The origin of Henry Cort’s iron-rolling process: assessing the evidence
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https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0943-3136
Abstract
This paper examines the available evidence relating to the disputed origin of Henry Cort’s iron-rolling process. The principal primary sources, reproduced in the Appendix, do not support the contention that Cort acquired the process from enslaved metalworkers at John Reeder’s foundry in Jamaica; nor that the foundry was dismantled and shipped to Portsmouth for Cort’s benefit. The sources instead suggest that ordinary and widespread ironmaking processes were in use at Reeder’s foundry; that no innovation occurred there; that the chain of events by which Cort is supposed to have heard of the foundry’s activities certainly did not occur; that Reeder’s foundry was destroyed because of the threat of a Franco-Spanish invasion force; and that no part of the foundry was removed from the immediate vicinity of the island, let alone taken to Portsmouth.
Details
Henry Cort, John Reeder, Jamaica, historical evidence, grooved rollers, innovation, Industrial revolution
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