Early reinforced concrete
Hormigón armado temprano
- Date
- 1849-1867 · confidence medium
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Joseph Monier (1867 patent); precedents from Joseph-Louis Lambot and François Coignet
- People
- 👤 Joseph Monier1823–1906
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A combination of concrete with an iron mesh that provided tensile strength. Monier patented it for flowerpots and tanks; it opened the way to the dominant structural material of the 20th century.
Lambot (1848, a boat at Miraval), Coignet (1853, a house in Saint-Denis) and William Wilkinson (Newcastle, patent 1854) all preceded Monier; the credit goes to Monier because of the spread of his patents in Germany (Wayss & Freytag).
What it led to
- Reinforced-concrete bridges, tanks and floor slabs
- The Hennebique system (1892) and modern building
- Modern Movement architecture
Built on
- Portland cement1824
- Ferrocement1848 (Lambot) / 1867 (patente de Monier)
- Coignet's concrete house (1853)
Made possible
- Hennebique system: monolithic reinforced concrete with stirrups1892
- Flat slab with mushroom capitals1906-1910
- Dom-ino frame: slabs on columns and the free plan1914
- Zeiss-Dywidag thin concrete shell1924
- Prestressed concrete1928
- Torroja's reinforced-concrete shells1933-1935
- Truck-mounted piston concrete pump1958 (precedentes 1927-1932)
- Concrete skyscraper
- Modern gravity dams