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Flint glass

(Science: chemistry) a soft, heavy, brilliant glass, consisting essentially of a silicate of lead and potassium. It is used for tableware, and for optical instruments, as prisms, its density giving a high degree of dispersive power; so called, because formerly the silica was obtained from pulverized flints.

Synonym: crystal glass. Cf. Glass.

The concave or diverging half on an achromatic lens is usually made of flint glass.