In the mid-1800s, a French gardener by the name of Joseph Moni-er became frustrated with the quality of his garden containers. His clay flowerpots were fragile, and his concrete planters were insufficiently sturdy. Determined to make his containers more durable, Monier began experimenting with two common building materials: concrete and iron mesh. Those experiments resulted in the creation of reinforced concrete, for which Monier received a patent in 1867. The discovery transformed the construction industry, and today reinforced concrete is used in everything from buildings and bridges to countertops and benches.
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