Albert Marie Joseph Danly

Joseph Barbe Léonard Danly (19 March 1839 – 1899) was a Belgian engineer and businessperson. The operator of a forge in Aiseau, Belgium, in the 1880s he patented a construction system for prefabricated iron buildings known as the Danly system. Considered to be highly sophisticated in comparison with other prefabricated iron building systems of that era, the Danly system was originally intended for use in the colony of Belgian Congo, but was also extensively used in other African colonies as well as in Latin America.

Life and career Joseph Barbe Léonard Danly was born in Marcinelle on 19 March 1839. He attended the University of Liège, earning a degree in mining engineering. In 1863, together with his brother Louis, a banker, Joseph bought a forge located in Aiseau and developed it into a manufacturing facility for the production of railway equipment.

Joseph intended his improved building system to be employed in the newly established Congo Free State, where it was in fact used to construct, among other structures, the first church of Boma. However, his prefabricated iron buildings were also extensively sold to other European colonial administrations (see, for example, the Casa de Ferro, acquired by the Portuguese government by order of the Governor-general of Portuguese Mozambique and erected in Maputo) or to privates (for instance, see the Casa de Fierro, bought by the Bolivian explorer and entrepreneur Antonio Vaca Diez and assembled in Iquitos, Peru).

After the 1887 improvement patent, another identical patent was issued in France. It was operated by the Société des forges et fonderies d'Hautmont (Nord), which had a manufacturing license for the production and distribution of buildings constructed with the Danly system in France and in its colonies.

The Danly system Detail of the exterior of Villa Ker ar Bruck in Crozon, France, constructed with the Danly system. Buildings constructed according to the Danly system featured a wrought iron structure, with cast iron connecting pieces and thin, galvanized and embossed iron cladding panels. The panels had edges folded at 90 degrees with holes for the bolts, and featured convex geometrical designs serving both decorative and structural functions. The wrought iron structural frame, introduced with the 1887 improvement patent, allowed for the erection of elaborate and complex buildings, often two stories tall; smaller, single-story buildings featured a relatively lighter frame, made of small vertical T-beams. Pavilion for the Universal Exposition in Paris (1889; after the fair, reassembled at the Pebeco foundry in Port-Brillet) Villa Ker ar Bruck, Crozon (1889) Villa Hamlet, Arcachon (1894) Residence of the Governor-General, Boma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (year unknown) São João public market, São Paulo (1890; reassembled in a new location circa 1914; dismantled circa 1924) Armazém 15 (port warehouse), Manaus (year unknown) Chalé do Bosque, Belém (year unknown; reassembled in its present location in 1985) Chalet of the Imprensa Oficial do Estado do Pará, Belém (year unknown; dismantled in 1987, with pieces stored at the Federal University of Pará campus) Other countries Church of Guayacán, Chile (1889) Casa de Fierro, Iquitos, Peru (1890) Villa Julia, Caracas, Venezuela (1892) Palacio de Hierro, Orizaba, Mexico (1894) Escuela Buenaventura Corrales, San Jose, Costa Rica (1896) Chapel of the Hospital Nacional Rosales, San Salvador, El Salvador (1900) Hospital Nacional Rosales, San Salvador, El Salvador (1902) Hospicio de Huérfanos, San Salvador, El Salvador (year unknown)

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