Eiffel Alexander Gustave biography. Architectural structures of engineer Gustav Eiffel. Objects designed by Gustave Eiffel

Engineer, specialist in the design of metal structures. He gained unprecedented popularity after the construction of a metal tower in Paris for the 1889 exhibition, one of the most remarkable technical structures of the 19th century and named in his honor.

Biography

Family and early years

Born in the French department of Côte d'Or. He was the first child of Catherine-Mélanie (née Monez) and Alexandre Eiffel. He was a descendant of Jean-René Boenickhausen, an emigrant from the German town of Marmagen (modern Nettersheim district) near Cologne, who moved to Paris in early XIX century, and his descendant became one of three people of German origin who changed the face of Paris, along with Baron Haussmann and the engineer Jacques Hittorff ( Jacques Ignace Hittorff) . The family adopted the surname Eiffel as a reminder of their native mountains Eifel (German: Eifel). Although family members used the surname Eiffel, Gustave was registered under the surname Boenickhausen and did not officially change it until 1880.

Gustave's father served in the army, but by the time his son was born he remained with her in administrative work, but he soon left the service and switched to helping his wife in running the affairs of the charcoal company she inherited from her parents, when the wife decided to expand the scope of the company's activities to include distribution of goods into it. Due to the busyness of his mother, the future architect spent a lot of time with his grandmother, but remained attached to his mother, who was an influential figure in his life until her death in 1878. In 1843, Catherine sold the successful family business and retired from business, living on the proceeds .

The son studies at the Royal Lyceum in Dijon, but his studies weigh on him until high school, when he takes classes under the influence of history and literature teachers and successfully passes the bachelor's exams in natural sciences and humanities.

An important role in the boy’s education is played by his uncle Jean-Baptiste Mollerat, the owner of a large chemical plant near Dijon, the author of the vinegar distillation method, and one of his uncle’s friends, chemist Michel Perret, who taught him everything from chemistry and mining to theology and philosophy.

In Paris, to prepare for difficult entrance exams to the best technical universities in the country, Gustave enters the College Saint-Barbe. He is attracted to the Polytechnic School, but teachers consider his results insufficient, and he goes to the more applied Central School of Arts and Manufactures. In his second year, he decided to specialize in chemistry and in 1855 he graduated 13th out of 80 candidates. That year, Paris hosts the World's Fair, and Gustave's mother buys him a season ticket to attend the spectacle.

Career

In 1855 he received an engineering diploma from the Central School of Arts and Manufactures in Paris.

Before the construction of the Eiffel Tower, it was famous for its impressive steel structures for bridges, the Ponte de Dona Maria Pia over the Douro near Porto in Portugal (Maria Pia Bridge), as well as the 500-meter-long railway bridge in Bordeaux, train stations in the city of Budapest. He also completed the Viaduct de Garabi - a railway viaduct in southern France - which rose above the valley at an altitude of 122 meters and was at one time the highest in the world.

He took part in the construction of the iron frame for the New York Statue of Liberty, in the competition for the construction of the Trinity Bridge in St. Petersburg, and in the Amazonian outback he built the so-called. Iron house.

He was an engineer for the Panama Society and a supplier of machines for it, manufactured at its engineering plant in Levallois-Perret (near Paris). The revelations concerning the Panama Society also affected him; he was accused of receiving 19 million francs from the Panama Society for fictitious work. Put on trial () together with father and son Lesseps and other persons involved in the case, Eiffel was sentenced to 2 years in prison and a fine of 20,000 francs, but the Court of Cassation overturned the sentence due to the expiration of the criminal statute of limitations.

Developed and brought to life the idea of a rotating dome of the observatory in Nice, which, despite its weight of 100 tons, can be easily moved by one person; improved the system of movable bridges, etc.

He wrote, among other things:

« Conférence de Gustave Eiffel sur la tour de 300 mètres"(P., 1889);
« Les ponts portatifs économiques" (in collaboration with Collins, P., 1888).

Death

Gustave Eiffel died on December 27, 1923, aged 91, from pneumonia.

Objects designed in the atelier of Gustave Eiffel

Chronological list

Western Railway Station, Budapest, Hungary (1877)
Maria Pia Bridge, Porto, Portugal (1877)
Eiffel Bridge, Ungheni, Moldova (1877)
Metal footbridge, Onyar River, Girona, Catalonia, Spain (1877)
Dome for the Nice Observatory, Nice, France (1878)
Gharabi Viaduct, railway bridge, Truyère River, France (1884)
Statue of Liberty, New York, USA (1886) (assisted principal architect)
The Iron House, Iquitos, Peru (1887)
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France (1889)
Central Railway Station, Santiago, Chile (1897)
Santa Justa Elevator, Lisbon, Portugal (1901)
The Tsagveri-Tsemi bridge of the Borjomi-Bakuriani railway (Georgia), specially ordered by Romanov in France (1902) and installed on the Tsemistskali River.
Air bridge, Liepaja, Latvia (1906)

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower was erected on the Champs de Mars, opposite the Jena Bridge; in height (324 m) it is almost 2 times higher than the tallest buildings of that time (the Cheops Pyramid 137 m, Cologne Cathedral 156 m, Ulm Cathedral 161 m, etc.). The entire tower is made of iron and consists of three floors.

