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Was the patron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Monier ?

My guess was that the invention is not an invention as such, but more along the lines of "he made it practical in a huge way and showed everyone else following him how to do it". There is often a very long lag between actual "first to invent" and "figured out how to make it practical without it being stupidly expensive", and oftentimes the latter is regrettably (IMHO) not recognized nearly as much as the inventor. A quick bit of Googling around led me to Tung-Yen_Lin [1], and prestressed concrete, a relatively (as these things go in civil engineering) modern technique.

Patio11's comment that this was roughly 10 years ago almost fits when this rather amazing gentleman passed away.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tung-Yen_Lin

No, not him, and not interested in playing 20 questions.

Look, we all know HNers are smart enough to Google up the particulars. That would put me in the awkward position of having published a private conversation by a deceased gentleman who generously paid for several dozen poor students to go to college, including me. I'd appreciate if you just wrote this one off to "I trust Patrick not to have invented this story out of whole cloth" and let it lie.

Sorry, wasn't trying to trace the actual name. I knew Monier's name from some documentary I watched and was confused if it was you to met him or were you sharing someone else's century old anecdote.

That would put me in the awkward position of having published a private conversation by a deceased gentleman who generously paid for several dozen poor students to go to college, including me.

It's not like you told us he secretly punched babies to steal their toys. It was a charming anecdote. It makes him look like a great person with a sense of humor. If anything, the story is entirely flattering. This is not the stuff secrets are made of.

Then I won't ask if Nemesis ever made it to a CLA meeting... ;)

Not likely, since Joseph Monier died in 1906.

Monier died in 1906, so I doubt it.

I think the comment was supposed to point out that Monier is supposed to be one of the principle inventors of reinforced concrete and that he passed away in 1906 ... hence trying to figure out how the gentleman in the story fit in.

Maybe he invented the currently used formula for reinforced concrete?

What formula? It is concrete reinforced with rebar. My guess is the OP just misremembered the specific thing the patron invented. It's a great story either way.

Might just be misremembering the specific retort he made - he is famous for use of reinforced concrete. (I checked that after the last time I told the story, to make sure I hadn't invented that part.)

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