1
00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,080
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History class from how

2
00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:13,360
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:16,599
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. As we

4
00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:19,599
Speaker 1: have been saying a lot, because we're into it and

5
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:21,720
Speaker 1: it's exciting and we want you along with us. We

6
00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:26,080
Speaker 1: are going to Paris this summer is so exciting. So

7
00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:30,680
Speaker 1: in early June, we are jaunting off Paris UH to

8
00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:32,720
Speaker 1: do a fun trip where we're gonna explore a lot

9
00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:35,360
Speaker 1: of the places that were important during the French Revolution.

10
00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:38,360
Speaker 1: And you two can come along with us. Uh. If

11
00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:40,400
Speaker 1: you are interested in checking that out, you can go

12
00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:43,199
Speaker 1: to our website missed in History dot com. Look at

13
00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:44,879
Speaker 1: the menu bar at the top of the page. One

14
00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:47,560
Speaker 1: of your options to click on says Paris trip exclamation

15
00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:49,720
Speaker 1: point uh. And if you do that, you will be

16
00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:53,800
Speaker 1: passed through to the website that will handle bookings. You

17
00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:55,840
Speaker 1: can check it out see where all we're gonna go

18
00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,360
Speaker 1: and the fun things we're gonna do. Uh. And if

19
00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:00,520
Speaker 1: that is for you, you you can come this and we

20
00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:02,920
Speaker 1: will all laugh and laugh and laugh. And like I've

21
00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,440
Speaker 1: said before, I will cry at many things because I

22
00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:10,840
Speaker 1: find things like museums in historical places, very moving. One

23
00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:13,760
Speaker 1: of my friends has noted that a lot of pictures

24
00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:16,520
Speaker 1: on the website where the bookings are happening are of food,

25
00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:20,040
Speaker 1: and yes, we also plan to enjoy a whole lot

26
00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:23,959
Speaker 1: of French food. Oh yes, I'm already like scouting out

27
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,560
Speaker 1: restaurants to take my husband on a date while we're there.

28
00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,839
Speaker 1: So this is the second of a two parter about

29
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,520
Speaker 1: Gustava Fell. So I suggest you listen to the first

30
00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:35,960
Speaker 1: one first before this, or this might feel abrupt and

31
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:37,959
Speaker 1: you may not appreciate the journey he went on to

32
00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:42,160
Speaker 1: become the the iconic builder that he ended up being.

33
00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,480
Speaker 1: And we talked, as I said in the part one,

34
00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:48,320
Speaker 1: about Gestava Feld's early years, and that leads straight into

35
00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:50,760
Speaker 1: today's show, in which we were going to talk about

36
00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:53,280
Speaker 1: some of his most famous works. So just as a

37
00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:56,040
Speaker 1: quick link up, as you'll recall if you listen to

38
00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:59,000
Speaker 1: that first part. When we close that out, the employee

39
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,480
Speaker 1: that he had trusted to be his representative in Latin

40
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,920
Speaker 1: America and South America died. NFL had made the decision

41
00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:08,079
Speaker 1: to completely pull out of his overseas business. As the

42
00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:11,480
Speaker 1: Fell's work ended in South America, there were larger contracts

43
00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,000
Speaker 1: coming in in Europe. First, in eighteen seventy five, Fel

44
00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,680
Speaker 1: was tasked with creating a new terminus building for the

45
00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:24,639
Speaker 1: Austrian Railways station at Pest, Hungary that's now Budapest. It

46
00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:27,360
Speaker 1: was a three million franc project and the new building

47
00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:31,080
Speaker 1: was constructed around the old one to avoid a service disruption.

48
00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:34,919
Speaker 1: When the news station was nearing completion, the old one

49
00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,880
Speaker 1: inside of it was demolished and then the last phase

50
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:41,080
Speaker 1: of construction was completed. One of the big stands that

51
00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:44,440
Speaker 1: it Fell took in this design was asserting that the

52
00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:47,840
Speaker 1: structural elements of the building should not be hidden, but

53
00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:51,400
Speaker 1: should be incorporated into the design. He felt like his

54
00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,840
Speaker 1: plans for the station quote carefully brought out the role

55
00:02:54,919 --> 00:02:59,240
Speaker 1: in the nature of the various materials as clearly as possible. Yeah,

56
00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:04,320
Speaker 1: he had ly championed iron work as an important structural

57
00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,520
Speaker 1: material and he thought like, why are we hiding it?

