Pit′man.
（Machinery.) The rod which connects a rotary with a reciprocating object, as that which couples a crank with a saw-gate, or a steampis-ton with its crank-shaft. So called from the lower man of a pair who worked in a pit at the lower end of the saw. The word has now a local application to the man in charge of the drainage-pumps in a pit or shaft. The more general use of the word refers to a bar proceeding from a crank or wrist, such as the rod connecting the cutter-bar of a harvester with the wrist on the crank-wheel.
