Francois Hennebique
Born Apr 26 1842 - Died Mar 7 1921
Construction of Joists, Girders, and the Like
Patent No. 611,907

Inducted 2011

François Hennebique devised the pioneering technique of construction with reinforced concrete. Hennebique worked first as a stonemason, with a particular interest in restoring gothic cathedrals, and later became an engineer and self-educated builder. He patented his revolutionary reinforced-concrete construction system in 1892. He started with reinforced-concrete floor slabs, concrete slabs with steel bars in the bottom, and advanced to a total building system using structural beams of concrete reinforced with stirrups and longitudinal bars designed to withstand the tensile forces against which ordinary concrete was weak.

Invention Impact

He first developed his reinforced concrete system on a house project in Belgium in 1879 where he used concrete as a fireproof protection for wrought iron beams. In 1894, Hennebique built the first reinforced concrete bridge in Wiggen, Switzerland. His busi¬ness de¬vel¬oped rapidly, ex¬pand¬ing from five em¬ploy¬ees in Brus¬sels in 1896, to twenty-five two years later when he moved to Paris. In ad¬di¬tion, he had a rapidly ex¬pand¬ing net¬work of firms act¬ing as agents for his sys¬tem. Hennebique’s idea of strengthening concrete using iron and steel bars was the forerunner to the widespread modern reinforced-concrete method used in construction today.

Inventor Bio

Francois Hennebique was born Neuville-Saint-Vaast, France. He was a French engineer and self-educated builder. Between 1892 and 1902, over 7000 structures were built using the Hennebique system.