58
00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:10,200
Speaker 1: It's making our building stronger, or we could we could

59
00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:12,760
Speaker 1: make this part of the design. Uh. And just a

60
00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:15,280
Speaker 1: few months after the project for the station at Pest

61
00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:19,040
Speaker 1: was contracted, a Fells firm one another large contract, this

62
00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:23,160
Speaker 1: one in Portugal, and the competition for this bridge project

63
00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:27,079
Speaker 1: for the Portuguese Railway Company had been fierce. Several other

64
00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:30,480
Speaker 1: European companies had submitted proposals, and it would be a

65
00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:34,679
Speaker 1: boon to whoever secured that contract. The design by it

66
00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:39,360
Speaker 1: Fels partner too Phil Seig, which featured a large trust

67
00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:42,760
Speaker 1: parabolic arch, was also the lowest bid and it gained

68
00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:46,240
Speaker 1: the favor of the railroad with only minor modifications. It

69
00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,800
Speaker 1: was built exactly to plan, which was incredibly demanding. Because

70
00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,560
Speaker 1: of the river's conditions and the tight budget that they

71
00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,120
Speaker 1: had proposed it, Fell and his team were able to

72
00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:58,800
Speaker 1: cut costs, not by cutting corners, but by innovating. I

73
00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:01,040
Speaker 1: Fel came up with a way to support the arch

74
00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:05,360
Speaker 1: segments with cables building from each side inward, instead of

75
00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:07,960
Speaker 1: having to build a scaffolding in the river, which would

76
00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:12,040
Speaker 1: have driven up the expense. That bridge, the Maria Pia Bridge,

77
00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:14,880
Speaker 1: was completed in less than two years and it still stands,

78
00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,839
Speaker 1: although it's no longer in use, was made a National

79
00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:22,800
Speaker 1: Monument of Portugal in Yeah, it's quite lovely. There's some

80
00:04:22,839 --> 00:04:25,280
Speaker 1: great pictures of it online if you care to go looking.

81
00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:29,039
Speaker 1: But though the project went well, there was some unease

82
00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,840
Speaker 1: for Gustava fell. For one, he and Seig had started

83
00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:35,720
Speaker 1: bickering over whether it fl could hire his brother in

84
00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:37,520
Speaker 1: law again. He had hired his brother in law on

85
00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:40,400
Speaker 1: a previous job, and he wanted to do so again

86
00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:43,320
Speaker 1: and say Rigg wasn't into it. Uh. And for another,

87
00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:46,480
Speaker 1: he seemed to really miss his family, and he actually

88
00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:49,200
Speaker 1: asked his wife, Marguerite, and their youngest child to move

89
00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:51,719
Speaker 1: to Portugal for the duration of the project. That was

90
00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:55,479
Speaker 1: something he had never done before. But Marguerite got sick.

91
00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:59,159
Speaker 1: She had experienced several bouts with pneumonia, and she became

92
00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:02,320
Speaker 1: very ill while living in Portugal. She traveled back to

93
00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:05,400
Speaker 1: Paris for treatment, but died in eighteen seventy seven at

94
00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,359
Speaker 1: the age of thirty two before the bridge was finished.

95
00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:12,880
Speaker 1: Gustave's sister, Marie and her husband Dr. Albert Hinok, who

96
00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:15,640
Speaker 1: she married a year after her first husband died, helped

97
00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:19,200
Speaker 1: him raise his children after Marguerite's death. But that wasn't

98
00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:21,480
Speaker 1: the only tragedy that came his way in the late

99
00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:25,159
Speaker 1: eighteen seventies. His mother also died in February of eighteen

100
00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,000
Speaker 1: seventy eight, so in the span of just a few months,

101
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,640
Speaker 1: he lost two of the most important people in his life.

102
00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:34,520
Speaker 1: After the bridge was completed, Sarah wrote a paper about

103
00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:38,000
Speaker 1: its success and presented it at the French Society of Engineers.

104
00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:41,120
Speaker 1: While a Fell had been open about his part in

105
00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:45,520
Speaker 1: the project as well as another engineer, once SARAHI seemed

106
00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:48,119
Speaker 1: to want to take full credit for the successful bridge

107
00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:51,640
Speaker 1: for himself, I Fell became really irritated. He wrote his

108
00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:55,800
Speaker 1: own paper about the work, downplaying his partner's contribution. By

109
00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:58,760
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy nine, the relationship between the two of them

110
00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:02,679
Speaker 1: had completely so word and their partnership was ended. Yeah,

111
00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:04,640
Speaker 1: this is a thing that comes up a lot in

112
00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:07,600
Speaker 1: sort of criticism of Gustava Fell. There are some questions

113
00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:11,919
Speaker 1: about whether or not he was ever really very magnanimous

114
00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:15,240
Speaker 1: about letting other people have their time in the spotlight

115
00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:19,440
Speaker 1: on things they had collaborated on. So in this case

