Reference EIFFEL

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 5

Reference

Gustave Eiffel - Wikipedia

Eiffel Tower history, architecture, design & construction (toureiffel.paris)

Asthetics of eiffel tower | PPT (slideshare.net)

Painting and color of the Eiffel Tower - OFFICIAL Website (toureiffel.paris)


Early life[edit]
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was born in France, in the Côte-d'Or, the first child of Catherine-Mélanie
(née Moneuse) and Alexandre Bonickhausen dit Eiffel.[6] He was a descendant of Marguerite
Frédérique (née Lideriz) and Jean-René Bönickhausen, who had emigrated from the German town
of Marmagen and settled in Paris at the beginning of the 19th century.[7] The family adopted the
name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel mountains in the region from which they had come. Although
the family always used the 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 business she had
inherited from her parents to include a coal-distribution business, and soon afterwards his father
gave up his job 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 influential figure until her death in 1878. The business was successful enough for
Catherine Eiffel to sell it in 1843 and retire on the proceeds.[8] Eiffel was not a studious child, and
thought his classes at the Lycée Royal in Dijon boring and a waste of time, although in his last two
years, influenced by his teachers for history and literature, he began to study seriously, and he
gained his baccalauréats in humanities and science.[9] An important part in his education was played
by his uncle, Jean-Baptiste Mollerat, who had invented a process for distilling vinegar and had a
large chemical works near Dijon, and one of his uncle's friends, the chemist Michel Perret. Both men
spent a lot of time with the young Eiffel, teaching him about everything from chemistry and mining to
theology and philosophy.
Eiffel went on to attend the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, to prepare for the difficult entrance exams
set by engineering colleges in France, and 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 year he chose to specialize in chemistry, and graduated ranking at 13th
place out of 80 candidates in 1855. This was the year that Paris hosted a World's Fair, and Eiffel
was bought a season ticket by his mother.[11]

Early career[edit]
The Bordeaux bridge, Eiffel's first major work
After graduation, Eiffel had hoped to find work in his uncle's workshop in Dijon, but a family dispute
made this impossible. After a few months working as an unpaid assistant to his brother-in-law, who
managed a foundry, Eiffel approached the railway engineer Charles Nepveu, who gave Eiffel his first
paid job as his private secretary.[12] However, shortly afterwards Nepveu's company went bankrupt,
Nepveu found Eiffel a job designing a 22 m (72 ft) sheet 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 director 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 the river Garonne at Bordeaux, connecting the Paris-Bordeaux line to the lines running
to Sète and Bayonne, which involved the construction of a 500 m (1,600 ft) iron girder bridge
supported by six 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 on schedule Eiffel was appointed as the principal engineer of
the Compagnie Belge. His work had also gained the attention of several people who were later to
give him work, including Stanislas de la Roche Toulay, who had prepared the design 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, seeing no future
there, resigned and set up as an independent consulting engineer. He was already working
independently on the construction of two railway stations, at Toulouse and Agen, and in 1866 he
was given a contract to oversee the construction of 33 locomotives for the Egyptian government, a
profitable but undemanding job in the course of which he visited Egypt, 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 design of the exhibition hall for the Exposition
Universelle which was to be held in 1867. Eiffel's principal job was to 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 iron, definitively establishing the modulus of elasticity applicable to compound castings.

Eiffel et Cie[edit]

The Budapest Nyugati railway station


At the end of 1866 Eiffel managed to borrow enough money to set up his own workshops at 48 Rue
Fouquet in Levallois-Perret.[15] His first important commission was for two viaducts for the railway line
between Lyon and Bordeaux, and the company also began to undertake work in 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 old 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 October 1868 he entered into partnership with Théophile Seyrig, a fellow graduate of the École
Centrale, forming the company Eiffel et Cie. In 1875, Eiffel et Cie were given two important
contracts, one for the Budapest Nyugati railway station for the Vienna to Budapest railway and the
other for a bridge 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
an elaborate facade: Eiffel's design for Budapest used the metal structure as the centerpiece of the
building, flanked on either side by conventional stone and brick-clad structures housing
administrative offices.
The Maria Pia Bridge
The bridge over the Douro came about as the result of a competition held by the Royal Portuguese
Railroad Company. The task was a demanding one: the river was fast-flowing, up to 20 m (66 ft)
deep, and had a bed formed of a deep layer of gravel which made the construction of piers on the
river bed impossible, and so the bridge had to have a central span of 160 m (520 ft). This was
greater than the longest arch span which had been built at the time. [17] Eiffel's proposal was for a
bridge whose deck was supported by five iron piers, with the abutments of the pair on the river bank
also bearing 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 experienced
than his rivals the Portuguese authorities appointed a committee to report on Eiffel et Cie's
suitability. The members included Jean-Baptiste Krantz, Henri Dion and Léon Molinos, both of whom
had known Eiffel for a long time: their report was favorable, and Eiffel got the job. On-site work
began in January 1876 and was complete by the end of October 1877: the bridge was ceremonially
opened by King Luís I and Queen Maria Pia, after whom the bridge was named, on 4 November.
The Exposition Universelle in 1878 firmly established his reputation as one of the leading engineers
of the time. As well as exhibiting models and drawings of work undertaken by the company, Eiffel
was also responsible for the construction of several of the exhibition buildings. [18] One of these, a
pavilion for the Paris Gas Company, was Eiffel's first collaboration with Stephen Sauvestre, who was
later to become the head of the company's architectural office.
In 1879 the partnership with Seyrig was dissolved, and the company was renamed the Compagnie
des Établissements Eiffel.[19] The same year the company was given the contract for the Garabit
viaduct, a railway bridge near 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 due to his success with the
bridge over the Douro.[20] To assist him in the work he took on several people who were to play
important roles in the design and construction of the Eiffel Tower, including Maurice Koechlin, a
young graduate of the Zurich Polytechnikum, who was engaged to undertake calculations and make
drawings, and Émile Nouguier, who had previously worked for Eiffel on the construction of the Douro
bridge.
Interior structural elements of the Statue of Liberty designed by Gustave Eiffel
The same year Eiffel started work on a system of standardised prefabricated bridges, an idea that
was the result of a conversation with the governor of Cochin-China. These used a small number of
standard components, all small enough to be readily transportable in areas with poor or non-existent
roads, and were joined using bolts rather than rivets, reducing the need 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 need of an engineer to help him to
realise the Statue of Liberty. Some work had already been carried out by 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 support the copper sheeting which made up the body
of the statue. The entire statue was erected at the Eiffel works in Paris before being dismantled and
shipped to the United States.[22]
In 1886 Eiffel also designed the dome for the Astronomical Observatory in Nice. This was the most
important building in a complex designed by Charles Garnier, later among the most prominent critics
of the Tower. The dome, with a diameter of 22.4 m (73 ft), was the largest in the world when built
and used an ingenious bearing device: rather than running on wheels or rollers, it was supported by
a ring-shaped hollow girder floating in a circular trough containing a solution of magnesium
chloride in water. This had been patented by Eiffel in 1881.

You might also like