on of punching the pairs of mortises, _c'_ and _d_, having
been repeated along the other pair of webs, _a'_, it will be observed
that like the notches, _b_, the mortises, _c d_, in the one pair of
webs alternate with those, _c' d'_, in the other pair of webs.

The third operation (illustrated in Fig. 3) is to elongate the
mortises, _c d_, and bring the mortises, _c c'_, more nearly to the
final form. This is performed by punches similar to but larger (in the
direction of the length of the rod) than those used in the second
operation.

The third operation, which is repeated upon both pairs of webs, _a a
a' a'_, may be considered as a second stage of the second operation,
it being preferable to punch out the mortises in two stages in order
to remove sufficient metal without unduly straining the bar.

The fourth operation (illustrated in Fig. 4) consists in roughly
shaping the ends of the links externally by punching out the portions,
_a*_, of the webs, _a_, between the links lying in the same plane or
formed out of the same pair of webs. This operation is repeated on the
other pair of webs, _a'_. Up to this point a continuous core of metal
has been left at the intersection of the two pairs of webs.

The fifth operation (illustrated in Fig. 5) consists in punching out
the portions, _e_, of the core at each side of the cross stay of the
link, so as to separate the cross stay from the outer ends of the
adjacent links. This operation is performed by removing a portion only
of the metal of the core which intervenes between the cross stay and
the outer ends of the adjacent links enchained with the link under
operation--that is to say, portions, _e*_, of the core are temporarily
left attached to the outer ends of the links in order to avoid
crippling or bending the bar, which might occur were the whole of this
metal, which is ultimately to be removed, to be punched out at once,
these portions, _e*_, being supported by the bed die in the operation
of punching out the spaces, _e_, as hereinafter described. This
operation having been repeated upon both pairs of webs, it will be
observed that the rod-like form of the chain is now only maintained by
the portion of the core at the points, _f_, where the inner side of
the eye or bow of one link is united with that of the next one. The
severing of these intervening portions of the core and the breaking up
of the rod into the constituent links of the chain constitute the
sixth operat