116
00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:21,920
Speaker 1: it is a little bit like some people will point

117
00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:24,560
Speaker 1: to this as a moment of like his his pride

118
00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:28,760
Speaker 1: becoming the problem. But once the dust had settled from

119
00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:31,320
Speaker 1: this disagreement, a Fell actually changed the name of his

120
00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:36,920
Speaker 1: firm to company destabisiment if sareg actually attempted to get

121
00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,159
Speaker 1: a portion of the company's assets, which he felt he

122
00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:42,680
Speaker 1: was entitled to remember, he had put in a greater

123
00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:46,200
Speaker 1: portion of capital when they first started the company, and

124
00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:48,719
Speaker 1: he went after what he thought was his fair sharing

125
00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:52,000
Speaker 1: court and this led to a legal battle that dragged

126
00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:57,000
Speaker 1: on for twelve long years. Eventually, Sarah was granted a

127
00:06:57,040 --> 00:06:59,880
Speaker 1: payment worth four times his initial investment with A Fell,

128
00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,000
Speaker 1: but that was it uh in terms of how much

129
00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,400
Speaker 1: the company had grown during that time. That seemed a

130
00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,680
Speaker 1: little insulting and it was considered a loss. In the

131
00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:12,080
Speaker 1: midst of this strife, it Fell was also involved in

132
00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:15,120
Speaker 1: another legal matter, although this one was a lot less contentious.

133
00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,080
Speaker 1: He had been going by it Fell, but his family

134
00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:21,960
Speaker 1: name legally was still hyphenated, so in eighteen eighty Gustav

135
00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:26,720
Speaker 1: legally had the family names changed from Bonchazen Fell to

136
00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:30,760
Speaker 1: simply Fell. Yeah, when his great great grandfather had moved

137
00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:33,480
Speaker 1: from Germany to France, he had done the hyphen nation

138
00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:35,840
Speaker 1: on the name, and then they had really gone by

139
00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:37,400
Speaker 1: a Fel for most of the time, so he was like,

140
00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:39,520
Speaker 1: let's just strike that and this will be our legal name.

141
00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:43,800
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty fl began construction on the Viaduct of Garabee,

142
00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:46,600
Speaker 1: and this was a massive structure. It actually had a

143
00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:49,160
Speaker 1: similar design to the Maria Pia Bridge with a Trust

144
00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:53,400
Speaker 1: parabolic arch, but this bridge was much larger, and at

145
00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:56,520
Speaker 1: this point Gustava Fell had become so well respected that

146
00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,480
Speaker 1: he was really the only engineer that was seriously considered

147
00:07:59,480 --> 00:08:02,320
Speaker 1: for this channel lenging project. It was not put out

148
00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:05,320
Speaker 1: to bids the way most projects would be. They literally

149
00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:07,240
Speaker 1: were like, the only person who can build this is

150
00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,880
Speaker 1: Gustava Fell. It was immediately after this contract was in

151
00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:14,120
Speaker 1: place that a Fell formally and legally severed all of

152
00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:17,040
Speaker 1: his ties with his former partners Serig. This was also

153
00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:20,200
Speaker 1: a project that required pre setting the build site with

154
00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:23,680
Speaker 1: essentially a many town for the workers because the bridge

155
00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:27,000
Speaker 1: was in a pretty remote and undeveloped area. Because the

156
00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:30,360
Speaker 1: build was expected to last for a few years, provisions

157
00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:32,839
Speaker 1: had to be made for the workers to move with

158
00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:36,719
Speaker 1: their families if they wanted. Everything from living spaces to

159
00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:40,360
Speaker 1: retail stores that could provide the necessities to schools all

160
00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:42,600
Speaker 1: had to be built for the construction on the bridge

161
00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:45,440
Speaker 1: could even start, and as he had done throughout his career,

162
00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:50,000
Speaker 1: Gustava Fell rose to meet these challenges. The viaduct, which

163
00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,520
Speaker 1: included more than twenty six tons of iron in its

164
00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:56,120
Speaker 1: construction and cost roughly three million francs. Was completed at

165
00:08:56,160 --> 00:09:00,120
Speaker 1: the end of eight four. Accomplishing such a mass of

166
00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:02,680
Speaker 1: goal made it Fell famous. He was already well known

167
00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:06,160
Speaker 1: in construction, but this really kind of made him famous

168
00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,760
Speaker 1: throughout the country and even in in throughout Europe. As

169
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:12,480
Speaker 1: you recall, this happened in Portugal, and it was sort

170
00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:14,520
Speaker 1: of part of the reason that he got his nickname,

171
00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:17,920
Speaker 1: which was the Magician du Feri or the iron Magician.

