Peter Petrie - Le Magicien de Fer

We were very pleased to welcome Peter Petrie from Cheltenham who kindly came to talk to us about Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1832 – 1923) who was fondly called ‘the magician of iron’.
Eiffel was a French master engineer and architect. Upon graduation, Eiffel joined a company that specialised in construction of railway bridges. Soon he was also involved in the construction and design of many buildings and structures around the world, including Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Spain and the United States.

One of Eiffel’s significant works was the design of the interior metallic structure of the Statue of Liberty in New York (opened 1886) a project that he inherited after the sudden death of its original engineer.
The most noted masterpiece that brought Eiffel international fame and cemented his name in history was the Eiffel Tower (984 ft.) in Paris. Construction of the Tower started in 1887 and the then world’s tallest man made structure was the centrepiece of the 1889 “Exposition Universelle”.

The Tower included 2,500,000 rivets and 12,000 other components, all designed in such a way that when assembled would handle wind pressure. Unusually for the time, the Tower was built with no loss of life.

The only blot on Eiffel’s reputation was a disastrous attempt by the French to build a canal in Panama when he was charged with misappropriation of funds following liquidation of the construction company. Although originally found guilty, fined, and sentenced to two years in prison, happily an appeal acquitted Eiffel of all charges and obligations.

After retirement from engineering, Eiffel devoted the rest of his life to the study of meteorology and aerodynamics.

Mike Frost