The commercial enterprises of the mercantile patriciate household of the Fuggers of Augsburg generated unprecedented monetary means. Puddling was a technique of decarburizing molten pig iron by slow oxidation in a reverberatory furnace by manually stirring it with a protracted rod. 91 Puddling produced a structural grade iron at a relatively low price. Because puddling required human ability in sensing the iron globs, it was by no means efficiently mechanised. Conversion of forged iron had leng...