172
00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:21,199
Speaker 1: And sometimes you'll also see this translated as the iron Wizard.

173
00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:25,000
Speaker 1: I like that one better, but it's just me Iron Wizard.

174
00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:27,920
Speaker 1: It's fun. It makes me picture him in a pointy

175
00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:35,640
Speaker 1: hat with stars on it. Kind of uh, fantagious sty

176
00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:41,880
Speaker 1: he's making little iron uh little iron Tory Fell there

177
00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:45,200
Speaker 1: walking in in a row. Okay, we're about to talk

178
00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:48,200
Speaker 1: about a famous structure that gestap it Fell contributed to

179
00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:50,640
Speaker 1: that's here in the US. But first wee will take

180
00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:53,319
Speaker 1: a quick break to hear about one of those sponsors.

181
00:09:53,360 --> 00:10:04,520
Speaker 1: He was keeping this show going while Fels Firm continued

182
00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:07,400
Speaker 1: to work steadily. The next high profile job that he

183
00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:10,400
Speaker 1: worked on was actually the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the

184
00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:13,480
Speaker 1: World that was the original title for that piece, even

185
00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:16,120
Speaker 1: though we these days just called the Statue of Liberty.

186
00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:21,400
Speaker 1: Eduard Rene Le Fabre had initiated the idea of a

187
00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:24,960
Speaker 1: gift to the United States shortly after the Lincoln assassination

188
00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,160
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty five, but this project took years to

189
00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:32,000
Speaker 1: really get momentum uh and get to the point where

190
00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,520
Speaker 1: they could send sculptor Frederic August Berteldi to the US

191
00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:38,199
Speaker 1: to survey the possibilities and come up with a design.

192
00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:41,160
Speaker 1: This statue is often cited as a gift of the

193
00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:43,840
Speaker 1: French government to the United States, but it was actually

194
00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:47,079
Speaker 1: not from the government. It was funded by private donors,

195
00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:50,960
Speaker 1: the people of France, who all gave their money so

196
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,000
Speaker 1: that they could share this moment of of sort of

197
00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:58,440
Speaker 1: brotherhood and support, the only exception being a fairly sizable

198
00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:02,400
Speaker 1: donation from the city of Paris. Architect Eugene violet Le

199
00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:06,000
Speaker 1: Duc initially started work on the engineering of the structure,

200
00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:09,400
Speaker 1: and with his guidance, the head had been completed in

201
00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:13,120
Speaker 1: time to be displayed at the eighteen seventy eight Exposition Universe,

202
00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:17,520
Speaker 1: But Violet l Duke died in the fall of eighteen

203
00:11:17,559 --> 00:11:20,320
Speaker 1: seventy nine and it was Gustave it Fell that was

204
00:11:20,760 --> 00:11:24,440
Speaker 1: the replacement. It Fell developed a skeletal support plan for

205
00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:28,080
Speaker 1: this massive sculpture and designed the stairwells within so the

206
00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:31,280
Speaker 1: observation area would be easy to reach, and because the

207
00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:34,320
Speaker 1: statute was going to be so very exposed when it

208
00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:37,360
Speaker 1: was installed in New York, Fell took great care to

209
00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:42,000
Speaker 1: plant with an eye towards stability, even inforceful wind gusts.

210
00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:44,800
Speaker 1: So the copper sheeting that's used on it, each piece

211
00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:47,920
Speaker 1: is anchored to the interior framework. None of those sheets

212
00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:51,319
Speaker 1: are simply riveted to an adjacent sheet or sheets uh

213
00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:53,640
Speaker 1: and none of the sheets are load bearing in any way.

214
00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:57,160
Speaker 1: As we mentioned in our Emma Lazarous episode, there were

215
00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:00,400
Speaker 1: some issues with putting together the financial capital on the

216
00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:02,960
Speaker 1: U S side of things to complete the pedestal where

217
00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,600
Speaker 1: Lady Liberty would eventually stand. As a consequence, the team

218
00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:09,560
Speaker 1: working on the statue in France slowed down their production

219
00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:11,480
Speaker 1: rate towards the end of the build, while the United

220
00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:14,320
Speaker 1: States worked to raise the money to finish their construction.

