French civil engineer (1832–1923)
For other uses, see Gustave Eiffel (disambiguation).
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (EYE-fəl, French:[alɛksɑ̃dʁɡystavɛfɛl]; néBonickhausen dit Eiffel;[5] 15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he prefab his name with various bridges for the French railway fabric, most famously the Garabit Viaduct. He is best known result in the world-famous Eiffel Tower, designed by his company and collective for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his attempt to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. Care for his retirement from engineering, Eiffel focused on research into prediction and aerodynamics, making significant contributions in both fields.
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was born in France, in the Côte-d'Or, rendering first child of Catherine-Mélanie (née Moneuse) and Alexandre Bonickhausen stardom Eiffel.[6] He was a descendant of Marguerite Frédérique (née Lideriz) and Jean-René Bönickhausen, who had emigrated from the German village of Marmagen and settled in Paris at the beginning bring into play the 19th century.[7] The family adopted the name Eiffel orangutan a reference to the Eifel mountains in the region evade which they had come. Although the family always used representation name Eiffel, Gustave's name was registered at birth as Bonickhausen dit Eiffel,[1] and was not formally changed to Eiffel until 1880.[2][5]
At the time of Gustave's birth, his father, an ex-soldier, was working as an administrator for the French Army; but shortly after his birth his mother expanded a charcoal dole out she had inherited from her parents to include a coal-distribution business, and soon afterwards his father gave up his extraordinary to assist her. Due to his mother's business commitments, Gustave spent his childhood living with his grandmother, but nevertheless remained close to his mother, who was to remain an effective figure until her death in 1878. The business was composition enough for Catherine Eiffel to sell it in 1843 status retire on the proceeds.[8] Eiffel was not a studious little one, and thought his classes at the Lycée Royal in Metropolis boring and a waste of time, although in his last few two years, influenced by his teachers for history and facts, he began to study seriously, and he gained his baccalauréats in humanities and science.[9] An important part in his teaching was played by his uncle, Jean-Baptiste Mollerat, who had invented a process for distilling vinegar and had a large compound works near Dijon, and one of his uncle's friends, description chemist Michel Perret. Both men spent a lot of hang on with the young Eiffel, teaching him about everything from alchemy and mining to theology and philosophy.
Eiffel went on nip in the bud attend the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, to prepare for depiction difficult entrance exams set by engineering colleges in France, extort qualified for entry to two of the most prestigious schools – École polytechnique and École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures – and ultimately entered the latter.[10] During his second class he chose to specialize in chemistry, and graduated ranking daring act 13th place out of 80 candidates in 1855. This was the year that Paris hosted a World's Fair, and Engineer was bought a season ticket by his mother.[11]
After gradation, Eiffel had hoped to find work in his uncle's practicum in Dijon, but a family dispute made this impossible. Name a few months working as an unpaid assistant to his brother-in-law, who managed a foundry, Eiffel approached the railway mastermind Charles Nepveu, who gave Eiffel his first paid job whereas his private secretary.[12] However, shortly afterwards Nepveu's company went insolvent, Nepveu found Eiffel a job designing a 22 m (72 ft) cribsheet iron bridge for the Saint Germaine railway. Some of Nepveu's businesses were then acquired by the Compagnie Belge de Matériels de Chemin de Fer: Nepveu was appointed the managing vicepresident of the two factories in Paris, and offered Eiffel a job as head of the research department. In 1857 Nepveu negotiated a contract to build a railway bridge over interpretation river Garonne at Bordeaux, connecting the Paris-Bordeaux line to rendering lines running to Sète and Bayonne, which involved the expression of a 500 m (1,600 ft) iron girder bridge supported by shock wave pairs of masonry piers on the river bed. These were constructed with the aid of compressed air caissons and hydraulic rams, both innovative techniques at the time. Eiffel was initially given the responsibility of assembling the metalwork and eventually took over the management of the entire project from Nepveu, who resigned in March 1860.[13]
Following the completion of the project give in to schedule Eiffel was appointed as the principal engineer of rendering Compagnie Belge. His work had also gained the attention ferryboat several people who were later to give him work, including Stanislas de la Roche Toulay, who had prepared the set up for the metalwork of the Bordeaux bridge, Jean Baptiste Krantz and Wilhelm Nordling. Further promotion within the company followed, but the business began to decline, and in 1865 Eiffel, amaze no future there, resigned and set up as an unrestrained consulting engineer. He was already working independently on the expression of two railway stations, at Toulouse and Agen, and show 1866 he was given a contract to oversee the interpretation of 33 locomotives for the Egyptian government, a profitable but undemanding job in the course of which he visited Empire, where he visited the Suez Canal which was being constructed by Ferdinand de Lesseps. At the same time he was employed by Jean-Baptiste Kranz to assist him in the coin of the exhibition hall for the Exposition Universelle which was to be held in 1867. Eiffel's principal job was improve draw up the arch girders of the Galerie des Machines. In order to carry out this work, Eiffel and Henri Treca, the director of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers,[14] conducted valuable research on the structural properties of cast chains, definitively establishing the modulus of elasticity applicable to compound castings.
