About 40 lbs. are thrown on to the inclined hearth of an air-furnace, where they are puddled or mixed together with a long iron rod, and withdrawn in a mass called a bloom, almost in a state of fusion,
Perhaps I do not totally understand the term "Puddling". I was interprtating it to mean an actual melting of the metals when I stated I did not believe even stub twist was puddled. The author here uses the term puddled, but if you read carefully he does not describe the metals being melted together. This description does correspond with my understanding of the process.