Flint, city (1990 pop. 140,761), seat of Genesee co., SE Mich., on the Flint River; inc. 1855. Since 1902 it has been an automobile-manufacturing centers. The General Motors Corp. had its beginnings (1908) in Flint, where many major automobile makers (Chrysler, Chevrolet, Nash, Champion, Buick) also started. A fur-trading post (1819) here was succeeded by a settlement in which lumbering and then cart and carriage making were the major industries. In 1937, sitdown strikes by the United Automobile Workers (UAW) in Flint's General Motors plants spurred widespread labor organization. During the 1980s and 90s massive layoffs at General Motors large-car factories devastated Flint's economy. Attempts at economic diversification and revitalization have had limited success, and in 2002 municipal financial problems led the state to take control of the city government. Local institutions include a branch of the Univ. of Michigan, an art institute, and the Michigan school for the deaf.

flint, variety of quartz that commonly occurs in rounded nodules and whose crystal structure is not visible to the naked eye. Flint is dark gray, smoky brown, or black in color; pale gray flint is called chert. When found in chalk or in other rocks containing lime, the nodules frequently have a white coating. Flint is translucent to opaque. It was early used by primitive peoples for making knives and spearheads because, although it is very hard, it is more readily shaped than stone; edges can be flaked off with comparative ease, especially those of freshly dug pieces, by pressure exerted with a piece of stone or bone. Since it is not chipped by pounding, as stone is, sharper edges are obtained. Use of flint tools defines the Stone Age cultures of the Pleistocene epoch. It was long used with steel for lighting fires and later for setting off the powder in flintlock firearms.

flint / flint/ • n. a hard gray rock consisting of nearly pure chert, occurring chiefly as nodules in chalk. ∎  a piece of this stone, esp. as flaked or ground in ancient times to form a tool or weapon. ∎  a piece of flint used with steel to produce an igniting spark, e.g., in a flintlock gun, or (in modern use) a piece of an alloy used similarly, esp. in a cigarette lighter. ∎  used to express how hard and unyielding something or someone is: mean faces with eyes like flints.

flint Granular variety of quartz (SiO₂) of a fine crystalline structure. It is usually brown or dark grey, although the variety known as chert is a paler grey. It occurs in rounded nodules and is found in chalk or other sedimentary rocks containing calcium carbonate. Of great importance to early humans during the Stone Age, flint flakes when struck a glancing blow, leaving sharp edges appropriate for tools and weapons; two flints struck together produce a spark which can be used to make fire.

flint. Hard steely-grey stone occurring in nodules of a varying size, usually covered with a white encrustation. It is used for building in combination with brick or stone dressings. It is easily split, or knapped, and is used in flush-work with freestone dressings.

Bibliography

S. Hart (2000)

flint (silex) Variety of chert, which occurs commonly as nodules and bands in chalk. It is deposited in the porous, permeable structures of sponge, diatom, and echinoid skeletons and also in burrows.

Flint / flint/ an industrial city in southeastern Michigan, an auto industry center since the Buick Company was established there in 1903; pop. 124,943.

flint OE. flint = MDu. vlint, rel. to OHG. (G. dial.) flins; perh. rel. to Gr. plinthos tile (see PLINTH).

Flint, river: see Chattahoochee, river.

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