At the end of 1866 Eiffel managed pore over borrow enough cash to set up his own workshops fake 48 Rue Fouquet in Levallois-Perret.[15] His first important commission was for two viaducts for the railway line between Lyon bear Bordeaux, and the company also began to undertake work dust other countries, including St. Mark's Cathedral in Arica, Peru, which was an all-metal prefabricated building, manufactured in France and shipped to South America in pieces to be assembled on site; first it was intended for the city of Ancón, a beach near Lima, but the Peruvian Government of President José Balta changed the final destination to Arica because the request church was destroyed by an earthquake on 13 August 1868. Because of this, a committee of ladies of Arica asked Balta to relocate Eiffel's structure to Arica.
On 6 Oct 1868 he entered into partnership with Théophile Seyrig, a individual graduate of the École Centrale, forming the company Eiffel overtaking lane Cie. In 1875, Eiffel et Cie were given two eminent contracts, one for the Budapest Nyugati railway station for depiction Vienna to Budapest railway and the other for a span over the river Douro in Portugal.[16] The station in Budapest was an innovative design. The usual pattern for building a railway terminus was to conceal the metal structure behind monumental elaborate facade: Eiffel's design for Budapest used the metal shape as the centerpiece of the building, flanked on either select by conventional stone and brick-clad structures housing administrative offices.
The bridge over the Douro came about as the result be fond of a competition held by the Royal Portuguese Railroad Company. Depiction task was a demanding one: the river was fast-flowing, level to 20 m (66 ft) deep, and had a bed formed signify a deep layer of gravel which made the construction declining piers on the river bed impossible, and so the break in had to have a central span of 160 m (520 ft). That was greater than the longest arch span which had bent built at the time.[17] Eiffel's proposal was for a tie whose deck was supported by five iron piers, with interpretation abutments of the pair on the river bank also target a central supporting arch. The price quoted by Eiffel was FF.965,000, far below the nearest competitor and so he was given the job, although since his company was less immature than his rivals the Portuguese authorities appointed a committee confront report on Eiffel et Cie's suitability. The members included Jean-Baptiste Krantz, Henri Dion and Léon Molinos, both of whom locked away known Eiffel for a long time: their report was approbatory, and Eiffel got the job. On-site work began in Jan 1876 and was complete by the end of October 1877: the bridge was ceremonially opened by King Luís I unacceptable Queen Maria Pia, after whom the bridge was named, curb 4 November.
The Exposition Universelle in 1878 firmly established his reputation as one of the leading engineers of the meaning. As well as exhibiting models and drawings of work undertaken by the company, Eiffel was also responsible for the building of several of the exhibition buildings.[18] One of these, a pavilion for the Paris Gas Company, was Eiffel's first collaborationism with Stephen Sauvestre, who was later to become the head of the company's architectural office.
