h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OK, I'll try my hand at this. No fair using google

Most modern buildings, especially high rises, rely heavily on reinforced concrete.

The forerunner of reinforced concrete was ferrocement, cement reinforced with iron, and two Frenchmen, both coincidentally with the first name Joseph, are generally credited with its invention (independent of one another.)

Their projects were both made in 1848, but not patented until 1855 and 1867 respectively.

I want to know:

What were the occupations of these two men?

and

What two different things did they make of ferrocement and later patent?

Was one a farmer? Did he make a barn?

*wild guess*

A baguette and a beret?

Robyn, one of them did work as a farmer for a while (though it was not his main occupation) but I'm afraid the barn is a

I'm gonna hazard a guess that the name Eiffel is going to feature somewhere here.

*awaits*

Eiffel is not a - I didn't do that to any names, since I'm not looking for the names - but Eiffel does not play a part.

However, he was a student of engineering in Paris in 1855, when one of these things was shown there at the very first World's Fair, so it may well have influenced him!

Ooh! That tickles!

Um, ok...

I'm sure I've heard the answer to this, but cant recall today...

I've heard of boats built of ferrocement - was one of them a boat builder?

Weeeelll - I'll let that count.

He was not a boat builder by profession, but one of the two first ferrocement projects was a rowboat. The unreinforced cement boat sank, the slightly later reinforced cement rowboat was shown at the Paris World's Fair in 1855.

did one work on the panama canal

No, but you're sailing dangerously close to a

in that case i won't mention the other one in the middle east and say the arc de triumph instead

What about the Arc de Triomphe?

so bad spelling

i could have refered to it as the arc de capitulation(why are the streets of paris lined with trees....so the german army can march in the shade)

Was it the subways underneath the Place d'Etoile and the Arc De Triomphe? Or the inner bits of the Arc, like the stairway you can use to get to the top?

(Still not funny, Taff )

No, it wasn't any part of the Arc de Triomphe, and I'm afraid that's another

Just wasn't sure what Taff meant - whether the Arc (which was completed in 1836) was the project, or what.

Are these things above or below ground?

Well, we've established that one was a rowboat. (Its inventor fancied himself a gentleman farmer, but he had a normal "day job" that we're still looking for.)

The occupation of the other will give you a clue to his invention.

the channel tunnel

one was originaly proposed in napoleon's time as an invasion route to britain

Yet another , I'm afraid.

While *cement* was used in the Thames Tunnel in 1828 - by Brunel, to annoy all the Goo fans - ferrocement had not yet been invented. The Channel Tunnel wasn't yet built at that time, of course, so how could it be one of the two projects? Both were actually built and used, at full scale.