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parser print export download as pdf printable version in other projects wikimedia commons wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide from wikipedia the free encyclopedia french civil engineer 1832 1923 for other uses see gustave eiffel disambiguation gustave eiffel eiffel in 1888 photographed by félix nadar born alexandre gustave bonickhausen dit eiffel 1 2 3 1832 12 15 15 december 1832 dijon côte d or kingdom of france died 27 december 1923 1923 12 27 aged 91 paris france education école centrale paris notable work garabit viaduct eiffel tower statue of liberty spouse marie gaudelet 1845 1877 m 1862 children 5 awards officer of the légion d honneur 4 samuel langley medal signature alexandre gustave eiffel ˈ aɪ f əl ⓘ eye fəl french alɛksɑ̃dʁ ɡystav ɛfɛl né bonickhausen dit eiffel 5 15 december 1832 27 december 1923 was a french civil engineer a graduate of école centrale des arts et métiers he made his name with various bridges for the french railway network most famously the garabit viaduct he is best known for the eiffel tower designed by his company and built for the 1889 universal exposition in paris and his contribution to building the statue of liberty liberty enlightening the world in new york after his retirement from engineering eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics making significant contributions in both fields 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 jean rené bönickhausen who had emigrated from the german town of marmagen and settled in paris at the beginning of the 18th 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 école centrale des arts et manufactures 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 s mother bought him a season ticket 11 early career edit the bordeaux overpass 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 metre 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 metre 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 cash 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 chile 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 quick flowing up to 20 metres 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 the eiffel tower edit main article eiffel tower koechlin s first drawing for the eiffel tower note the sketched stack of buildings with notre dame at the bottom indicating the scale of the proposed tower the design of the eiffel tower was originated by maurice koechlin and emile nouguier who had discussed ideas for a centrepiece for the 1889 exposition universelle in may 1884 koechlin working at his home made an outline drawing of their scheme described by him as a great pylon consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals 23 initially eiffel showed little enthusiasm although he did sanction further study of the project and the two engineers then asked stephen sauvestre to add architectural embellishments sauvestre added the decorative arches to the base a glass pavilion to the 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 of 1884 and on 30 march 1885 eiffel read a paper on the project to the société des ingénieurs civils after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower he finished his talk by saying that the tower would symbolise 24 not only the art of the modern engineer but also the century of industry and science in which we are living and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eightee...
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