221
00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:18,679
Speaker 1: But eventually, everything, of course did come together, and just

222
00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:20,640
Speaker 1: as he had done with a number of his projects

223
00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:23,480
Speaker 1: that he had shipped to South America, Fell, along with

224
00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:26,520
Speaker 1: berthel D and their teams, took the Statue of Liberty,

225
00:12:26,559 --> 00:12:29,920
Speaker 1: which they had built in its entirety apart, breaking it

226
00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:33,000
Speaker 1: down into three hundred and fifty component pieces for shipping,

227
00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:35,720
Speaker 1: and then those pieces were packed into two hundred and

228
00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:39,360
Speaker 1: fourteen custom crates loaded on a ship which left France

229
00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:42,880
Speaker 1: on May eighty five. It took a little less than

230
00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:44,920
Speaker 1: a month to make it to New York. That ship

231
00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:49,079
Speaker 1: arrived on June seventeenth, and after months of unpacking an assembly,

232
00:12:49,559 --> 00:12:53,360
Speaker 1: the statue was finally fully assembled in April eighteen eighty six.

233
00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:56,920
Speaker 1: The dedication ceremony for it was held on October twenty

234
00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:00,320
Speaker 1: of that same year. As Gstava Fell had been working

235
00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:03,199
Speaker 1: on the iconic French gift to the United States, another

236
00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:06,480
Speaker 1: project was starting to take root. In the early eighteen eighties,

237
00:13:06,520 --> 00:13:11,080
Speaker 1: plans began for another Paris Exposition Universal, this time to

238
00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:13,560
Speaker 1: align with the hundredth anniversary of the start of the

239
00:13:13,559 --> 00:13:17,280
Speaker 1: French Revolution. By the time things really started to get

240
00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:20,120
Speaker 1: organized for the event, it was already eighteen eighty six,

241
00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:23,160
Speaker 1: so the clock was ticking for an eighteen eighty nine

242
00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:26,920
Speaker 1: expo to be put together. Yeah, that's a little tight Yeah,

243
00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:30,520
Speaker 1: people had been working on it up to that point,

244
00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:33,040
Speaker 1: but they didn't really have all their pieces in place

245
00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:35,280
Speaker 1: to be like, now we have a full planning committee,

246
00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:37,760
Speaker 1: let's make this thing happen. And it sounds like ample

247
00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:40,920
Speaker 1: time for something on a smaller scale, but not something

248
00:13:40,960 --> 00:13:45,440
Speaker 1: as massive as these expositions were. Yeah, and exactly when

249
00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:48,240
Speaker 1: the idea of a tower as the centerpiece of this

250
00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:51,280
Speaker 1: show came into being is a little bit fuzzy. But

251
00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:54,760
Speaker 1: in May eighty six, an announcement was published in the

252
00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:58,440
Speaker 1: Government paper asking for submissions of ideas to build an

253
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:03,079
Speaker 1: iron tower for the X. There were specific needs included

254
00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:05,600
Speaker 1: in this announcement. It had to be built on the

255
00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:08,400
Speaker 1: Chendo Mao, and it had to be three hundred meters

256
00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:12,680
Speaker 1: tall with a one twenty five square footprint, and all

257
00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:16,959
Speaker 1: submissions had to be submitted within sixteen days of this announcement,

258
00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:19,200
Speaker 1: so they only had two weeks in a tiny bit

259
00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:22,680
Speaker 1: of change to get their designs made, drafted, and submitted.

260
00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:26,640
Speaker 1: If those requirements seemed very very specific, it's because they were.

261
00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:30,080
Speaker 1: They perfectly matched a design that it Fell had ready

262
00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:35,000
Speaker 1: to go. Two of his engineers, Maurice cook Lan and

263
00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:39,200
Speaker 1: Emil Newgate, had already been working on the tower design

264
00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:44,000
Speaker 1: along with architects Defend Silvestra. Their earliest sketches of it

265
00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:47,520
Speaker 1: date back to eighteen eighty four, two years before the

266
00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:50,680
Speaker 1: Minister of Science and Industry published this call for submissions.

267
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,360
Speaker 1: It was absolutely no surprise that among the one hundred

268
00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:59,040
Speaker 1: submissions for the tower contract was a design from a

269
00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:02,320
Speaker 1: Fell's firm. Were actually more submissions than that. That was

270
00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:05,400
Speaker 1: like the narrowed down these are the serious ones. After

271
00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:08,280
Speaker 1: a month of analysis of these various proposals, it was

272
00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:11,360
Speaker 1: determined that only a Fell's team had a workable design,

273
00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:16,200
Speaker 1: and initially uh Gustava Fell himself had not been especially

274
00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:21,000
Speaker 1: wowed with the ideas of Cookland and Neuguie, but he

275
00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:23,440
Speaker 1: encouraged him to keep going Usially, yeah, sure, keep working

276
00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:26,960
Speaker 1: on that, and once uh Sylvesta got involved, he kind

277
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,840
Speaker 1: of liked where it was headed. But as he realized

278
00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:32,880
Speaker 1: what a feat this tower would be if it came