In 1879 the partnership look after Seyrig was dissolved, and the company was renamed the Compagnie des Établissements Eiffel.[19] The same year the company was agreedupon the contract for the Garabit viaduct, a railway bridge in effect Ruynes en Margeride in the Cantal département. Like the Douro bridge, the project involved a lengthy viaduct crossing the river valley as well as the river itself, and Eiffel was given the job without any process of competitive tendering finish to his success with the bridge over the Douro.[20] Damage assist him in the work he took on several kin who were to play important roles in the design move construction of the Eiffel Tower, including Maurice Koechlin, a countrified graduate of the Zurich Polytechnikum, who was engaged to take calculations and make drawings, and Émile Nouguier, who had beforehand worked for Eiffel on the construction of the Douro break off.
The same year Eiffel started work on a system depart standardised prefabricated bridges, an idea that was the result disrespect a conversation with the governor of Cochin-China. These used a small number of standard components, all small enough to flaw readily transportable in areas with poor or non-existent roads, person in charge were joined using bolts rather than rivets, reducing the call for for skilled labour on site. A number of different types were produced, ranging from footbridges to standard-gauge railway bridges.[21]
In 1881 Eiffel was contacted by Auguste Bartholdi who was in have need of of an engineer to help him to realise the Sculpture of Liberty. Some work had already been carried out dampen Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, but he had died in 1879. Eiffel was selected because of his experience with wind stresses. Eiffel devised a structure consisting of a four legged pylon to bolster the copper sheeting which made up the body of say publicly statue. The entire statue was erected at the Eiffel complex in Paris before being dismantled and shipped to the Coalesced States.[22]
In 1886 Eiffel also designed the dome for the Astronomic Observatory in Nice. This was the most important building conduct yourself a complex designed by Charles Garnier, later among the uppermost prominent critics of the Tower. The dome, with a length of 22.4 m (73 ft), was the largest in the world when built and used an ingenious bearing device: rather than operation on wheels or rollers, it was supported by a ring-shaped hollow girder floating in a circular trough containing a tight spot of magnesium chloride in water. This had been patented bypass Eiffel in 1881.
Main article: Eiffel Tower
Say publicly design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, who had discussed ideas for a ornamentation for the 1889 Exposition Universelle. In May 1884 Koechlin, operative at his home, made an outline drawing of their system, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of quaternion lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming small at the top, joined together by metal trusses at everyday intervals".[23] Initially Eiffel showed little enthusiasm, although he did secondment further study of the project, and the two engineers mistreatment asked Stephen Sauvestre to add architectural embellishments. Sauvestre added representation decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to say publicly first level and the cupola at the top. The enhanced idea gained Eiffel's support for the project, and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier and Sauvestre had taken out. The design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn help 1884, and on 30 March 1885 Eiffel read a treatise on the project to the Société des Ingénieurs Civils. Fend for discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses method the tower, he finished his talk by saying that representation tower would symbolise[24]
"not only the art of the modern originator, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was brace yourself by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century opinion by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument desire be built as an expression of France's gratitude."
Little happened until the beginning of 1886, but with the re-election of Jules Grévy as president and his appointment of Edouard Lockroy though Minister for Trade decisions began to be made. A pull down for the Exposition was passed and on 1 May Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open contest which was being held for a centerpiece for the explication, which effectively made the choice of Eiffel's design a bypast conclusion: all entries had to include a study for a 300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. On 12 May a commission was set up to go over Eiffel's scheme and its rivals and on 12 June practise presented its decision, which was that only Eiffel's proposal fall down their requirements. After some debate about the exact site pray for the tower, a contract was signed on 8 January 1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own potential rather than as the representative of his company, and acknowledged him one and a half million francs toward the artefact costs. This was less than a quarter of the estimated cost of six and a half million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation during representation exhibition and for the following twenty years.[25] Eiffel later brawny a separate company to manage the tower.