Construction of the Eiffel Tower lasted 26 months, from January 28, 1887 to March 31, 1889, and cost taxpayers 6.5 million francs. During the six months of the exhibition, more than 2 million visitors came to see the “Iron Lady”. The construction was such a success that by the end of the year it was possible to recover three-quarters of all construction costs.

Memory

In 1983, on the 60th anniversary of the death of G. Eiffel, the French post office issued (for the overseas department of Wallis and Futuna) a commemorative stamp with a face value of 97 francs depicting the structures of the Eiffel Tower and a portrait of its creator.

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Literature

// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Notes and sources

Excerpt characterizing Eiffel, Gustave

“Goodbye, Count,” she said to him loudly. “I’ll be waiting for you,” she added in a whisper.
And these simple words, the look and facial expression that accompanied them, for two months formed the subject of Pierre's inexhaustible memories, explanations and happy dreams. “I will be waiting for you very much... Yes, yes, as she said? Yes, I will be waiting for you very much. Oh, how happy I am! What is this, how happy I am!” - Pierre said to himself.

Nothing now happened in Pierre's soul similar to what happened in it in similar circumstances during his matchmaking with Helen.
He did not repeat, as then, with painful shame the words he had spoken, he did not say to himself: “Oh, why didn’t I say this, and why, why did I say “je vous aime” then?” [I love you] Now, on the contrary, he repeated every word of hers, his own, in his imagination with all the details of her face, smile, and did not want to subtract or add anything: he only wanted to repeat. There was no longer even a shadow of doubt as to whether what he had undertaken was good or bad. Only one terrible doubt sometimes crossed his mind. Isn't this all in a dream? Was Princess Marya mistaken? Am I too proud and arrogant? I believe; and suddenly, as should happen, Princess Marya will tell her, and she will smile and answer: “How strange! He was probably mistaken. Doesn’t he know that he is a man, just a man, and I?.. I am completely different, higher.”
Only this doubt often occurred to Pierre. He also didn’t make any plans now. The impending happiness seemed so incredible to him that as soon as it happened, nothing could happen. It was all over.
A joyful, unexpected madness, of which Pierre considered himself incapable, took possession of him. The whole meaning of life, not for him alone, but for the whole world, seemed to him to lie only in his love and in the possibility of her love for him. Sometimes all the people seemed to him to be occupied with only one thing - his future happiness. It sometimes seemed to him that they were all as happy as he was, and were only trying to hide this joy, pretending to be busy with other interests. In every word and movement he saw hints of his happiness. He often surprised people who met him with his significant, happy looks and smiles that expressed secret agreement. But when he realized that people might not know about his happiness, he felt sorry for them with all his heart and felt a desire to somehow explain to them that everything they were doing was complete nonsense and trifles, not worth attention.
When he was offered to serve or when they discussed some general, state affairs and war, assuming that the happiness of all people depended on this or that outcome of such and such an event, he listened with a meek, sympathetic smile and surprised the people who spoke to him with his strange remarks. But both those people who seemed to Pierre to understand the real meaning of life, that is, his feeling, and those unfortunate ones who obviously did not understand this - all people during this period of time seemed to him in such a bright light of the feeling shining in him that without the slightest effort, he immediately, meeting any person, saw in him everything that was good and worthy of love.
Looking at the affairs and papers of his late wife, he did not feel any feeling for her memory, except pity that she did not know the happiness that he knew now. Prince Vasily, now especially proud of receiving a new place and star, seemed to him a touching, kind and pitiful old man.
Pierre often later recalled this time of happy madness. All the judgments that he made about people and circumstances during this period of time remained true for him forever. He not only did not subsequently renounce these views on people and things, but, on the contrary, in internal doubts and contradictions he resorted to the view that he had at this time of madness, and this view always turned out to be correct.
“Perhaps,” he thought, “I seemed strange and funny then; but I was not as mad then as it seemed. On the contrary, I was then smarter and more insightful than ever, and I understood everything that is worth understanding in life, because ... I was happy.”
Pierre's madness was that he did not wait, as before, personal reasons, which he called the virtues of people, in order to love them, and love filled his heart, and he, loving people for no reason, found undoubted reasons for which it was worth loving them.