279
00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:37,160
Speaker 1: to fruition, he actually bought out the patent rights from

280
00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:40,040
Speaker 1: the other three men on the design, and in the

281
00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:43,000
Speaker 1: terms of their deal, their names would always remain connected

282
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:44,680
Speaker 1: to the project because there was going to be some

283
00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:47,600
Speaker 1: prestige if it got accepted and they would each get

284
00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:51,720
Speaker 1: one percent of the estimated cost to build it. So, ultimately,

285
00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:54,960
Speaker 1: in a move that could be interpreted as very astute

286
00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:59,280
Speaker 1: or a very selfish or maybe both, I felt signed

287
00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:01,960
Speaker 1: the contracts not as his company but on behalf of

288
00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:05,640
Speaker 1: himself alone. Taking ownership in this way also gave f

289
00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:09,520
Speaker 1: L rights to income from tower tourism long after the

290
00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:12,800
Speaker 1: expo was over. He later asserted that he had only

291
00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:16,600
Speaker 1: wanted to take ownership quotes to assume company responsibility for

292
00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:19,720
Speaker 1: the enterprise and to devote to its realization efforts, which

293
00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:22,960
Speaker 1: I certainly didn't believe at the time would be onerous.

294
00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:26,600
Speaker 1: And it is true that had the men pursued submitting

295
00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:29,120
Speaker 1: the designs on their own, they wouldn't have had the

296
00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:31,640
Speaker 1: same means to build it if it had been accepted

297
00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:34,480
Speaker 1: without the f L name and the associated resources that

298
00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:37,520
Speaker 1: came with it. Yeah, this is another one of those

299
00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:40,520
Speaker 1: times I mentioned in the first episode that he sometimes

300
00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:43,280
Speaker 1: gets criticized as being kind of selfish, not very good

301
00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,440
Speaker 1: about sharing credit, and wanting to kind of be the

302
00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:50,320
Speaker 1: star of the show in regards to some of these projects. Uh,

303
00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,720
Speaker 1: he claims that it was completely magnanimous. He really thought like, no,

304
00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:56,280
Speaker 1: let me own it, and that way I will have

305
00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:58,920
Speaker 1: all of the resources to build it, and I will

306
00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:01,160
Speaker 1: take all the risk, and you're names will still be attached.

307
00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:04,600
Speaker 1: But it's legally and financially all on me. But other

308
00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:07,679
Speaker 1: people are like, no, dude, you wanted all the credit.

309
00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:11,960
Speaker 1: Also in eight six, Gustav's eldest daughter, Claire, got married.

310
00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:14,679
Speaker 1: She married a man named Adolph Salle, and this was

311
00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,399
Speaker 1: actually a huge boon to their family because sal became

312
00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:21,840
Speaker 1: one of a Fell's closest friends and collaborators, so he

313
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,199
Speaker 1: maintained that close knit family that he had had from

314
00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:26,160
Speaker 1: the time he was a child. And one of those

315
00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,879
Speaker 1: little tidbits that you hear a lot of times and like,

316
00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:33,280
Speaker 1: uh fun facts about Paris kinds of articles on the internet.

317
00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:36,720
Speaker 1: The design style for this tower was not greeted with

318
00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:40,480
Speaker 1: universal enthusiasm. It was driven entirely by the needs of

319
00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:43,480
Speaker 1: the structure. There was no attempts to cover up the

320
00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:46,360
Speaker 1: iron work with masonry, and the lines of it were

321
00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:50,359
Speaker 1: determined mathematically to be the angles and positions of supports

322
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,960
Speaker 1: required to sustain the desired height, which was to be

323
00:17:54,119 --> 00:17:56,560
Speaker 1: the tallest building in the world. Yeah, there were also

324
00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:59,320
Speaker 1: people like what is this tower for nothing? Just to

325
00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:04,320
Speaker 1: begin good? And it seemed kind of wasteful and silly

326
00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:06,399
Speaker 1: to some people to just build a tower for the

327
00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,240
Speaker 1: sake of building a tall thing. But this idea to

328
00:18:09,359 --> 00:18:13,119
Speaker 1: promote and showcase the materials of industrial modern design at

329
00:18:13,119 --> 00:18:16,800
Speaker 1: the time deeply offended a lot of Paris's art community.

