puddling furnace

metallurgy

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 13, 2026

Quick Summary

A puddling furnace is a type of reverberatory furnace used in metallurgy. It was invented by Henry Cort in 1784 as part of the puddling process, which allowed for the large-scale production of wrought iron.12

The puddling process involves heating pig iron in a furnace and stirring it with oxidizing substances. This method superseded the earlier finery process and was crucial for industrial advancements. Before Cort's invention, iron was produced in bloomery furnaces, yielding a solid lump of metal known as a bloom, which then required hammering to shape. The puddling furnace enabled more efficient conversion of pig iron into malleable iron, meeting the growing demand for machinery during the Industrial Revolution.23

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

3 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

iron processing
History
…Henry Cort, who patented his puddling furnace in 1784. Cort used a coal-fired reverberatory furnace to melt a charge of pig iron to which iron oxide was added to make a slag. Agitating the resultant “puddle” of metal caused carbon to be removed by oxidation (together with silicon, phosphorus, and…
Read More
…Henry Cort, who patented his puddling furnace in 1784. Cort used a coal-fired reverberatory furnace to melt a charge of pig iron to which iron oxide was added to make a slag. Agitating the resultant “puddle” of metal caused carbon to be removed by oxidation (together with silicon, phosphorus, and…
Read More