The end of the 19th century absolutely deservedly received the status of a golden period in the history of engineering. He owes this to the great designers, whose buildings still symbolize one or another milestone in history. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel is known to ordinary people as the creator of the famous Parisian tower. Few people know that he lived a very eventful life and created many more outstanding structures. Let's find out more about this great engineer and designer.
Childhood and education
Gustave Eiffel was born in 1832 in the city of Dijon, which is located in Burgundy. His father grew grapes very successfully on his extensive plantations. But Gustave did not want to devote his life to agriculture, and after studying at a local gymnasium, he entered the Paris Polytechnic School. After studying there for three years, the future designer went to the Central School of Crafts and Arts. Gustave Eiffel graduated in 1855.
Career start
At that time, engineering was considered an optional discipline, so the young designer got a job in a company that developed and built bridges. In 1858 GustaveEiffel designed his first bridge. This project could not be called typical, like all subsequent activities of the designer. To keep the piles stronger, the man suggested pressing them into the bottom with a hydraulic press. To date, this method is used extremely rarely, as it requires extensive technical training.
To accurately install the piles at a depth of 25 meters, Eiffel had to design a special device. When the bridge was successfully completed, Gustave was recognized as a bridge engineer. Over the next twenty years, he designed many different structures and the greatest architectural monuments, which include the Bir Akeim Bridge, the Alexander III Bridge, the Eiffel Tower and much more.
Outstanding look
In his work, Eiffel always tried to come up with something innovative that could not only alleviate the fate of designers and builders, but also make a useful contribution to the industry. Creating his first bridge, Gustave Eiffel decided to abandon the construction of bulky scaffolding. The huge metal arch of the bridge was built in advance on the shore. And to install it in place, the designer needed only one steel cable stretched between the banks of the river. This method became widespread, but only 50 years after Eiffel invented it.
Tuyer Bridge
Gustave Eiffel's bridges have always stood out, but there are some crazy projects among them. These include the viaduct built across the Tuyer River. The complexity of the project was that it had to stand on the site of a mountain gorge 165 meters deep. Before the Eiffel, several other engineers had received an offer to build this viaduct, but they all refused. He suggested blocking the gorge with a huge arch supported by two concrete pylons.
The arch consisted of two halves, which were fitted to each other with an accuracy of tenths of a millimeter. This bridge became an excellent school for Eiffel. He gained invaluable experience and determined his life and professional guidelines.
Together with a team of engineers, Gustave developed a unique technique that allowed him to calculate a metal structure of almost any configuration. Having built a bridge over the Tuyers, the hero of our story took up the design of an industrial exhibition in Paris, which was to be held in 1878.
Hall of Machines
Together with the famous French engineer de Dion, Eiffel designed a majestic building, which was nicknamed the “Hall of Machines”. The length of the structure was 420, width - 115, and height - 45 meters. The frame of the building consisted of metal beams of an openwork shape, on which glass bindings of an interesting configuration were held.
When the leaders of the company that was supposed to reproduce the Eiffel project in life, got acquainted with his idea, they considered it to be something impossible. The first thing that alarmed them was the fact that in those days buildings with such dimensions did not exist at all. However, Hallmachines was nevertheless built, as a result of which the bold designer was awarded a gold medal for an unsurpassed technical solution. Unfortunately, we cannot see a photo of this interesting building, since it was dismantled in 1910.
The structure of the "Hall of Machines" rested entirely on concrete pads, relatively small in size. This technique helped to avoid deformations that inevitably occur due to the natural displacement of the soil. The great designer used this tricky method in his projects more than once.
The tower that might not have been
In 1898, on the eve of the next Paris exhibition, Gustave Eiffel built a tower about 300 meters high. According to the engineer's idea, it was to become the architectural dominant of the exhibition town. At that time, the designer could not even imagine that this particular tower would become one of the key symbols of Paris and glorify the bridge builder for centuries after his death. Developing this design, Eiffel again applied his talent and made more than one discovery. The tower consists of thin metal parts that are attached to each other with rivets. The translucent silhouette of the tower seems to hover over the city.
It's hard to imagine, but now there might not be a main Parisian attraction. At the beginning of 1888, a month after the start of work on the construction of the structure, a protest was written to the chairman of the exhibition committee. It was composed by a group of artists and writers. They asked to abandon the construction of the tower, as itcan spoil the usual landscape of the French capital.
And then the well-known architect T. Alphand authoritatively suggested that the Eiffel project has great potential and can become not only a key figure in the exhibition, but also the main attraction of Paris. And so it happened, less than two decades after the construction, the majestic city became associated with the project of the designer, who made it a habit to think outside the box and not be afraid of bold decisions. The engineer himself called his creation the "300-meter tower", but the society honored him to go down in history for the masses, calling the tower after him.
Statue of Liberty
Few people know, but it was Gustave Eiffel, whose biography interested us today, who ensured the longevity of the American symbol - the Statue of Liberty.
It all started with the fact that the French designer, during the construction of his tower, met his American colleague, the architect T. Bartholdi. The latter was engaged in the design of the American pavilion at the exhibition. The center of the exposition was to be a small bronze statue that personified Freedom.
After the exhibition, the French increased the statue to a height of 93 meters and presented it to America. However, when the future monument arrived at the installation site, it turned out that a strong steel frame was needed for installation. The only engineer who understood the calculation of the water resistance of structures was Gustave Eiffel.
He managed to create such a successful frame that the statue has been standing for over a hundred years, andstrong winds from the ocean do not care for her. When the American Symbol was restored a few years ago, the decision was made to test the Eiffel calculations with a modern computer program. Surprisingly, the frame the engineer proposed exactly matched the model that the machine developed.
Laboratory
After an incredible success at two exhibitions, the hero of our conversation decided to do research in depth. In the town of Auteuil, out of nothing, he created the world's first laboratory to study the effect of wind on the stability of various structures. Eiffel was the first engineer in the world to use a wind tunnel in research. The designer published the results of his work in a series of fundamental works. To this day, his designs are considered an encyclopedia of engineering art.
Conclusion
So, we have learned what, besides the Parisian tower, Gustave Eiffel is famous for. Photos of his creations are fascinating and make you think about human greatness and the widest possibilities of our mind. But at the beginning of the journey, Eiffel was a simple bridge designer, whose ideas caused bewilderment among his colleagues. Definitely an inspirational story.
