Cort, Henry

Cort, Henry, 1740–1800, English inventor. He revolutionized the British iron industry with his use of grooved rollers to finish iron, replacing the process of hammering, and through his invention of the puddling process. This process, called puddling, involved stirring the molten pig iron in a reverbatory furnace until the decarburizing action of the air produced a loop of pure metal.

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Cort, Henry

(born 1740, Lancaster, Lancashire, Eng.—died 1800, London) British inventor and industrialist. In 1783 he obtained a patent for producing iron bars quickly and economically in a rolling mill with grooved rolls. The following year he patented his puddling process for converting pig iron into wrought iron in a reverberatory furnace. His two inventions had a significant effect on Britain's iron-making industry, and iron production quadrupled in the next 20 years.