330
00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:20,000
Speaker 1: A group called the Committee of three hundred, referencing the

331
00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:23,520
Speaker 1: three hundreds of height for the proposed tower, actually submitted

332
00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:26,280
Speaker 1: a petition to the Minister of Works condemning the design

333
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,040
Speaker 1: and insisting that it was going to mar the beauty

334
00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:31,960
Speaker 1: of Paris if it were built a Fell's tower would

335
00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:35,200
Speaker 1: they felt being affront to the very ideals of France,

336
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:38,880
Speaker 1: and they called it useless and a monstrosity. For his part,

337
00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:42,680
Speaker 1: Gustav defended the tower and asserted that there was plenty

338
00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:45,600
Speaker 1: of art and good design, and that there was no

339
00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:48,680
Speaker 1: reason the French shouldn't become just as renowned for their

340
00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:52,640
Speaker 1: engineering prowess as they had for their artistry and other fields.

341
00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:56,800
Speaker 1: He famously argued that the pyramids at Giza were nothing

342
00:18:56,840 --> 00:19:00,399
Speaker 1: more than artificial mountains, and yet they became some of

343
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:04,280
Speaker 1: the most revered structures on Earth. Yeah, that's another thing

344
00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:06,600
Speaker 1: that people sometimes point to you and go, ma'am, that's

345
00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:08,840
Speaker 1: some ego to be like, know, what I'm building is

346
00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:14,760
Speaker 1: like the pyramids, you guys. Um. But he was right, uh,

347
00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,760
Speaker 1: eventually so despite the detractors. Though construction did begin in

348
00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:22,080
Speaker 1: January seven, and throughout the next two years of the

349
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:26,480
Speaker 1: build Fel and his critics continued to trade barbs even

350
00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:29,800
Speaker 1: after it was completed. The complaints continued for a bit.

351
00:19:30,359 --> 00:19:32,720
Speaker 1: Writer Guie de Montisson, who had been one of the

352
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:36,280
Speaker 1: men who spearheaded the petition committee, allegedly ate lunch in

353
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:38,760
Speaker 1: the restaurant at the base of the structure every day

354
00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:40,600
Speaker 1: because he claimed that was the only place that he

355
00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:43,520
Speaker 1: could eat where he would not be seeing a Fel's eyesore.

356
00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:45,960
Speaker 1: You just have to see it the whole time you're

357
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,480
Speaker 1: going there. Well, he claimed that there was. He wasn't

358
00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:52,440
Speaker 1: safe anywhere in Paris, Like everywhere he went he just

359
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:55,000
Speaker 1: saw this horrible thing he hated. So at least if

360
00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:57,160
Speaker 1: he was in the horrible thing he hated, he wasn't

361
00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,399
Speaker 1: looking at it. We will get to some of the

362
00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:04,280
Speaker 1: specifics of the exposition and Universal Tower in just a minute,

363
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:15,160
Speaker 1: but first we will take a quick sponsor break. The effort,

364
00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:18,960
Speaker 1: manpower and material needed to build the tower was of

365
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,800
Speaker 1: course startling. Like I said, this could be a whole

366
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:23,680
Speaker 1: episode on its own. We're kind of giving you the

367
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,479
Speaker 1: speedy version. But more than fifty engineers and designers had

368
00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,760
Speaker 1: a hand in creating more than five thousand designed sketches

369
00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:34,560
Speaker 1: that detailed every single aspect of the tower. A hundred

370
00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:38,960
Speaker 1: and fifty workers at a Fell's factory at Levare manufactured

371
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,480
Speaker 1: the needed pieces, which were then carted to the Schende

372
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,639
Speaker 1: Mar and assembled by work site crews that ranged from

373
00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,840
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty to three hundred men. Building on

374
00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:50,439
Speaker 1: the lessons that it Fell learned while working on a

375
00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 1: statue of Liberty, he made sure that the tower for

376
00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:56,840
Speaker 1: the Expo and universal could withstand wind. The Tory Fell

377
00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:59,440
Speaker 1: can sway as much as six inches at the top

378
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,600
Speaker 1: and as does sind to handle that movement. Yet also

379
00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:05,600
Speaker 1: you'll see a factoid sometimes that it bends slightly in

380
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:08,320
Speaker 1: the sun and it can just rebounds back from that.

381
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:11,920
Speaker 1: And one of the interesting aspects of how the tower

382
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,920
Speaker 1: was assembled, at least to me, was its riveting process.

383
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:18,120
Speaker 1: There's a great description of it on the torfl official

384
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,119
Speaker 1: website that describes it. I'm just going to read what

385
00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:21,600
Speaker 1: they wrote because they'll do it better than if I

386
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:24,119
Speaker 1: try to parse it and rewrite it. And that reads

387
00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:27,360
Speaker 1: quote first. The pieces were assembled in the factory using bolts,

388
00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:31,600
Speaker 1: later to be replaced one by one with thermally assembled rivets,

389
00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:35,680
Speaker 1: which contracted during cooling, thus ensuring a very tight fit.

