A spark, a flint: How fire leapt to life The control of fire was the first and perhaps greatest of humanity’s steps towards a life-enhancing technology. To early man, fire was a divine gift randomly delivered in the form of lightning, forest fire or burning lava.

Definitions of flint. noun. a hard kind of stone; a form of silica more opaque than chalcedony. see more. adjective. showing unfeeling resistance to tender feelings. synonyms: flinty, granitic, obdurate, stony. hardhearted, heartless. lacking in feeling or pity or warmth.