THE EIFFEL TOWER.* 



By G. Eiffel. 



The iiotiou of a tower 1,000 feet in height is uot new. It has 

 hauuted the iiuagiuatiou of Buglishnieii aud Americans. As early 

 as 1833, the celebrated English engineer Trevitick proposed to construct 

 a cast-iron tower 1,000 feet high, of which the diameter should be 

 100 feet at the base and 4 feet at the summit. But his project was 

 never put in execution, and was but imperfectly worked out even on 

 paper. 



At the time of the Exhibition in Philadelphia, in 1870, the great 

 American engineers, Messrs. Clarke and Keeves, brought forward anew 

 project. Their tower was to consist of an iron cylinder 9 meters in 

 diameter as a nucleus, and supported by a series of metal buttresses 

 disposed round it and starting from a base with a diameter of 45 

 meters. This was a distinct improvement on the English project, 

 although it still left room for ciiticism ; and yet the Americans, in 

 spite of their enterprising si)irit and tiie national enthusiasm excited 

 by this conception, slirank from its execution. 



in 1881, M. Sebillot proposed to light Paris by an electric lamp 

 placed at a height of 1,000 feet. This idea, which has, in my opinion, 

 no practical value, had no better fate than its predecessors. I need 

 only mention the designs, some in masonry, some in metal work aud 

 masonry combined, others, lastly, in wood, like the proposed tower for 

 the Brussels Exhibition, which were produced at the same time as my 

 own. But all these remained in the domain of fancy, ])roposals easy 

 to frame but hard to execute. 1 come to the project which has been 

 realized. 



In 1885, after the studies which my engineers and I had occasion to 

 make with regard to the lofty metal piers which sui)port railway via- 

 ducts like that of Garabit, wc were led to believe that it was possible 

 to construct these without any* great difliculty of a much greater 

 height than any hitherto nuide which did not exceed 230 feet. We 

 I)lanned on these lines a great pier lor a viaduct which should have a 

 height of 395 feet and a base of 131 feet. 



* From the New lievicic. Copied in the Eclectic Magazine, Sept., 1889, Vol. i.., pp. 

 355-359. 



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