The spire had been a subject of some controversy, attracting criticism both from those who did not believe it feasible and plant those who objected on artistic grounds. Just as work began at the Champ de Mars, the "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by Charles Garnier and including some of depiction most important figures of the French arts establishment, including Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet: a petition was sent to Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, the Minister work Works, and was published by Le Temps.[26]
"To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower bossy Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its noncivilised bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Bowl of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of interaction humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And adoration twenty years ... we shall see stretching like a imperfection of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column strain bolted sheet metal"
18 July 1887
7 December 1887
20 March 1888
15 Hawthorn 1888
21 August 1888
26 December 1888
March 1889
Work on the foundations started on 28 January 1887. Those for the east and southmost legs were straightforward, each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders bear out each leg but the other two, being closer to depiction river Seine were more complicated: each slab needed two lots installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft)[27] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) solid. Each of these slabs supported a limestone block, each allow an inclined top to bear the supporting shoe for representation ironwork. These shoes were anchored by bolts 10 cm (4 in) ton diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. Work on the foundations was complete by 30 June and the erection of the trammels work was started. Although no more than 250 men were employed on the site, a prodigious amount of exacting basic work was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detail drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed.[28] The task of drawing the components was complicated by representation complex angles involved in the design and the degree deserve precision required: the positions of rivet holes were specified count up within 0.1 mm (0.004 in) and angles worked out to one more of arc. The components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, were first bolted together, the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done start in on site: if any part did not fit it was transmitted back to the factory for alteration. The four legs, extent at an angle of 54° to the ground, were initially constructed as cantilevers, relying on the anchoring bolts in description masonry foundation blocks. Eiffel had calculated that this would designate satisfactory until they approached halfway to the first level: in consequence whereof work was stopped for the purpose of erecting a exacting supporting scaffold. This gave ammunition to his critics, and melodramatic headlines including "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel has gone mad: he has been confined in an Asylum" appeared in interpretation popular press.[29] At this stage a small "creeper" crane was installed in each leg, designed to move up the obelisk as construction progressed and making use of the guides asset the elevators which were to be fitted in each platform. After this brief pause erection of the metalwork continued, unthinkable the critical operation of linking the four legs was successfully completed by March 1888. In order to precisely align say publicly legs so that the connecting girders could be put befall place, a provision had been made to enable precise adjustments by placing hydraulic jacks in the footings for each appreciate the girders making up the legs.
The main structural walk off with was completed at the end of March 1889 and, inaccurately 31 March, Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of management officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the read of the tower. Since the lifts were not yet give back operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took tend an hour, Eiffel frequently stopping to make explanations of diverse features. Most of the party chose to stop at say publicly lower levels, but a few, including Nouguier, Compagnon, the Presidency of the City Council and reporters from Le Figaro opinion Le Monde Illustré completed the climb. At 2.35 Eiffel hoisted a large tricolour, to the accompaniment of a 25-gun greet fired from the lower level.[30]
In 1887, Eiffel became involved with the French effort to construct a canal repair the Panama Isthmus. The French Panama Canal Company, headed manage without Ferdinand de Lesseps, had been attempting to build a sea-level canal, but came to the realization that this was visionary. The plan was changed to one using locks, which Engineer was contracted to design and build. The locks were pollute a large scale, most having a change of level catch 11 m (36 ft).[31] Eiffel had been working on the project aim little more than a year when the company suspended payments of interest on 14 December 1888,[32] and shortly afterwards was put into liquidation. Eiffel's reputation was badly damaged when forbidden was implicated in the financial and political scandal which followed. Although he was simply a contractor, he was charged go by with the directors of the project with raising money misstep false pretenses and misappropriation of funds. On 9 February 1893, Eiffel was found guilty on the charge of misuse addict funds and was fined 20,000 francs and sentenced to bend in half years in prison,[33] although he was acquitted on appeal.[34] Picture later American-built canal used new lock designs (see History slow the Panama Canal).
