Ancient Roman architecture
Although concrete had been used on a minor scale in Mesopotamia, Roman architects perfected Roman concrete and used it in buildings where it could stand on its own and support a great deal of weight. The first use of concrete by the Romans was in the town of Cosa sometime after 273 BC. Ancient Roman concrete was a mixture of lime mortar, aggregate, pozzolana, water, and stones, and was stronger than previously-used concretes. The ancient builders placed these ingredients in wooden frames where they hardened and bonded to a facing of stones or (more frequently) bricks. The aggregates used were often much larger than in modern concrete, amounting to rubble.
History of structural engineering
Developments in concrete continued with the construction in 1848 of a rowing boat built of ferrocement - the forerunner of modern reinforced concrete - by Joseph-Louis Lambot. He patented his system of mesh reinforcement and concrete in 1855, one year after W.B. Wilkinson also patented a similar system. This was followed in 1867 when a reinforced concrete planting tub was patented by Joseph Monier in Paris, using steel mesh reinforcement similar to that used by Lambot and Wilkinson. Monier took the idea forward, filing several patents for tubs, slabs and beams, leading eventually to the Monier system of reinforced structures, the first use of steel reinforcement bars located in areas of tension in the structure.