, Flint's identity is often influenced and predicted by the Motor City and the peaks and valleys of the American auto industry. Because these cities, and debatably Flint most of all, have become symbols of urban blight and economic ruin, it is tempting to write them off at the worst as ghost-towns, or at the best as smaller clones of Detroit. In fact, each city is regionally distinct, both in terms of the local institutions they have raised in times of prosperity and crisis, and in the emphasis of civic response.
In Flint's case, for example, the imprint of Charles Stewart Mott, General Motor's most famous philanthropist, often overshadows that of Billy Durant, who actually founded the corporation. Streets, parks, estates, neighborhoods, colleges, and lakes have been named after Mott and his family, and the Mott Foundation funds and supports many cultural events here. But this reverence toward a more glorious past is just as often tempered by frustration with its side-effects and outcome. The bulk of Sloan Museum (see below), for example, is a measured analysis of the opportunities and hazards of rapid industrialization. Much recent literature to come out of Flint, such as Rhonda Sanders Bronze Pillars focuses on the vitality of the African-American community, and its struggle against housing compacts and discrimination in the factories. It is true that many other communities have struggled with these very issues in recent decades, but the height from which Flint has fallen -- from Michigan's "second city" and acknowledged birthplace of the world's largest corporation to an international symbol of crime and poverty -- has left deep scars on Flintites (or Flintstones; another heady debate in these parts).
Understanding Flint requires understanding that its situation is more complex than that presented by the media, whether this is the General Motors filmstrips of the 1950s, or last year's Michael Moore film. This means that there is more to the place than vacant lots and shuttered factories: The Flint Institute of Arts and annual jazz festival are comparable with cities many times this size, and a lively regional music scene is rooted in such venues as the Machine Shop and the Local 432. One should be aware, however, that any visit is likely to become a referendum on the successes and failures of the American Dream. There is a lot to see and do in Flint, but much of this may be of a sobering and thoughtful effect; certainly a far cry from the dunes of Lake Michigan or Ann Arbor's boutiques. Flintstones (or Flintites) will be open and generous in pointing you to the best bars, restaurants, museums, and parks; they will also give you their own candid thoughts on the plight of their city.
Flint is a major transportation hub, and in fact this is one of the ways in which its automotive history continues to serve the city well. Flint can be accessed by plane, train, car, and bus.
Flint is most directly served by I-69, which runs from the Port Huron, MI crossing to Sarnia, Canada, through Flint and southwest through Lansing, MI, Fort Wayne, IN, and Indianapolis, IN, and I-75, which runs from the Sault Ste. Marie, MI crossing to Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, south through the Straits of Mackinac, Saginaw, MI, Flint, Detroit, MI, Toledo, OH, Dayton, OH, Cincinnati, OH, Lexington, KY, Knoxville, TN, Chattanooga, TN, Atlanta, GA, Tampa, FL, and Miami, FL. Just south of Flint, US-23 routes south through Ann Arbor, MI, Toledo, OH, and ultimately Columbus, OH.
As the last section might suggest, Flint is easy to get to, but can be difficult to get around without a car. MTA, the public transit agency, is a reasonably priced (if time-consuming) way to reach your destination, and if you expect to stay within the Downtown area, walking is certainly an option.
While it might be possible in theory to explore Flint without a car, very few people would want to do so. Even after one considers the time and effort saved here, there is something singularly appropriate about traveling the boulevards and parkways, the industrial zones and factory strips, in the vehicle this city helped popularize. Of course, it also helps that Flint is a delight to drive, with a coherent network of roads and expressways linking the city to the suburbs, and abundant parking and a lack of congestion (ironically due to Flint's recent depopulation). Among the city's much-touted $400 million redevelopment efforts are miles of infrastructural repaving and repair, and it is generally possible to get between any two points of the city in ten or fifteen minutes, or to access the remotest suburbs in well under an hour.
The streetscape of Flint is based on two grids, one which conforms to the river for several square miles in proximity to Downtown, and another which is cardinally oriented. While Flint by-and-large conforms to its grids, there is enough topographical variation to cause many roads to split and angle. Some major roads the follow this pattern are Welsh Blvd., Flushing Rd., Chevrolet Ave., Miller Rd., Sagniaw St., and Dort Hwy. Within some neighborhoods, the broader streets become curving boulevards with grassy medians, and sometimes this is the only relic of a formerly affluent area.
The Downtown area is uniquely frustrating for driving. Most roads are one way, sometimes in an unordered sequence, which is maddening given the lack of heavy traffic. Saginaw Street bisects this area from north to south, and dividing east and west addresses, while the bridge at Saginaw street divides the city into north and south.
In the larger grid, neighborhoods are divided by major "mile" roads: to the north (running east-west) one passes Hamilton or Davison, Pasadena, Pearson, and Carpenter, to the south (running east-west) Court, Lippincott, Atherton, and Hemphill (on the half-mile), to the east (running north-south), Lewis, Dort, and Center, and to the west (running north-south) Fenton or Saginaw, Dupont, and Ballenger or Clio. It will be important to have a map: while these roads are generally straight, they don't always connect up as one would expect, and it should be easy to navigate as long as you can maintain a basic orientation.