From that first evening, when Natasha, after Pierre's departure, told Princess Marya with a joyfully mocking smile that he was definitely, well, definitely from the bathhouse, and in a frock coat, and with a haircut, from that moment something hidden and unknown to her, but irresistible, awoke in Natasha's soul.
Everything: her face, her gait, her gaze, her voice - everything suddenly changed in her. Unexpected for her, the power of life and hopes for happiness surfaced and demanded satisfaction. From the first evening, Natasha seemed to have forgotten everything that had happened to her. Since then, she never once complained about her situation, didn’t say a single word about the past and was no longer afraid to make cheerful plans for the future. She spoke little about Pierre, but when Princess Marya mentioned him, a long-extinguished sparkle lit up in her eyes and her lips wrinkled with a strange smile.
The change that took place in Natasha at first surprised Princess Marya; but when she understood its meaning, this change upset her. “Did she really love her brother so little that she could forget him so quickly,” thought Princess Marya when she alone pondered the change that had taken place. But when she was with Natasha, she was not angry with her and did not reproach her. The awakened force of life that gripped Natasha was obviously so uncontrollable, so unexpected for her that Princess Marya, in Natasha’s presence, felt that she had no right to reproach her even in her soul.
Natasha gave herself over to the new feeling with such completeness and sincerity that she did not try to hide the fact that she was no longer sad, but joyful and cheerful.
When, after a nightly explanation with Pierre, Princess Marya returned to her room, Natasha met her on the threshold.
- He said? Yes? He said? – she repeated. Both a joyful and at the same time pitiful expression, asking for forgiveness for her joy, settled on Natasha’s face.
– I wanted to listen at the door; but I knew what you would tell me.
No matter how understandable, no matter how touching the look with which Natasha looked at her was for Princess Marya; no matter how sorry she was to see her excitement; but Natasha’s words at first offended Princess Marya. She remembered her brother, his love.
“But what can we do? she cannot do otherwise,” thought Princess Marya; and with a sad and somewhat stern face she told Natasha everything that Pierre had told her. Hearing that he was going to St. Petersburg, Natasha was amazed.
- To St. Petersburg? – she repeated, as if not understanding. But, looking at the sad expression on Princess Marya’s face, she guessed the reason for her sadness and suddenly began to cry. “Marie,” she said, “teach me what to do.” I'm afraid of being bad. Whatever you say, I will do; teach me…
- You love him?
“Yes,” Natasha whispered.
-What are you crying about? “I’m happy for you,” said Princess Marya, having completely forgiven Natasha’s joy for these tears.
– It won’t be soon, someday. Think about what happiness it will be when I become his wife and you marry Nicolas.
– Natasha, I asked you not to talk about this. We'll talk about you.
They were silent.
- But why go to St. Petersburg! - Natasha suddenly said, and she quickly answered herself: - No, no, this is how it should be... Yes, Marie? That's how it should be...

The name of the French engineer Gustav Eiffel is known to everyone in connection with the tower he erected for the world exhibition held in 1889 in Paris. Few people know about his other buildings. But this is unfair, because the engineer went a long way before building his tower, and some of his works are no less worthy of attention.

Eiffel was born in 1832 in Dijon. In 1855 he graduated from the Institute of Technology in Paris and received a diploma as a chemical engineer. He went to work in railway workshops and subsequently became interested in designing railway bridges. Since 1868, Eiffel has been the owner of his own engineering and construction enterprise.

Eiffel's engineering talent was fully revealed during the construction of the railway that crossed the Pyrenees - the mountain range that separates France from Spain and Portugal. On his way Railway I encountered deep and wide cliffs, at the bottom of which mountain rivers raged. So, the most important task there was the construction of bridges with unheard of large spans and high supports. Eiffel approached the problem not only as an engineer, but also as a chemist. In his time, steel structures were just beginning to be used, instead of the more proven cast iron ones. It was a very common belief that iron and steel were better able to withstand tension than compression. Therefore, they were readily used in the construction of vaults, but were avoided in supports. Bridges with metal spans have been built on stone piers for a very long time. After carefully studying the properties of the new material, Eiffel came to a different conclusion. The railway bridges he built in the Pyrenees rest on openwork steel towers.

In 1870, Eiffel's company received an order to build a railway bridge across the mountain river Douro in Portugal. Over a significant area, the bridge could not have any supports, therefore, flowing in a mountain gorge, the Duero River was also 15-20 m deep. Eiffel calculated with great accuracy the dimensions of the grandiose run, but the construction of the bridge over the Duero was only a step towards the creation of a more significant structure - a railway bridge near the city of Gharabi.

Erected in 1883, the Garabite Bridge crosses the gorge with the mountain river Truer. It has a length of 565 m. Its central part is a huge arched span 165 m long.

Eiffel Tower

The railway track passes over the river valley at an altitude of 122.5 m. The bridge is formed by openwork steel structures, the supports are lattice towers that have the shape of truncated pyramids. Everything here is strictly functional, everything is subordinated to practical tasks. After all, the bridge must withstand not only its own gigantic mass, not only the weight of trains, but also powerful mountain winds. Eiffel brilliantly completed the technical task that stood before him. When a train weighing 405 tons stood on the Garabit Bridge, the deflection of the structure was only 8 mm. But what’s interesting is that this pragmatic structure, devoid of special decorations, also turned out to be surprisingly beautiful.

Eiffel Tower

At the end of the 80s of the XIX century. The French government decided to create for the anniversary of the Great French Revolution a structure the world has never seen before. And then Eiffel put forward the design of his famous tower. At first he wanted to decorate the lattice steel structure with sculptures. But the further he worked on the project, the more he realized that it would be unnecessary. The engineer created a new aesthetics - the aesthetics of “singing supports”. In the final version, the structure had almost no parts that would not bear a structural load.

