Henry Cort

Life & Legacy

Henry Cort (c. 1740 – 23 May 1800) was an English ironware producer who was formerly a Navy pay agent. During the Industrial Revolution in England, Cort began refining iron from pig iron to wrought iron (or bar iron) using innovative production systems. In 1784, he obtained a patent for an improved version of Peter Onions's puddling process, for refining cast iron, although its commercial viability was only realised in the 1790s, through further innovations introduced by Richard Crawshay and Homfray of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil.