Concrete Reinforced by a Backbone of Steel. Joseph Monier, the Pioneer.
Concrete, as one of its minor uses, had often been molded into tubs for young trees and shrubs. In 1867, Joseph Monier, a French gardener, in using tubs of this kind found them heavy and clumsy. By way of improvement he built others in which he embedded iron rods vertically in the concrete, securing thus a strong frame-work which permitted him to use but little concrete, and make tubs comparatively light and thin. Monier was not a man to rest satisfied with a single step in a path of so much promise. Before his day builders had joined concrete and metal, but without recognizing the immense value of the alliance. He proceeded to build tanks, ponds, and floors of his united materials, at length rearing bridges of modest proportions. His work attracted attention in Germany and Austria, as well as at home in France, so that soon reinforced concrete, as it was called, became a serious rival to brick and stone. For two thousand years and more, concrete had been a familiar resource of the builder; to-day with a backbone of steel it fills an important place between masonry and skeleton steel construction, boldly invading the territory of both.
Ransome bar.
Corrugated steel bar. St. Louis Expanded Metal Fire Proofing Co.
Thacher bar.