The Eiffel project had many enemies. A group of French intellectuals even sent letters to the director of the international exhibition, protesting against the construction of this “monster” in the center of Paris. The letter, by the way, bears the signature of Guy de Maupassant. But perhaps the French classic is wrong this time.

Statue of Liberty

The Eiffel Tower, with its height of 312 m, was the tallest structure of its time, leaving its rivals far behind.

But in our time, many structures exceeding it have already appeared.

However, there is not a single one that, with such dimensions, would retain such grace of outline. In the 19th century the tower had no practical purpose. It was built to amaze the imagination. Regarding Eiffel, when he built it, he intended to embody some of his theoretical ideas. In particular, he was very interested in the ability of a high-rise structure to withstand wind pressure. Solving exactly this problem, he gave the tower ribs a smooth hyperbolic segment shape. For some time the tower was even going to be dismantled, but the emergence of radio and television gave this building practical significance.

Among Eiffel’s works there is one more, very famous, but few people know that it was he who participated in its creation. Meanwhile, Eiffel mounted the supporting frame of the Statue of Liberty, which France gave to America and which is now the symbol of this state.

20th century US architecture

In the 20th century the trends laid down in the previous period received further development. In 1903, the French architect O. Perret built the world's first reinforced concrete residential building. Subsequently, concrete becomes a favorite material. Engineers and architects are increasingly excited about new possibilities. They are trying to convey to people the beauty of unusual technical solutions. In the 30s, the already mentioned A. Perret, having become a teacher Special school architecture, will tell his students: “Build so that the supports sing.”

In the last decade of the 19th century. In America, they are beginning to build skyscrapers - houses whose foundation was a steel frame, thanks to which they could have dozens of floors and stretch hundreds of meters in height. Another factor that contributed to the construction of skyscrapers was the use of the elevator. Now multi-storey buildings are no longer inconvenient. The pioneer of skyscraper construction was the Chicago architect L. Sullivan. The first buildings of this type had decorative details that made them look like Gothic cathedrals. This stylization was subsequently abandoned. The Chicago department store, built in 1899, has no unnecessary decorations. Artistic expressiveness is achieved here thanks to clear geometric shapes and grandiose sizes. Skyscrapers continued to be built throughout the 20th century. The champion among them was the now infamous double skyscraper of the International shopping center, built in the 70s. The height of its towers exceeded 400 m. Skyscrapers were also built in other countries of the world.

Glasgow. Art school.. 1897-1909

Architect C. Mackintosh

D. Adler and L. Sullivan. Bayard Building in New York. 1895

The founder of a completely different architectural style was the American F. Wright. If Sullivan's ideas are the product of a large capitalist city, in which every piece of land can generate huge profits and therefore must be used as rationally as possible, then Wright is focused on the values of a completely different America. This America is not the country of big cities known to us, but the country of small towns and farms, glorified by Mark Twain, a country whose basis of existence was once the right of every citizen to receive his own piece of land.

D. Adler and L. Sullivan. Guaranty Building in Buffalo. 1895

F. Wright creates the so-called “Prairie style”. Its buildings are made of reinforced concrete; the houses do not extend vertically upward. On the contrary, they form horizontal elements. The entire structure seems to be spread out on the ground, sometimes it follows the shape of the relief. The direction founded by Wright, which he developed throughout the first half of the 20th century, was called “organic architecture,” that is, one that combines man with nature. Its development culminated in Wright's 1936 "Falling House" in Pennsylvania. The creation of this architect is also the building of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. This structure looks more like a giant spiral shell.

Mies van der Rohe. IBM building in Chicago. 1973

After the First World War, European architecture became generally more pragmatic. This is due to the need to restore destroyed cities, ensure a large number of people living space. In Germany, which suffered more than other Western European countries during the war, the Bauhaus architectural school was formed in 1924, the founder of which was V. Gropius. The Bauhaus slogan was: “What looks good is what works well.”

Alexander Gustav Eiffel

Alexander Gustav Eiffel (French Gustave Eiffel; December 15, 1832, Dijon - December 28, 1923, Paris) - French engineer, specialist in the design of steel structures. He gained unprecedented popularity after the construction in Paris for the 1889 exhibition of a metal tower, one of the most remarkable technical structures of the 19th century and named in his honor.

Before the construction of the Eiffel Tower, it was known for its impressive steel structures for bridges, the Ponte de Dona Maria Pia over the Douro near Porto in Portugal, as well as the bridge in Bordeaux, and train stations in the city of Pest. He also completed the Viaduct de Gharabi - a railway viaduct in southern France - which rose above the valley at an altitude of 122 meters and was, at one time, the highest in the world.

He took part in the construction of the iron frame for the New York Statue of Liberty.

He developed and brought to life the idea of a rotating dome of the observatory in Nice, which, despite its weight of 100 tons, is easily moved by one person; improved the system of movable bridges, etc.

