It all started with an officer in the 29th Company, Royal Engineers - Major Peter Norman Nissen (1871-1930) needed a fast, easy-to-erect building which would offer storage and living space in the field. Since this was 1916, the need was great indeed - and production of the hut, made from curved sheets of corrugated iron was approved immediately. A single hut took 54 sheets of curved corrugated iron, 10 ft 6 ins high and 2 ft 2 ins wide, and a specially braced framework. By the end of the First World War, around 100, 000 units had been manufactured.
.... and I thought he was British !! http://books.google.com/books?id=Km...7YjWDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result
Makes you wonder why they couldn't built these after disasters like Katrina etc .... easy to put up and easy to take down .... but would have been a roof over peoples heads and some feeling of stability ! Annie
Heres a bit more ! Major Peter Norman Nissen (1871-1930) At the end of the war Nissen was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his invention. Unfortunately, after the conflict a confrontation developed between Nissen and the War Office over payment for his invention. The offer made to him of £500 was considered by Nissen to be derisory in view of the large numbers of huts that had been manufactured. Eventually common sense prevailed and the matter was settled with a payment to Nissen of £10,000 tax free ! Nissen died in March 1930, but his legacy lives on in his hutting, which was used by the Army in the Falklands campaign in 1982 and which can still be seen on farmland and old military bases around the country. There is another legacy that links to the first article of this series. In the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy in London the figure of a Royal Engineers Tunneller on the Institutes memorial to those members who fell in the 1914 - 1918 war was modelled by none other than Peter Nissen! http://www.wcremembered.co.uk/retro.html
