A Maccaferri gabion is a name given to a type of

gabion A gabion (from Italian ''gabbione'' meaning "big cage"; from Italian ''gabbia'' and Latin ''cavea'' meaning "cage") is a cage, cylinder or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building, ...

produced by the

Maccaferri Officine Maccaferri SpA (Maccaferri) is an Italian multinational company, headquartered in Zola Predosa, Bologna. The company specialises in products for the construction industry. Maccaferri's products are used for: retaining structures, soil r ...

family. In 1893, in

Casalecchio di Reno Casalecchio di Reno ( Bolognese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. History Casalecchio's name is derived from ''Casaliculum'' ("collection of little houses"), and from the presence of ...

near

Bologna, Italy Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, for the first time large amounts of wire mesh Maccaferri sack

s were used to repair dams destroyed by a flood of the

river Reno The Reno () is a river of Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is the tenth longest river in Italy (the sixth longest of those that flow directly into the sea) and the most important of the region apart from the Po. It has a drainage basin of about ...

. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Maccaferri family purchased a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

for a new type of box gabion, so called Palvis (''Gabbioni a scatola Palvis'') and started the industrial production and introduction on a vast scale of gabions and mattresses for

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

use. In 1911, Gaetano Maccaferri established business relationships in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, a process of diversification started with acquisitions in various industrial fields, but the

erosion control Erosion control is the practice of preventing or controlling wind or water erosion in agriculture, land development, coastal areas, river banks and construction. Effective erosion controls handle surface runoff and are important techniques in ...

sector remain the core business. This process has brought the Maccaferri technology and technical expertise to all

countries of the world The following is a list providing an overview of sovereign states around the world with information on their status and recognition of their sovereignty. The 206 listed states can be divided into three categories based on membership withi ...

, with a direct presence in more than forty countries on all continents.

References

Gabions Warfare of the Middle Ages {{interwiki extra, qid=Q88512