Two links of anchor chain forged from puddled iron and with cast iron stubs

The puddling process for making wrought iron was perfected by Henry Cort in 1784. He melted pig iron in a reverberatory furnace and then oxidised it. The iron formed a pasty mass which was then worked up into a large ball, which was then hammered and rolled into bars.The wrought iron produced in this way was the main metal used in structural engineering until the discovery of cheap steel-making processes.