He was an engineer for the Panama Society and a supplier of machines for it, prepared at its engineering plant in Levallois-Perret (near Paris). The revelations concerning the Panama Society also affected him; he was accused of receiving 19 million francs from the Panama Society for fictitious work. Put on trial (1893) along with father and son Lesseps and other persons involved in the case, Eiffel was sentenced to 2 years in prison and a 20,000 franc fine, but the Court of Cassation overturned the sentence due to the expiration of the criminal statute of limitations.

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower (French la tour Eiffel) is the most recognizable architectural landmark of Paris, world-famous as a symbol of France, named after its designer Gustav Eiffel and is a place of pilgrimage for tourists. The designer himself simply called it a 300-meter tower (tour de 300 mètres).

In 2006, 6,719,200 people visited the tower, and throughout its history - 236,445,812 people. That is, the tower is the most visited landmark in the world. This symbol of Paris was intended as a temporary structure - the tower served as the entrance arch to the Paris World Exhibition of 1889. The tower was saved from planned demolition (20 years after the exhibition) by radio antennas installed at its very top - this was the era of the introduction of radio.

The tower was erected on the Champ de Mars opposite the Jena Bridge over the Seine River. The height together with the new antenna is 324 meters (2000).

For more than 40 years, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world, almost 2 times taller than the tallest buildings in the world at that time - the Cheops Pyramid (137 m), Cologne (156 m) and Ulm Cathedral (161 m) - until 1930 it was not surpassed by the Chrysler Building in New York.

Before construction

The French authorities decided to organize a world exhibition in memory of the centenary of the French Revolution (1789). The Paris city administration asked the famous engineer Gustav Eiffel to make a corresponding proposal. At first, Eiffel was a little puzzled, but then, rummaging through his papers, he submitted drawings of a 300-meter iron tower, to which he had previously paid almost no attention. On September 18, 1884, Gustav Eiffel received a joint patent for the project with his employees, and subsequently bought the exclusive right from them. On May 1, 1886, a nationwide competition of architectural and engineering projects opens, which will determine the architectural appearance of the future World Exhibition. There are 107 applicants participating in the competition, most of whom, to one degree or another, repeat the tower design proposed by Eiffel. Various extravagant ideas were also under consideration, among them, for example, a giant guillotine, which was supposed to be reminiscent of the French Revolution (1789). Another proposal was a stone tower, but calculations and past experience proved that it would be very difficult to build a stone structure that would be even taller than the 169-meter Washington Monument, the construction of which had cost the United States enormous efforts several years earlier. Eiffel's project becomes one of the 4 winners and then the engineer makes final changes to it, finding a compromise between the original purely engineering design scheme and the decorative option.

In the end, the committee settled on Eiffel's plan, although the idea of the tower itself did not belong to him, but to two of his employees: Maurice Koechlen and Emile Nouguier. It was possible to assemble such a complex structure as a tower within two years only because Eiffel used special construction methods. This explains the decision of the exhibition committee in favor of this project. Having won the first prize in the competition, Eiffel enthusiastically exclaimed: “France will be the only country with a 300-meter flagpole!” However, the project of Nouguier and Koechlin turned out to be too “dry” in technical terms and did not meet the requirements put forward for the buildings of the World Exhibition in Paris, the architecture of which was supposed to be more sophisticated. In order for the tower to better meet the aesthetic tastes of the demanding Parisian public, the architect Stéphane Sauvestre was commissioned to work on its artistic appearance. He proposed covering the base supports of the tower with stone, connecting its supports and the ground floor platform with the help of majestic arches, which would simultaneously become the main entrance to the exhibition, placing spacious glazed halls on the floors of the tower, giving the top of the tower a rounded shape and using various decorative elements to decorate it. . In January 1887, Eiffel, the state and the municipality of Paris signed an agreement according to which Eiffel was provided with an operating lease of the tower for his personal use for a period of 25 years, and also provided for the payment of a cash subsidy in the amount of 1.5 million gold francs, amounting to 25% of all expenses for construction of a tower. On December 31, 1888, in order to attract the missing funds, a joint-stock company was created with an authorized capital of 5 million francs. Half of this amount is funds contributed by three banks, the other half is the personal funds of Eiffel himself. The final construction budget was 7.8 million francs. The tower paid for itself during the exhibition period, and its subsequent operation turned out to be a very profitable business.

Construction

Construction work was carried out by 300 workers for just over two years - from January 28, 1887 to March 31, 1889. The record-breaking construction time was facilitated by extremely high-quality drawings indicating the exact dimensions of more than 12,000 metal parts, for the assembly of which 2.5 million rivets were used.

