Where does puddling collide?

In metallurgy puddling is a process for refining pig iron into wrought iron: molten iron is stirred ("puddled") in a reverberatory furnace so that air oxidises the carbon out of it, and the stiffening, decarburised metal is gathered into balls and worked. Henry Cort patented the process in 1784, and Tylecote's A History of Metallurgy traces how puddling supplied the malleable iron of the Industrial Revolution before the Bessemer era. The referent is an industrial refining process, sharing only the word with a butterfly's behaviour.[1]

Unit

A furnace process converting pig iron to wrought iron

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Judged by the degree of decarburisation achieved and the quality and yield of the wrought-iron blooms

In entomology puddling (or mud-puddling) is the behaviour of butterflies and some moths that gather at damp soil, mud, dung, or carrion to drink and extract dissolved minerals, especially sodium, that are scarce in a nectar diet. Arms, Feeny, and Lederhouse's Sodium: Stimulus for Puddling Behavior by Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies showed that sodium, not sugar or water, drives the behaviour, which is performed mainly by males that pass the sodium to females at mating. The referent is an animal feeding behaviour, unrelated to the iron furnace.[2]

Unit

Mineral-seeking fluid-feeding behaviour at moist ground

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Studied by attraction assays to salt solutions and by the uptake and later transfer of sodium