Gustav Eiffel Born in Dijon in 1832, he
graduated from the Ecole Centrale des Arts et
Manufactures in 1855, the same year that Paris
hosted the first world's Fair. He spent several
years in the South West of France, where he
supervised work on the great railway bridge in
Bordeaux, and afterwards he set up in his own
right in 1864 as a "constructor", that is, as a
business specializing in metal structural
work.
His outstanding career as a constructor was
marked by work on the Porto viaduct over the
river Douro in 1876, the Garabit viaduct in 1884,
Pest railway station in Hungary, the dome of the
Nice observatory, and the ingenious structure of
the Statue of Liberty. It culminated in 1889 with
the Eiffel Tower.
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On Sunday March 31st 1889 at 1.30 pm, Gustave
Eiffel showed some of the famous personalities of
the day around what was then the tallest tower in
the world.
On this inauguration day, Eiffel climbed the
1710 steps leading to the third level of the
tower before unfurling the French flag which
prompted the 21 canon salute marking the
occasion. Eiffel later inscribed these words in a
woman's fan : "the French flag is the only one
with a 300 metre pole." The Eiffel Tower remained
the highest structure in the world until the
construction of New York's Chrysler Building in
1930.
After the end of his career in business that had
been marred by the failure of the Panama Canal,
Eiffel began an active life of scientific
experimental research in the fields of
meteorology, radiotelegraphy and aerodynamics. He
died on December 27 1923.
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Originally, there was a spiral staircase between
the second floor and the top level. Gustave
Eiffel used these stairs to get to his top floor
office. Considered obsolete, the staircase was
dismantled in 1983.
Installing public elevators on the Tower raised
many technical questions, since there had been no
previous experience in such heights and loads,
and the slanting tracks with various angles
further complicated the issue.
In 1889 elevators were provided by Roux,
Combaluzier et Lepape between the ground and
first stage platform (located in the east and
west legs). Otis built the elevators in the north
and south legs between the ground and second
platform. Edoux also provided elevators between
the second and top platforms.
Installation of the Otis elevators was not
complete on opening day, however. The company
president, Charles Otis, and Gustave Eiffel, the
designer, were engaged in a long-distance war of
words. Despite disagreements about specifications
and the difficulty of doing business across the
Atlantic at a time when sea borne mail was the
fastest method of communication, the Otis
elevators began service two months after the
tower opened. Each used a cylinder in the ground
that was raised by water pressure, activating a
block and tackle that in turn raised a
counterweighted car.
Meanwhile, the French company, Roux, Combaluzier
et Lepape, also had installed its version in the
two other legs. Those elevators used an endless
chain-link arrangement to raise and lower the
cars. The system proved to be more complex,
noisier and slower than the Otis variant and
their poor performances led to their withdrawal.
Between 1897 to 1899 they were replaced by the
Fives-Lille machines, involving hydraulic
accumulators, sixteen-metre-long main pistons,
cable loops and manual controls. They were
successful and were used by tourists to the
second floor until the late eighties. They were
then upgraded to comply with regulations. The old
machinery still provides the counterweight power
for the dead weights, while the variable parts of
the loads are driven by modern high pressure oil
pumps and motors using computer control. The
original American machines by Otis in the North
and South piers reached the second floor with a
double decker cabin, using hydraulically powered
cables. They were no match for the Fives-Lille
units, and were scrapped respectively in 1900
from the South pier and shortly after 1912 from
the North pier.
The increasing number of visitors during the
late fifties, led to the re-installation of a
large capacity machine in the North pier in 1965.
Manufactured by Schneider Creusot Loire using the
best engineering and electrical machineries
available, it was upgraded in 1995 with new
cabins and computer controls.
In the early 1980s the tower was in need of
major renovation, including all of its elevators.
Otis was no longer viewed as a "foreign" company,
having established significant operations in
France and absorbing the French elevator company
whose lifts had served the tower since the
beginning.
The new elevators included an inclined one from
the ground to the first and second stages, and
two Duo-lifts going from the second floor to the
top. (Duo-lifts elevators are two cabs connected
by the hoist ropes and suspended over a 219
gearless machine. As one cab goes up, the other
goes down.)
The run covered 160 meters (524.9 feet), the
longest open-air run anywhere. The elevators
consisted of two cabins counter weighting one
another, one going up and the other down. Two
Duo-lifts were put into service, so 40 people
could both ascend and descend simultaneously. In
2001, Otis modernised the Duo-lifts, a process
that had to be accomplished at night, during the
few hours they were not in use. The job consumed
6,000 hours and involved the transport of eight
tons of components to the top of the tower.
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