To finish the tower on time, Eiffel used for the most part, pre-fabricated parts. The holes for the rivets were pre-drilled in the designated locations, and two-thirds of the 2.5 million rivets were pre-attached. None of the prepared beams weighed more than 3 tons, which made it very easy to lift the metal parts into the designated places. At the beginning, high cranes were used, and when the structure outgrew their height, mobile cranes specially designed by Eiffel took over the work. They moved along rails laid for future elevators. The difficulty was that the lifting device had to move along the tower masts along a curved path with a changing radius of curvature. The first tower elevators were powered by hydraulic pumps. Two historic Fives-Lill elevators, installed in 1899 in the eastern and western pillars of the tower, are still in use to this day. Since 1983, their operation has been ensured by an electric motor, while the hydraulic pumps have been preserved and are available for inspection. The second and third floors of the tower were connected by a vertical elevator created by engineer Edu (Eiffel’s classmate at the Central Higher Technical School). This elevator consisted of two mutually leveling cabins. The upper cabin was raised using a hydraulic cylinder with a stroke length of 78 meters. The lower cabin served as a counterweight. Halfway to the landing, at an altitude of 175 m from the ground, passengers had to transfer to another elevator. Water tanks installed on the floors provided the necessary hydraulic pressure. In 1983, this lift, which could not operate in the winter, was replaced by an Otis electric lift, consisting of four cabins and providing direct communication between two floors. The construction of the tower required special attention to the safety of continuous work, which became Eiffel's greatest concern. There were no deaths during the construction work, which was a significant achievement for that time.

When digging foundation pits for the tower's supports, due to the proximity of the Seine River, Eiffel resorted to a method that he had introduced in the construction of bridges. Each of the 16 foundation caissons contained a working space into which air was pumped under pressure. Because of this, water could not penetrate there, and workers could carry out excavation without being disturbed by seeping water.

One of the most difficult problems for Eiffel was, paradoxically, the first platform. Massive wooden reinforcements had to support the 4 inclined supports and huge beams of the first platform. Four inclined supports rested on metal cylinders filled with sand. The sand could be gradually released and thus the supports could be installed at the correct angle. Additional hydraulic lifts in the support foundations made it possible to final adjust the position of the 4 inclined supports, which could thus be precisely adjusted to the iron reinforcement of the first platform.

Once the platform lay perfectly horizontal, it was attached to the inclined supports and the lifts were removed. Then construction continued on the tower itself. The work progressed slowly but continuously. It aroused surprise and admiration among Parisians who saw the tower growing into the sky. On March 31, 1889, less than 26 months after the excavation began, Eiffel was able to invite several more or less physically strong officials to the first ascent of 1,710 steps.

Design Features

The weight of the metal structure is 7,300 tons (total weight 10,100 tons). Today, three towers could be built from this metal at once. The foundation is made of concrete masses. The vibrations of the tower during storms do not exceed 15 cm.

The lower floor is a pyramid (129.2 m each side at the base), formed by 4 columns connected at a height of 57.63 m by an arched vault; on the vault is the first platform of the Eiffel Tower. The platform is a square (65 m across).

On this platform rises a second pyramid-tower, also formed by 4 columns connected by a vault, on which there is (at a height of 115.73 m) a second platform (a square 30 m in diameter).

Four columns rising on the second platform, pyramidally approaching and gradually intertwining, form a colossal pyramidal column (190 m), carrying a third platform (at a height of 276.13 m), also square in shape (16.5 m in diameter); there is a lighthouse with a dome on it, above which at an altitude of 300 m there is a platform (1.4 m in diameter).

There are stairs (1792 steps) and elevators leading to the tower.

Restaurant halls were erected on the first platform; on the second platform there were tanks with machine oil for the hydraulic lifting machine (elevator) and a restaurant in a glass gallery. The third platform housed the astronomical and meteorological observatories and the physics room. The light of the lighthouse was visible at a distance of 10 km.

The erected tower was stunning with its bold design. Eiffel was severely criticized for the project and simultaneously accused of trying to create something artistic and non-artistic.

Together with his engineers - specialists in bridge construction, Eiffel was engaged in calculations of wind force, well aware that if they were building the tallest structure in the world, they must first of all make sure that it was resistant to wind loads. In an interview with the newspaper Le Temps dated February 14, 1887, Eiffel remarked:

"Why such a strange shape? Wind loads. I believe that the curvature of the four outer edges of the monument is dictated by both mathematical calculations and aesthetic considerations.
translated from the French newspaper Le Temps dated February 14, 1887"

After the exhibition

The original agreement with Eiffel was for the tower to be dismantled 20 years after construction.

The structure was a stunning and immediate success. During the six months of the exhibition, more than 2 million visitors came to see the “Iron Lady”. By the end of the year, three quarters of all construction costs were recovered.

It is known that in 1887, 300 writers and artists (among them Alexandre Dumas fils, Guy de Maupassant and the composer Charles Gounod) sent a protest to the municipality, characterizing the structure as “useless and monstrous”, as “a ridiculous tower dominating Paris, like a giant factory chimney," adding:

“For 20 years we will be forced to look at the disgusting shadow of the hated column of iron and screws stretching over the city like an ink blot.”

