gen. A rod serving to connect a crank with any other part of a machine. In steam and gas engines, the rod used for transmitting the motion of the piston to the crank. In direct-acting engines the connecting rod is attached to the cross-head of the piston-rod, whilst in beam engines it serves to connect one end of the working beam to the crank on the fly-wheel shaft. In the latter sense, especially, the name pitman is frequently used in U.S. for connecting rod. † b. The outside coupling rod which connects together the wheels of some locomotive engines. (Weale, Dict. Techn. Terms.) Obs.
1839. R. S. Robinson, Naut. Steam Eng., 63. The space in which the connecting rod and cross tail work.
1841. Penny Cycl., XIX. 260/1. For luggage engines … four, or even six wheels are coupled together by external cranks and connecting rods.
1856. Engineer, I. 28/1. Another connecting rod … connects another bell-crank with the upper hammer. Ibid. (1857), II. 660/2. The front and back wheels are coupled by means of connecting rods.
1857. Chambers’ Information, I. 392. The other end of the beam is connected to the upper end of the connecting-rod, which at its lower end is attached to the crank.
1860. Scientific American, III. 329/3. In a properly constructed beam engine the weight of the front links, cross-head, and piston, with its rod, should just balance the connecting rod and its crank.
