Gustave Eiffel
What is Gustave Eiffel best known for?
What was Gustave Eiffel’s educational background?
How did Gustave Eiffel contribute to the construction of the Statue of Liberty?
What was the Panama Canal controversy involving Gustave Eiffel?
What scientific contributions did Gustave Eiffel make after retiring from engineering?
Gustave Eiffel (born Dec. 15, 1832, Dijon, France—died Dec. 28, 1923, Paris) was a French civil engineer, entrepreneur, inventor, meteorologist, and aerodynamics researcher, renowned for the tower in Paris that bears his name.
Education and early achievements
A compressed-air caisson (also called a pneumatic caisson) is a watertight, bottomless retaining structure sealed at the top and filled with pressurized air. It is used in civil engineering to provide a dry underground working environment for constructing deep foundations beneath water bodies or in highly saturated soils. Caissons are filled with concrete to provide basal support once excavation reaches the desired depth. Vertical caissons are used to support bridge abutments, while horizontal tunnels are used for roads, waterways, and railroads.
The Panama Canal controversy (also called the Panama Scandal or Panama Affair) erupted in 1889 when France’s attempt to build a sea-level canal collapsed into bankruptcy, exposing massive bribery of several politicians to cover up the project’s failure. Driven by a desperate need for funding, the canal company’s directors had illegally paid off government officials to secure public lottery bond approvals. However, the company collapsed because of mismanagement, financially ruining nearly 800,000 citizens. Gustave Eiffel, who had been hired late to design the canal’s massive locks, was swept into the legal fallout, heavily fined, and wrongfully sentenced to two years in prison for fraud. Though the highest court annulled his conviction a few months later, the damage to his honor forced Eiffel to retire from commercial engineering and spend his remaining 30 years as an experimental scientist. Disillusioned by the business world, he permanently closed his entrepreneurship chapters and pivoted toward researching aerodynamics, meteorology, and radiobroadcasting.
Born to an army officer-turned-business owner, Eiffel was the eldest of three siblings. Although Eiffel prepared to enroll in the engineering school École Polytechnique per his father’s wishes, he did not succeed. He was admitted instead to École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures (French: “College of Art and Manufacturing”). There he studied metallurgy, hydraulics, calculus, and statistics. After graduating in 1855, Eiffel began to specialize in metal construction, especially bridges, as an employee of a construction company. He directed the erection of an iron bridge at Bordeaux in 1858, followed by several others. In 1867 Eiffel established his own company and, as part of his initial projects, designed the lofty, arched Gallery of Machines for the Paris Exhibition of 1867. In 1877 he bridged the Douro River at Oporto, Portugal, with a 160-meter (525-foot) iron arch, which he followed with an even greater arch of the same type, the 162-meter (540-foot)-span Garabit viaduct over the Truyère River in southern France. Towering 120 meters (400 feet) over the stream, this was the highest bridge in the world for many years.
- Born: December 15, 1832, Dijon, France
- Died: December 28, 1923, Paris
- Known for: Designing and building the Eiffel Tower (1887–89)
- Education: École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, France
- Major structures designed and built: Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Garabit viaduct
Eiffel was one of the first engineers to employ compressed-air caissons in bridge building. He designed the movable dome of the observatory in Nice, France, and the framework of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. In designing the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel’s primary challenge was ensuring that the massive copper structure could bear pressure from winds, support its own weight, and remain portable enough to be transported across countries. He addressed these challenges by designing an internal bolted truss framework enclosed within the hollow statue to which thin copper sheets were attached. He also used iron beams to anchor the statue securely to its granite pedestal, while the extended right arm was stabilized through a system of supporting beams that ran through the statue and connected to other beams anchored at its base.
Building the tower and later legacies
Eiffel startled the world with the construction of the Eiffel Tower (1887–89), which brought him the nickname “magician of iron.” He applied his understanding of wrought iron and wind resistance and used lattice-trussed piers with incurving edges to ensure both strength and aesthetic appeal of the construction. Despite the complexity of fabricating thousands of uniquely angled members and integrating angled elevators, Eiffel completed the project earlier than planned and below the estimated budget.
The radio transmitters installed by Gustave Eiffel on the Eiffel Tower played a crucial role during both World War I and World War II.
Building the Eiffel Tower directed his interest to problems of aerodynamics, and he used it for a number of experiments. He conducted some of the earliest experiments on wind forces and drag by building a wind tunnel at the base of the tower and performing drop tests from the tower. At Auteuil, outside Paris, he built the first aerodynamic laboratory and another wind tunnel, which came to be known as the “Eiffel wind tunnel” and played a pivotal role in early aerodynamic research. Eiffel continued to work throughout World War I in this laboratory, advancing scientific understanding of aerodynamic forces and advising aircraft inventors who sought his expertise in assessing wing profiles. In 1921 he gave the laboratory to the state. It has been preserved as a national treasure in recognition of its scientific significance.
It is estimated that the combined weight of the structures that Eiffel built between 1867 and 1889 was about 10 times greater than the weight of the Eiffel Tower (which is 10,100 tons). He secured 24 patents during his life, including one for an incubator of his design. His aerodynamics research established foundational data on fluid flow around objects, which benefited both structural engineering and early aviation. In recognition of Eiffel’s contributions to engineering, France conferred on him the designation of an Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1889—an award he received atop the Eiffel Tower. The Smithsonian Institution in the United States awarded him the Langley Gold Medal in 1913 for his contributions to the field of aerodynamics.
