AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS.
315
V'. This consisted of two horizontal shafts, placed in the same vertical plane with the axes of the rolls D C, and coupled to them by spindles y Y', and coupling boxes u u' and V V'. On these shafts were fixed disks of steel, called "cutters," of a thickness equal to the width of the bar or rod desired; the edges of the
Fig. 17.—Interior of an Early Slitting-Mill. (1704.)
"cutters" on each shaft entered closely between those . on the other, thus acting with reference to each other like the blades of rotary shears, which in fact they were; and, if the end of a flat bar of hot iron was thrust against the approaching edges of the rotary cutters, it would be immediately drawn between them,
