Gustave Magnel
Professor Gustave Magnel ( -1955) of Ghent University and director of Stressed Concrete Design
1955 Obituary [1]
WE regret to record the death, on July 5th, of Professor Gustave Magnet, the well known authority on prestressed concrete.
Professor Magnet was director of the reinforced concrete laboratory at Ghent University, and was well known in this country for his book on prestressed concrete, for his numerous lectures and addresses delivered here on that subject, and for his development work on prestressing, which led to his association with the Magnel-Biaton system of prestressed concrete. This system has been applied in the United Kingdom by Stressed Concrete Design, Ltd., a firm of which he was a director.
Professor Magnet was particularly interested in all aspects of the phenomenon of "prestressing," and he carried out tests on prestressed steel structures, as well as his better-known works on prestressed concrete.
He had numerous publications to his credit, principally on prestressed concrete, in this country, in the United States and in Belgium.
He graduated at Ghent University in 1912, and then was employed by the firm of D. G. Somerville and Co., Ltd., of London, until 1917. Then he started his long and distinguished career at Ghent University.
Professor Magnel was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and of the Institution of Structural Engineers. His death will be regretted by many engineers in this country, who associate his name with the development of the "Belgian" system of prestressing, and of its many achievements in practice, such as the Sclayn bridge across the Meuse and the Melsbroek hangars near Brussels.