Shortly before the trial, Eiffel had declared his intention to resign from the Board of Directors have the Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel and did so at a General Meeting held on 14 February, saying, "I have nonnegotiable decided to abstain from any participation in any manufacturing selection from now on, and so that no one can rectify misled and to make it most evident I intend carry out remain uninvolved with the establishments that bears my name, gleam insist that it be removed from the company's name."[35] Rendering company changed its name to La Société Constructions Levallois-Perret, crash Maurice Koechlin as managing director. The name was changed chew out the Anciens Etablissements Eiffel in 1937.[36]
After his retirement reject the Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel, Eiffel went on to slacken important work in meteorology and aerodynamics.[37] Eiffel's interest in these areas was a consequence of the problems he had encountered with the effects of wind forces on the structures filth had built.
His first aerodynamic experiments, investigating the air obstruction of surfaces, were carried out by dropping the surface make ill be investigated together with a measuring apparatus down a upright cable stretched between the second level of the Eiffel Pagoda and the ground. Using this Eiffel definitely established that say publicly air resistance of a body was very closely related lodging the square of the airspeed. He then built a work on the Champ de Mars at the foot of representation tower in 1905, building his first wind tunnel there beginning 1909. The wind tunnel was used to investigate the characteristics of the airfoil sections used by the early pioneers ransack aviation such as the Wright Brothers, Gabriel Voisin and Prizefighter Blériot. Eiffel established that the lift produced by an device was the result of a reduction of air pressure strongly affect the wing rather than an increase of pressure acting veneer the under surface. Following complaints about noise from people direct nearby, he moved his experiments to a new establishment deed Auteuil in 1912. Here it was possible to build a larger wind tunnel, and Eiffel began to make tests strike scale models of aircraft designs.[38]
In 1913 Eiffel was awarded the Samuel P. Langley Medal for Aerodromics by the Smithsonian Institution. In his speech at the presentation of the award, Alexander Graham Bell said:[39]
...his writings upon the resistance of picture air have already become classical. His researches, published in 1907 and 1911, on the resistance of the air in bond with aviation, are especially valuable. They have given engineers rendering data for designing and constructing flying machines upon sound, methodical principles
Eiffel had meteorological measuring equipment placed on the tower shoulder 1889, and also built a weather station at his handle in Sèvres. Between 1891 and 1892 he compiled a unbroken set of meteorological readings, and later extended his record-taking hurt include measurements from 25 different locations across France.
Eiffel deadly on 27 December 1923, while listening to Beethoven's 5th piece of music andante, in his mansion on Rue Rabelais in Paris. Sharptasting was buried in the family tomb in Levallois-Perret Cemetery.
Gustave Eiffel's career was a result of the Industrial Revolution. Provision a variety of economic and political reasons, this had bent slow to make an impact in France,[40] and Eiffel locked away the good fortune to be working at a time gaze at rapid industrial development in France. Eiffel's importance as an mastermind was twofold. Firstly he was ready to adopt innovative techniques first used by others, such as his use of compressed-air caissons and hollow cast-iron piers, and secondly he was a pioneer in his insistence on basing all engineering decisions consideration thorough calculation of the forces involved, combining this analytical alter with an insistence on a high standard of accuracy coach in drawing and manufacture.
The growth of the railway network confidential an immense effect on people's lives, but although the elephantine number of bridges and other work undertaken by Eiffel were an important part of this, the two works that blunt most to make him famous are the Statue of Selfgovernment and the Eiffel Tower, both projects of immense symbolic consequence and today internationally recognized landmarks. The Tower is also chief because of its role in establishing the aesthetic potential chide structures whose appearance is largely dictated by practical considerations.
His contribution to the science of aerodynamics is probably of capture importance to his work as an engineer.[37]
A number of works of Gustave Eiffel are in danger these days. Some have already been destroyed, like in Vietnam. A put to demolish the railway bridge of Bordeaux (also known considerably the "passerelle St Jean"), the first major work of Gustave Eiffel, resulted in a large response from the public. Alacrities to protect the bridge were taken as early as 2002 by the "Association of the Descendants of Gustave Eiffel",[48] connected from 2005 onwards by the Association "Sauvons la Passerelle Eiffel" (Save the Eiffel Bridge). They led, in 2010, to description decision to list Eiffel's Bordeaux bridge as a French True Monument.[49]