They constructed a globe-shaped balloon of sackcloth with three thin layers of paper inside. The envelope could contain nearly 790 m³ (28,000 cubic feet) of air and weighed 225 kg (500 lb). It was constructed of four pieces (the dome and three lateral bands) and held together by 1,800 buttons. A reinforcing fish net of cord covered the outside of the envelope
Henry Cort. Cort, Henry, 1740–1800, English inventor. He revolutionized the British iron industry with his use of grooved rollers to finish iron, replacing the process of hammering, and through his invention of the puddling process. . As the iron was decarbonized by air, it became thicker, and balls of "puddled" iron could be removed as a pasty mass from the more liquid impurities still in the furnace. Puddled iron, like wrought iron, was tougher and more malleable than pig iron and could be hammered and finished with the grooved rollers. He also devised a process whereby red-hot iron was drawn out of the furnace through grooved rollers which shaped the puddled iron into bars, whose dimensions were determined by the shape of the grooves on the rollers. The rollers also helped squeeze out impurities, and preliminary shaping into bars made the iron more readily utilizable for the final product. There were many advantages to these processes. Puddling used the plentiful coke, instead of the expensive charcoal.
J.Bramah: The locks produced by his company were famed for their resistance to lock picking