Reinforced Concrete — The Invention That Built the 20th Century
On 16 July 1867 the gardener Joseph Monier filed patent No. 77165 for a system of "iron and cement tub-basins". This composite — concrete (30 MPa in compression) + steel (500 MPa in tension) — would become the most produced material in the world: ~4.1 billion tonnes of cement produced per year in 2023.