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Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon PORTNER, F Born: Engineer Was sent out in 1934 by Dyckerhoff and Widmann, the German licencees of Zeiss-Dywidag shell roof construction patents, to educate AS JOFFE & Co in the theory and application of thin reinforced concrete shells. Portner left their employ in 1943 and entered that of ROBERTS CONSTRUCTION Co. In 1945 he designed a single standing barrel vault of 18,0 m at Germiston. There followed a sickle shell roof for a tobacco warehouse (architect Wynand SMIT) in Potgietersrust (now Mokopane). He died some years later but blazed a trail for this form of concrete construction in South Africa. [FREEDMAN, R. 1964. Structural concrete in South Africa. Johannesburg: SA Reinforced Concrete Engineers Ass. p. 58.] All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.