Paul Cottancin

[3] Cottancin did not use heavy bars within thin layers of concrete, but dissipated force by using wire meshes and nets distributed throughout the material.[6] His 1889 patent was for wire mesh embedded in 50 millimetres (2.0 in) concrete slabs, supported by "spinal stiffeners", or triangulated ribs.[1] Instead, he viewed the sheets of reinforced concrete used for the walls and floors of his buildings as a monolithic material in its response to stress.[11] Cottancin worked with Anatole de Baudot, a structural-rationalist pupil of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, in the design of the church of Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre.The immediate reason was an infraction of planning regulations, but doubts were raised about the ability of the reinforced concrete floors and piers to carry the loads.Extensive tests were carried out, subjecting the components to extreme stress, before construction was allowed to resume in 1902, complete in 1904.