Short answers, pulled from the story.
Henry Cort (c. 1740-1800) was an English ironmaster who developed a puddling furnace with grooved rollers to refine pig iron into wrought iron. He obtained a patent in 1784 for an improved version of Peter Onions' puddling process, and a 1783 patent for a reverberatory furnace. His innovations became commercially viable in the 1790s after modifications by Richard Crawshay and the Merthyr Tydfil ironmasters.
Cort's puddling process reduced the carbon content of cast iron through oxidation inside a reverberatory furnace. A worker called the puddler stirred the molten metal with a rabbling bar to extract impurities, forming a ball of wrought iron that was then shaped by a shingling hammer and rolled through grooved rollers. The grooved rollers mechanised what had previously been laborious hand work.
Cort's bankruptcy followed the sudden death of Adam Jellicoe on the 30th of August 1789. Jellicoe, a chief clerk in the Royal Navy's Pay Office, had lent Cort nearly £58,000 drawn from surplus government funds. When Jellicoe died, the Crown seized the property of both Jellicoe and the Cort-Jellicoe partnership to recover the debt, leaving Cort bankrupt.
Reportedly 8,200 puddling furnaces were in use by 1820. They used a modified version of Cort's process, introduced by Richard Crawshay and Homfray of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil. These modifications allowed operators to avoid paying royalties under the original patents.
Lord Sheffield stated as early as 1786 that Cort's improvements to bar iron production were more important than the loss of America, ranking them alongside James Watt's work on the steam engine. Sheffield's assessment placed Cort among the most significant contributors to the Industrial Revolution in England.
Henry Cort was buried in the churchyard of St John-at-Hampstead in London. Despite the widespread use of furnaces derived from his patents, he never regained his financial standing after his bankruptcy and never again engaged in industrial activities. He was eventually awarded a government pension but died on the 23rd of May 1800 described as a ruined man.