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Slitting mill
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<p>The slitting mill was a <a href="/facts/Watermill/UTvzQY8S">watermill</a> for slitting bars of iron into rods. The rods then were passed to nailers who made the rods into <a href="/facts/Nail_(fastener)/xjL7LSju">nails</a>, by giving them a point and head. </p><p>The slitting mill was probably invented near <a href="/facts/Li%C3%A8ge/QjGaj3M9">Liège</a> in what is now <a href="/facts/Belgium/YKuMXP5j">Belgium</a>. The first slitting mill in England was built at <a href="/facts/Dartford/f6JpkLxn">Dartford</a>, Kent in 1590. This was followed by one near <a href="/facts/Rugeley/0YHKXR8P">Rugeley</a> at the once separate village which was called Stonehouse, but now called <a href="/facts/Slitting_Mill/3QEPthG5">Slitting Mill</a>, by about 1611, and then Hyde Mill in <a href="/facts/Kinver/gMLt5SyD">Kinver</a> in 1627. Others followed in various parts of England where iron was made. However, there was a particular concentration of them on the <a href="/facts/River_Stour,_Worcestershire/ETb33TqJ">River Stour</a> between <a href="/facts/Stourbridge/NCKukmtP">Stourbridge</a> and <a href="/facts/Stourport/e4Up4cdS">Stourport</a>, where they were conveniently placed to slit iron that was brought up (or down) the <a href="/facts/River_Severn/sw9KLcCH">River Severn</a> before it reached <a href="/facts/Nail_(fastener)/xjL7LSju">nailers</a> in the <a href="/facts/Black_Country/dbTA17nP">Black Country</a>. </p><p>The slitting mill consisted of two pairs of rollers turned by <a href="/facts/Water_wheel/7xwQDxrP">water wheels</a>. Mill bars were flat <a href="/facts/Bar_iron/zynpjrIv">bars of iron</a> about three inches (75 mm) wide and half an inch (13 mm) thick. A piece was cut off the end of the bar with shears powered by one of the water wheels and heated in a furnace. This was then passed between <a href="/facts/Rolling_mill/FQ6AQVld">flat rollers</a> which made it into a thick plate. It was then passed through the second rollers (known as cutters), which slit it into rods. The cutters had intersecting grooves which sheared the iron lengthways. </p>