Wort des Tages
6 March 2026
flint mill
An obsolete appliance for lighting a miner at his work, in which flints on a revolving wheel were made to produce a shower of sparks, which gave light without igniting the firedamp.
Warum dieses Wort
A stopgap between candle and safety lamp, built on the hope that a shower of sparks was cooler than an open flame. It was not reliably so, and the design was abandoned once lamps with gauze arrived.
In use
Grandad's pit had a lad whose whole job was turning the flint mill so the hewers could see what they were swinging at.
Written by our editors to show how the term is used, not a recorded quotation.