The first patents of the prefabrication and industrialization of reinforced concrete in Europe and Spain: 1886-1906

Abstract

This article explores the contribution of the European pioneers in prefabricated concrete proposals in Spain and is based on a deep analysis of unpublished patents of prefabricated reinforced concrete objects designed from 1886 to 1906. During these decades, an important catalogue of contributions was developed: from formwork or moulds intended for industrialization, to slabs and prefabricated structures. As a result, the patents for prefabricated systems and elements, which were mainly foreign in origin, provided the Spanish construction sector knowledge of complex manufacturing processes and ensured that technicians were tackling, from the very beginning, problems such as the continuity of prefabricated elements, their structural behaviour, and the layout of reinforcement bars. Prefabrication requires greater technology than the execution of in-situ reinforced concrete. This technology encouraged and boosted improvements to reinforced concrete construction in Spain. Thus, the patents for prefabricated systems and elements contributed new structural types and previously unknown techniques that had not been widely disseminated until then, such as prestressing. At the end, this contribution was fundamental to the development of construction in reinforced concrete in Europe and the future development of its applications. In this respect, we can highlight the figure of Bernardo de la Granda y Callejas, who patented the first Spanish system of pre-stressed concrete, which was possibly one of the first of its kind worldwide.