The English ironmaster Henry Cort (1740-1800) made possible the large-scale and inexpensive conversion of cast iron into wrought iron, one of the most essential materials of the early industrial revolution.

Henry Cort was born in Lancaster. His father was a mason and brickmaster. Young Cort became a supplier of naval provisions and by the 1770s had accumulated a small fortune.

In 1775, after years of experimenting with improved methods for wrought-iron production, Cort purchased a forge and slitting mill at Fontley. He tried to find an easy way to convert cast iron into wrought iron; traditionally a smith had hammered the iron in a forge. He patented grooved rollers in 1783 which replaced most of the hammering. By 1784 Cort worked out a process of pudding, whereby molten pig iron was stirred in a reverberatory furnace. As the iron was decarbonized by air, it became thicker, and balls of "puddled" iron...