GUN-FLINTS.
WHILE we are discussing the relative merits of the Chassep8t and the Needle Gun, to speak only of the two great rivals which are now being tried on the battle-field, it seems like going
back into a far past to speak of "Gun-Flints." Few, we imagine, of our readers under the age of thirty-five have ever used a flint- lock gun. So rapid has been the development of the art of destruction, that we are already separated from the implement by a multitude of obsolete inventions. The whole race of muzzle- loaders, for instance, if not forgotten—for our Volunteers are
armed with them, and might as well, for all practical purposes, be armed with bows and arrows—is superseded, and itself marks a bygone epoch of its own. Yet we find that even at this moment an English town, Brandon, in Suffolk, a name which is itself a reminiscence of history, is supported in no alight degree by the manufacture of gun-flints. Among the appendices of a book* of great and varied interest, which we hope to notice at length in another part of our columns, is a paper by Mr. James Wyatt, of Bedford, describing this manufacture. Mr. Wyatt writes from personal experience ; he is himself an expert worker in flint, has served, so to speak, as apprentice and journeyman in the Brandon sheds, where he proved himself so skilful that the prospect of earning ten or even twelve shillings per week at the trade was held out to him. Three masters and thirty workmen are at present engaged in the manufacture ; and as a good " knapper," for so the workman into whose hands the material ultimately comes is called, can make three hundred gun-flints in an hour, the quantity manufactured must be considerable. So much, indeed, we may gather from the number of the trade names by which various qualities of the article are known. There are no less than twenty-three varieties of the gun-flints of com- merce, ascending according to fineness of material and make, from "small common gun," through such sorts as "super-pocket pistol," "best horse-pistol," "second carbine," "beat carbine," &c., up to the most valuable, "the grey mixed musket." These are packed in musks, containing from one to fifty thousand, con- signed to merchants in London, Liverpool, and elsewhere, and exported. The reader will naturally ask, —Exported to what place? Brazil appears to be the best customer, especially for the superior qualities, the " carbine " and " musket " sorts. These Flint Chips. By Edward T. Stevena, Hon. Curator of the Blackmore Museum.. London: Bell and Daisy. 1870. are also sent to the Cape, and to parts of the African coast, to New Zealand, and even to Spain. In America there is a demand for the " pistol " qualities among the Northern States of the Union. The savage tribes on the north west coast of this conti- nent, as we learn from Mr. Sproars admirable book " Scenes and Studies of Savage Life," prefer the flint-lock guns, as they are not able to command a supply of percussion-caps. It is probable that the same reason will continue to operate in many places for some time to come, and that the trade is not yet doomed to extinction. A curious interest belongs to it, as a link that connects the industry of the present day in all its infinite variety with what was probably the very earliest form of human ingenuity. The flint-workers of Brandon represent by a suc- cession, not of race but of employment, the tribes whose relics furnish the subject-matter of "Prehistoric Archxology," and the observation of their work even helps the science to solve some of its difficult problems. The locality of their manufacture has been determined by the peculiar excellence of the material which the place supplies. The flint is "more homogeneous in structure and more free from fossils" than what is commonly found else- where. Instead of having the cloudy look which the substance commonly presents, it is black in colour and nearly opaque ; but its chief excellence is that "it possesses the valuable characteristic of ' running ' into long flakes, when struck at the angle of the block or core." The process of production is divided between three or four sets of bands. First comes the excavator. The spot from which the best flints are now obtained is a tract of land called "Ling Heath," which is held in trust for the poor of the parish. The excavator selects a spot, and, the leave of the trustees obtained, sets to work, sinking a pit, fifteen feet by five, and, on reaching the depth of five feet, making another excavation below in a direction across the line of the upper one. The flint is found in layers from five to eighteen inches thick, occurring at intervals in the chalk. The pits are sometimes as much as forty feet deep. The material excavated— it is found in nodules sometimes weighing three hundredweight— is raised to the surface by the worker, who always works alone, in the most primitive manner. He lifts it on his head from stage to stage till he reaches the top. There it is put in heaps, which the flint manufacturer inspects, and purchases at the rate of 6s. 6d. per ton. Payments for royalty and cartage make up the price of the raw material as delivered at the workshops to 10s. per ton. It is then made into blocks of convenient size, which are stripped of the white rind, and roughly shaped. Then comes the process of " flaki ng." "The workman rests the mass of flint on his left knee, and with one smart tap on the corner of the flint, the hammer being directed at an angle of about 450, strikes off a flake the whole depth of the flint, if its running quality be good." A first-rate workman, using the best material, can strike off nine thousand flakes in a day, but the average amount of production is about two thousand less. As they are struck off they are thrown into tubs, according to their various size and form. They then pass into the hands of the " knapper." His implements are a small anvil, called a "stake," set obliquely on the bench on which he sits ; and a " knapping-hammer " of fine steel, of which the face is set obliquely also, so that the flint, which is held by the thumb and forefinger," coming between them is operated upon as by the action of a pair of shears, intensified by percussion." One smart blow strikes off the rough end, another detaches a piece of the proper size for a gun-flint. The edges are trimmed on the anvil, and the article is complete. The average price is about 4s. per thousand ; in the palmy days of the Napoleon wars it was as high as a guinea. A very good and industrious workman can earn about 20s. per week. Flakes that are considered unfit for the manu- facture of gun-flints are made into " strike-a-lights," for the use of the tinder-box seems also to survive. The waste material that re- sults from the making of the flakes themselves is used for footpaths and roads and for architectural purposes. This is itself, archmologi- cally considered, a very interesting object. In its various shapes and forms, according as it has been rejected or has failed in various stages of the manufacture, it closely resembles the pieces of flint found in the dwelling-places of prehistoric tribes ; and, as Mr. Wyatt says, "gives a key to the solution of the question of the construction of their knives and tools." One phenomenon, for instance, has particularly perplexed inquirers, and that is the enormous quantity of "flint chips" which has been found in particular localities. It is impossible to suppose that there could have been anything like a manufactory among tribes in so primitive a condition ; and this being out of the question, various explana- tions, more or less absurd, have been suggested. One, we remember, was lately put forward, which suggested that a
deposit which was found to be peculiarly fertile in these relies must have been under a favourite fishing - ground of the primitive people, and that the "flints," which were to be num- bered by thousands, must have been lost overboard by them as they were pursuing their occupation. This difficulty vanishes when we see not only how great a quantity of the finished article a solitary worker can produce, but also the vast amount of the waste material that he leaves behind him. And this explanation is much more complete when we find that there are at Brandon unattached' workmen who singly do the whole process, picking up the material,. working off the flakes in the open air, and finishing the gun-flints. at home ; thus accounting for "the large number of chips, cores,. and imperfect flakes which are found in great profusion on the surface, and in heaps in curious corners, over a large area of this district." One of the most curious of the facts connected with the subject is the inability of the most skilful of the modern workman,. with all the advantage of his fine steel tools, to rival the savages of the stone age in the fineness of his manufacture. The demand for flint implements is considerable, and a dishonest ingenuity has attempted to create an illegitimate supply, but attempted, so far,. in vain. "Not a single skilled workman in Brandon has suc- ceeded in producing the beautiful conchoidal waves, crimpings,. and ripple-work displayed on the surface of tools and weapons in Scandinavia, and on the barbs and arrow-points of a still earlier period." There are some arts that we lose to be set off against the many that we gain.
Previous page
