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.