Alexander Gustave Eiffel ( fr. Gustave Eiffel ), née Bönickhausen ( December 15, 1832 , Dijon - December 27, 1923 , Paris ) - French engineer, specialist in the design of metal structures . It gained unprecedented popularity after the construction in Paris for the 1889 exhibition of a metal tower belonging to the most remarkable technical structures of the 19th century and named in his honor.
Gustave Eiffel | |
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fr. Gustave eiffel | |
1910 | |
Date of Birth | |
Place of Birth | |
Date of death | December 27, 1923 (91 years old) |
Place of death | |
A country | |
Occupation | engineer , steel structure design specialist |
Awards and prizes | |
Autograph | |
Content
Biography
Family and Early Years
Born in the French department of Côte d'Or . He was the first child of Catherine-Melanie (nee Monuez) and Alexander Eiffel [5] . He was a descendant of Jean-René Bönhaushausen, an emigrant from the German town of Marmagen (present-day Nettersheim district) near Cologne , who moved to Paris at the beginning of the 19th century, and his descendant became one of three people of German descent who changed the face of Paris along with Baron Osman and an engineer Jacques Gittorf [6] . The family took the Eiffel surname as a reminder of the native mountains of Eifel (German: Eifel ). Although family members used the surname Eiffel, Gustave was registered under the surname Bönhaushausen [7] and did not officially change it until 1880. [8]
Gustave's father served in the army, but by the time of the birth of his son remained with her in administrative work. However, he soon leaves the service and switches to helping his wife manage the charcoal harvesting company inherited from her parents when the wife decided to expand the firm's business by including distribution of goods. Due to the mother’s busyness, the future architect spent a lot of time with his grandmother, but remained attached to his mother, a former influential figure in his life until her death in 1878. In 1843, Catherine sold a successful family business and retired, living on the proceeds [9] .
His son studies at the Royal Lyceum in Dijon, but his studies weigh him down to high school, when he takes classes under the influence of teachers of history and literature and successfully passes exams for the bachelor's degree in natural sciences and humanities.
An important role in teaching the boy is played by his uncle Jean-Baptiste Mollerath, 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, Gustave enters the Saint-Barb College to prepare for difficult entrance exams at the best technical universities in the country. He is attracted to the Polytechnic School , but the teachers consider his results insufficient, and he goes to the more applied Central School of Arts and Manufactures [10] . In his second year, he decides to specialize in chemistry and in 1855 graduates from the 13th out of 80 candidates. That year, Paris hosts the World's Fair , and his mother buys a ticket to Gustave to attend the spectacle. [11]
Career
In 1855 he received an engineering degree at the Central School of Arts and Manufactures in Paris [12] .
Before the construction of the Eiffel Tower, it was known for its impressive steel structures for bridges (in particular, the Maria Pia Bridge over the Douro at Porto in Portugal and the 500-meter railway bridge in Bordeaux) [12] and train stations in Budapest . He also completed the de Garabi Viaduct, a railway viaduct in southern France, which ascended above the valley at an altitude of 122 meters and was once 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 , in the Amazon outback he built the so-called. The iron house .
He was an engineer at the Panama Society and a supplier of machines for him, manufactured at his engineering plant in Levallois-Perret (near Paris). Eiffel’s revelations related to the Panama society also accused him of receiving 19 million francs from the Panama society for fictitious work. Prosecuted ( 1893 ), together with his father and son Lessepsi and other persons involved in the case, Eiffel was sentenced to 2 years in prison and 20,000 francs fine, but the court of cassation overturned the sentence after the expiration of the statute of limitations.
He developed and implemented the idea of a rotating dome of the observatory in Nice , which, despite its weight of 100 tons, is easily set in motion by one person; improved the system of movable bridges , etc.
Posted by:
- Conférence de Gustave Eiffel sur la tour de 300 mètres (1889)
- Les ponts portatifs économiques (in collaboration with Collins , 1888)
Death
Gustave Eiffel died on December 27, 1923 at the age of 91 from pneumonia .
Objects Designed by Gustave Eiffel's Atelier
Chronological list
- West Railway Station , Budapest , Hungary (1877)
- Bridge of Maria Pia , Porto , Portugal (1877)
- Eiffel Bridge , Ungheni , Moldova (1877)
- Metal foot bridge, Onyar river, Girona , Catalonia , Spain (1877)
- Dome for the Observatory in Nice , Nice , France (1878)
- Garabi Viaduct , railway bridge , River Trier , France (1884)
- Statue of Liberty , New York , USA (1886) (assisted by the main architect)
- Iron House , Iquitos , Peru (1887)
- The Iron House, Maputo (1892) [13] .
- The Iron House, Luanda (after 1892) [14] .
- Eiffel Tower , Paris , France (1889)
- Central Station , Santiago , Chile (1897)
- La Paz Central Bus Station
- Elevator Santa Giusta , Lisbon , Portugal (1901)
- Tsagveri Bridge - Tsemi of the Borjomi-Bakuriani railway line ( Georgia ), specially ordered by Romanov in France (1902) and installed on the Tsemistskali river [15] .
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower was erected on the Field of Mars , against the Jena Bridge ; in height (324 m) it is almost 2 times higher than the highest structures 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.
The construction of the Eiffel Tower lasted 26 months, from January 28, 1887 to March 31, 1889 and cost taxpayers 6.5 million francs . Over the six months of the exhibition, more than 2 million visitors came to see the Iron Lady. The construction was so successful that by the end of the year it was possible to reimburse three quarters of all construction costs.
Memory
In 1983, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the death of G. Eiffel, the French post issued (for the overseas department of Wallis and Futuna ) a commemorative stamp of 97 francs with a picture of the structures of the Eiffel Tower and a portrait of its creator.
Notes
- ↑ BNF ID : 2011 Open Data Platform .
- ↑ Alexandre Gustave Eiffel - ministère de la Culture .
- ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica
- ↑ Union List of Artist Names - 2016.
- ↑ The Tallest Tower: Eiffel and the Belle Epoque - Joseph Harriss - Google Books
- ↑ Histoire des expressions sans histoire - Google Books
- ↑ État-civil de la Côte-d'Or, Dijon, Registres d'état civil 1832, p. 249
- ↑ Harvie 2006 p.1
- ↑ Harvie 2006, p.3
- ↑ Harvie 2006, p.7
- ↑ Harvie 2006, p.9
- ↑ 1 2 Le Paris des gens célèbres, Gustave Eiffel . // Mairie de Paris
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ Railway History
Literature
- B. V — c . Eiffel, Alexander-Gustav // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1904. - T. XL (79): Shuiskoye - Electrical excitability. - S. 209.
- Art Books: A Basic Bibliography of Monographs on Artists / Wolfgang M. Freitag, ed .. - 2nd ed. - New York, London: Garland Publishing, 1997. - P. 124–125. - ISBN 0-8240-3326-4 . - ISBN 1134830416 .
- Harvie, David I. Eiffel, the Genius who Reinvented Himself: [ eng. ] . - Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2006 .-- ISBN 0-7509-3309-7 .
- Loyrette, Henri. Gustave Eiffel. - New York: Rizzoli, 1985 .-- ISBN 0-8478-0631-6 .