For getting around the city quickly, though, and for reaching most of the suburbs, nothing is faster than Flint's four expressways: I-69, I-75, I-475, and US-23. A trained Flintite can use this network of 70mph roads to go from a coney at Angelo's (see below) to a shake at the Atlas (see below) in about five minutes. I-75 runs to the west of Flint, with access (from south to north) to I-475, US-23 (only driving south) Bristol, I-69, Miller, Corunna, Pearson, Mt. Morris, and 475 again. I-475 runs through east Flint proper (meeting up with 75 outside the city) with access (from south to north) to Hill, Bristol, Hempill, Atherton, I-69, Court (only driving south), Robert T. Longway, Davison/Hamilton, Stewart, Pearson, Carpenter, Saginaw St. (in Mt. Morris), Clio Rd., and I-75. I-69 runs through south Flint proper with access (from east to west) to Center, Dort, I-475, Saginaw, Hammerberg, and I-75. US-23 splits from I-75 just south of Flint, serving the south suburbs.
With a map in your hand, this network is not only sane; it is comprehensible and convenient.
Flint currently has little in the way of bicycling trails, although development is planned to extend these further throughout the city and suburbs, particularly throughout the West Side. The most extensive bike route is currently the Flint River Trail which extends north from downtown Flint to the city of Genesee on the Halloway Reservoir. Other routes link the Riverfront trail to Downtown, the Cultural Center, and Kearsley Park.
Due to Flint's relatively compact size, many attractions are within a short distance of each other by bike. Cyclists are urged to use caution, however, especially on major thoroughfares such as Robert T. Longway or Chavez Drive, as traffic can be fast and heavy, and hills and curves tend to obstruct vision for both cyclists and motorists.
Downtown Flint covers approximately one square mile near the center of the city, bounded roughly by Fifth Avenue to the north, I-69 to the south, I-475 to the east, and Thread Creek to the west, with most commercial activity focused along Saginaw Street and the University of Michigan-Flint Campus.
The Cultural Center is a campus constructed in the 1950s and 60s alongside Mott Community College (see below) with local support and funds from the General Motors. Arranged in a parklike setting along both sides of Kearsley Street just east of 475, this area hosts nine separate entities managed under the organizational umbrella of the Cultural Center, and is often touted as Flint's crown jewel. The Cultural Center includes the Mott Applewood Estates, Bower Theatre (home of the award winning Flint Youth Theatre), Longway Planetarium (Michigan's largest), the Flint Institute of Arts (Michigan's best endowed after the Detroit Institute of Arts), the Flint Public Library, the Flint Institute of Music (home to the Flint Symphony Orchestra), Sloan Museum and Automotive Gallery, The Sarvis Center, and The Whiting Auditorium (which often hosts touring Broadway productions).
| Routes through Flint |
| Lansing ← East Lansing ← | W  E |
→ Port Huron |
| Saginaw ← | N  s |
→ Pontiac → Detroit |
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Flint
Oliver Flint
Curator Emeritus of Neuropteroid Orders at the Smithsonian
abounds in all the plains and valleys of the wilderness of the forty years' wanderings. In Isa 50:7 and Ezek 3:9 the expressions, where the word is used, means that the "Messiah would be firm and resolute amidst all contempt and scorn which he would meet; that he had made up his mind to endure it, and would not shrink from any kind or degree of suffering which would be necessary to accomplish the great work in which he was engaged." (Comp. Ezek 3:8f) The words "like a flint" are used with reference to the hoofs of horses (Isa 5:28).
what mentions this? (please help by turning references to this page into wiki links)
Flint, or flintstone, is a kind of igneous rock, which means that it came from volcanic action inside the Earth. Flintstones often have a rough lumpy surface but when they are broken, they look like dull grease-coloured glass. It has been one of the most useful types of stone to humankind.
Flintstones were often used in prehistoric times to make stone tools. When flintstones are broken, they have a sharp edge which could be used as a knife, or a scraper.
When two flintstones are hit together, they can make a spark. For many centuries, flint was one of the main ways for people in many countries to make fire. People would carry a little box called a "tinder box" which had some flintstones and tinder. The tinder was used to catch the spark and start a fire. Tinder could be sawdust, cloth, grass or bark. Flints were used to make a spark to fire a gun. A gun that used flint was called a "flint-lock" gun.
Flintstones are used in some countries for building. In England the flintstones used for building were often "knapped" which means they were broken to show the inside. This made a nicer finish on the building that the dull knobbly stones wouldn't have made.
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A flint dagger nearly 5000 years old, from Germany |
Merton priory flint wall
The flintstone wall of a building in England |
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| | ''The Flints from Portsdown Hill'' - The Flints of Portsdown Hill |
| | Neolithic Flint Mines of Petit-Spiennes ''Official web site'' - SRPH: Neolithic flintstones mines in Spiennes - Digest |
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