In October 1898, Eugene Ducretet conducted the first telegraph communication session between the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon, the distance between which is 4 km. In 1903, General Ferrier, a pioneer in the field of wireless telegraphy, used it for his experiments. It so happened that the tower was left at first for military purposes. Since 1906, a radio station has been permanently located on the tower. January 1, 1910 Eiffel extends the lease of the tower for a period of seventy years. In 1921, the first direct radio transmission from the Eiffel Tower took place. A wide radio broadcast was broadcast, made possible by the installation of special antennas on the tower. Since 1922, a radio program began to be published regularly, which was called “Eiffel Tower”. In 1925, the first attempts were made to relay a television signal from the tower. The transmission of regular television programs began in 1935. Since 1957, a television tower has been located on the tower, increasing the height of the steel structure to 320.75 m. In addition, several dozen linear and parabolic antennas are installed on the tower, relaying various radio and television programs.

"Master of Iron" Alexandre Gustave Eiffel is a French engineer, architect and entrepreneur best known for his significant contribution to the cityscape - the Eiffel Tower. But Eiffel received his nickname not only thanks to the calling card of Paris. His bridges, domes, train stations and other architectural feats had a huge impact on construction and design, and exemplified the 19th century design revolution. For you, we have collected 6 of the most famous engineering structures of Gustave Eiffel.

EIFFEL TOWER, PARIS, FRANCE

Eiffel's most famous work, which eclipsed the glory of the engineer himself, was the Eiffel Tower. But initially the symbol of France was just a temporary project that was supposed to serve as the entrance arch to the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889.

The project of the Eiffel Tower, which was then simply called the 300-meter tower, was not the merit of himself Gustave Eiffel. The idea itself was created by Maurice Koechlen and Emile Nouguier, Eiffel employees. However, later the engineer bought the exclusive right. And the aesthetic appearance of the tower was given by the architect Stéphane Sauvestre, so that the “metal monster” could somehow fit into the exquisite architecture of Paris. He was the author of the covering of the basement supports of the tower with stone and the idea to connect them and the ground floor platform with the help of majestic arches, which would simultaneously become the main entrance to the exhibition, to place spacious glazed halls on the floors of the tower, to give the top of the tower a rounded shape and to use various decorative elements for it. decorations.

But it was thanks to the engineering talent and revolutionary construction methods of Gustave Eiffel that it became possible to build the tower in just two years. It was these short deadlines that were one of the reasons why Eiffel won the competition. And the engineer himself, having learned about his victory, proudly declared:

“France will be the only country with a 300-meter flagpole!”

Construction began in 1887 and lasted two years. Gustave Eiffel received permission to operate the tower for 25 years, after which it had to be dismantled. The building was saved from demolition by such a banal thing as a radio antenna, which was located on the top. In 1957, a television antenna also appeared on the tower, which increased the height of the steel structure to 320.75 m. Today, the tower houses a huge number of television and radio antennas.

NYUGATI STATION, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

One of the main attractions of Budapest, oddly enough, is the train station. Nyugati railway station still plays an important role in the country's infrastructure, although it was built in 1874-77. And the construction was supervised by none other than Gustave Eiffel. The architect came up with a very unusual solution for that time, which many contemporaries considered even avant-garde: instead of demolishing the old station building, Eiffel covered it with a “metal dome,” thus building a new building directly on top of the old one. And to make the building more elegant, he added a glass facade that hides the cast metal frame - the main support of the building.

BON MARCHAI DEPARTMENT STORE, PARIS, FRANCE

You've definitely heard about Bon Marche, but you probably wouldn't have guessed that the oldest department store in Paris was designed Gustave Eiffel. In 1876, presenting his project, he became an architectural fashion trendsetter. The fact is that he was the first to propose decorating the building with a glass roof and cast iron bridges. Since then, functional metal parts have become the most fashionable decoration in building furnishings.

IRON HOUSE, IQUITOS, PERU

The idea of building an iron house in Peru belongs to the millionaire Don Anselmo de Aguila, who wanted to turn Iuitos into the Peruvian Paris, but his project was created in 1887 by Gustave Eiffel. Since wooden buildings predominated in the country at that time, such a house was supposed to become a symbol of incredible luxury, since constant rains caused corrosion of the metal, and the house required constant maintenance. Unfortunately, the house turned out to be completely uninhabitable, since the sun heated the metal to enormous temperatures, and it was impossible to stay in it during the daytime. The iron house constantly changed hands. The current owner has placed souvenir shops on the ground floor and a cafe on the second floor.

MARIA PIA BRIDGE, PORTUGAL

Although Eiffel's most famous creation today is the tower, during his lifetime he was also famous as a bridge designer. Total Gustave Eiffel built six bridges, and the first of them was the bridge over the Douro River in Portugal, which is also called the Air Bridge. His design won the 1875 competition, primarily due to the fact that it was the cheapest of the eight proposed options. But even here, Eiffel could not do without engineering innovations in the combination of metal structures. The 160-meter-long bridge rises 60 meters above the river and for seven years was the leader in terms of span length. In 1991, the Ponte de Dona Maria Pia bridge received the status of a national monument, and a new bridge, Ponte de São João, was built for the crossing.

STATUE OF LIBERTY, NEW YORK, USA

It is not known whether America would be able to enjoy today one of its main symbols, Miss Liberty, if Gustave Eiffel didn't put his hand on it. Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, responsible for the Statue of Liberty, for a long time could not solve the problem with the internal structure of the tower. For this, he turned to Eiffel, who decided to use a steel support and create an iron frame that would allow the statue to maintain its vertical position. Thus, the Statue of Liberty was built in France, then dismantled, shipped to the USA and reassembled in New York.

Gustave Eiffel died on December 27, 1923 from pneumonia at the age of 91, leaving behind more than 10 engineering creations.

(1832-1923) French engineer

The end of the 19th century is rightly called the golden period in the history of engineering. Indeed, the names of the creators of famous buildings serve as unique milestones in the history of the development of architecture. Perhaps this is why Alexander Eiffel is known to the general public exclusively as the creator of the famous tower in Paris. Meanwhile he lived long life and created many other structures.

The future designer was born in Burgundy, in the city of Dijon, where his father owned extensive vineyards. However, he was not interested agriculture and after graduating from high school he entered the famous Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. After studying there for three years, he moved to the Central School of Arts and Crafts, from which he graduated in 1855.

Since engineering was considered an auxiliary discipline at that time, he went to work for one of the bridge-building firms. Eiffel designed his first bridge in 1858. To secure the piles more firmly, he suggested not driving them in, but pressing them into the bottom using a hydraulic press. Today this technique is rarely used due to its complex technical preparation.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel had to develop a special device to accurately place the piles, the ends of which had to be at a depth of twenty-five meters. After the successful construction of the bridge, he becomes a recognized bridge engineer and over the next twenty years creates many different structures - bridges across the Douro River in Portugal, the Mississippi in St. Louis (USA).

When building the first bridge, Alexander Eiffel abandoned the construction of grandiose wooden scaffolding - he assembled a huge steel arch on one of the banks and installed it using just one cable stretched between the two banks of the river. True, only fifty years later this technique began to be used everywhere.

Eiffel's most daring project was a viaduct over the Thuyer River. The difficulty was that it was necessary to block a deep mountain gorge one hundred and sixty-five meters wide. Several engineers received a similar proposal, but only Alexander Eiffel agreed. He proposed covering the entire span with one huge arch, which would rest on two concrete pylons.

During the construction of the arch, all calculations were carried out so accurately that during installation, its two halves coincided to within tenths of a millimeter. The construction of this bridge became a good school for Eiffel. He acquired certain skills that allowed him to improve in his chosen profession.

Together with a group of engineers, he developed an original method for calculating steel structures of almost any configuration. Shortly after the completion of the bridge, Eiffel participated in the design of an industrial exhibition that was to be held in Paris in 1878.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel and the famous French engineer de Dion are designing the so-called “Hall of Machines” - a majestic structure 420 meters long, 115 meters wide and 45 meters high. Its frame was made of openwork metal beams that supported glass frames of the original design.

When the leaders of the construction company got acquainted with the project of Alexandre Eiffel, they considered that it was impossible to implement it, primarily because at that time there were no buildings of this size at all. Nevertheless, the “Hall of Machines” was built. Eiffel received a gold medal for his unsurpassed technical solution. Unfortunately, in 1910 this wonderful building was dismantled for scrap.

It is curious that it all rested on small concrete pads. This technique allowed the designer to get rid of the inevitable deformations associated with the natural displacement of the soil. Subsequently, Alexander Eiffel repeatedly used a similar method in the construction of his buildings.

For the Paris Exhibition of 1889, he proposed erecting a metal tower, which was to become the architectural dominant of the exhibition town. And again he applied new engineering developments. The tower, about 300 meters high, was assembled from thin metal elements connected with rivets. Her translucent silhouette seemed to float above the city.

However, now there might not be a famous tower in Paris. In February 1888, a month after the start of work on the tower was announced, the chairman of the exhibition committee was handed a protest signed by a group of writers and artists. They proposed abandoning construction, arguing that the tower would disfigure the familiar cityscape.

But the famous French architect T. Alphand rightly suggested that the tower would become the dominant feature not only of the exhibition, but of the entire city. Indeed, less than twenty years later his prediction came true. The tower began to be called the Eiffel Tower, and it turned into a symbol of Paris.

During the construction of the tower, its creator met the famous American architect T. Bartholdi, who designed the American pavilion at the exhibition, the center of which was a small bronze statue, which was the personification of Freedom.

After the exhibition ended, the statue was enlarged to ninety-three meters in size and donated by France to the United States of America. However, when it was delivered to the site, it turned out that a steel frame was needed for its installation. Alexander Eiffel began to develop it, because at that time he was the only engineer who had experience in calculating the wind resistance of structures.

The frame he created turned out to be so successful that the statue stood for more than a hundred years, successfully resisting strong winds from the ocean. Several years ago, when it underwent restoration, it was decided to check Eiffel's calculations using a computer. The frame he created was exactly the same as the one proposed by the machine.

After his triumph at two world exhibitions, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel concentrated his efforts on scientific research. In the small town of Auteuil, he created the world's first laboratory to study the effects of wind on various structures. He was the first architect to place models of his structures in a wind tunnel. Alexander Eiffel described the results of his work in a series of fundamental works, which are rightfully considered a real encyclopedia of engineering art.