390
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:39,480
Speaker 1: A team of four men was needed for each rivet assembled,

391
00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:42,280
Speaker 1: one to heat it up, another to hold it in place,

392
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:44,760
Speaker 1: a third to shape the head, and a force to

393
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,919
Speaker 1: beat it with a sledge hammer. Only a third of

394
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:50,720
Speaker 1: the two point five million rivets used in the construction

395
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:54,240
Speaker 1: of the tower were inserted directly on site. When the

396
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:58,080
Speaker 1: tower was completed, it was an almost instant popular success.

397
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,200
Speaker 1: Almost two million people visit did the tower, which served

398
00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:03,879
Speaker 1: as the gateway to the exposition, and for the first

399
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:10,320
Speaker 1: time the Exposition Universal made rather than lost money. Yeah,

400
00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:13,400
Speaker 1: that was always like not a not a profitable enterprise,

401
00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:15,520
Speaker 1: Like they were basically putting it on to show off

402
00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:19,560
Speaker 1: all of the many fabulous things that France could do.

403
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:22,199
Speaker 1: This was similarly a problem in other places that have

404
00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:25,960
Speaker 1: had World's Fairs, but fundamentally they're kind of money pits.

405
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: But this one so many people showed up just to

406
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:30,560
Speaker 1: see the tower that had been so controversial that they

407
00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:34,040
Speaker 1: ended up making money. And as the public and indeed

408
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 1: the world marveled at what Gustavo Fel had pulled off,

409
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,560
Speaker 1: criticism from the art community kind of died down. But

410
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:45,159
Speaker 1: fl found himself, unfortunately, in a whole other sort of trouble,

411
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 1: right on the heels of his eighteen eighty nine exposition success.

412
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:53,199
Speaker 1: In eight seven, while working at his now famous tower,

413
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:55,879
Speaker 1: fl had agreed to build one of the locks in

414
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:59,160
Speaker 1: the Panama Canal that put him in business with Ferdinand

415
00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 1: de Lesseps, who we mentioned on the first part of

416
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:05,520
Speaker 1: this two parter. And by the way, for Bravo fans

417
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:09,120
Speaker 1: in the crowd, yes that's the same family. Yes, those

418
00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:11,200
Speaker 1: of you that didn't get that ignored it's not important,

419
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:13,159
Speaker 1: but there is a Dela SEPs involved in one of

420
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,480
Speaker 1: the Bravo shows. Yes, related to Ferdinand. I'm gonna say

421
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:22,160
Speaker 1: I said that, and I don't know. Uh So to

422
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,600
Speaker 1: set the stage on why this was a problem, we

423
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 1: actually have to go back a little bit to eighteen

424
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,760
Speaker 1: seventy nine, when Della SEPs became president of the company

425
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:35,440
Speaker 1: Universal du Canal in eighteen eighty shares of that company

426
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:37,639
Speaker 1: were offered to the public as a way to drum

427
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,359
Speaker 1: up funding to build this canal, and delas EPs was

428
00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:43,960
Speaker 1: hoping to once again find the success that he had

429
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,040
Speaker 1: achieved with the Suez Canal with this venture, which would

430
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:51,400
Speaker 1: excavate a ship canal along the narrow isthmus of Panama.

431
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:55,120
Speaker 1: But the whole enterprise was a huge and tragic failure.

432
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 1: Dela SEPs had not managed things well. He had really

433
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:02,159
Speaker 1: not studied historical exploration of the area, which revealed it

434
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:07,000
Speaker 1: to be exceedingly unwelcoming. He also had only made personal

435
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:09,400
Speaker 1: visits to the area during the dry season and had

436
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:13,119
Speaker 1: no sense of the dangers of the rainy season. Twenty

437
00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:17,240
Speaker 1: thousand men died while working on the canal, due primarily

438
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,760
Speaker 1: to malaria and yellow fever. Even as men were dying

439
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:24,640
Speaker 1: in large numbers in Panama, Delisps was recruiting new workers

440
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:29,120
Speaker 1: in France. Yes, so there was just some one ignorance,

441
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,159
Speaker 1: kind of willful ignorance in the mix, and to just

442
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,800
Speaker 1: some kind of gross behavior of like, ah, lots of

443
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:36,720
Speaker 1: people are dying, I better go get more guys and

444
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:38,879
Speaker 1: not really tell them how dangerous this whole thing is

445
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,920
Speaker 1: And in addition to that very tragic human cost, there

446
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,560
Speaker 1: was also a very real financial loss in the venture

447
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 1: as well. Approximately two hundred and fifty million dollars it's

448
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 1: about a half billion francs at the time were sunk

449
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: into this ultimately failed project, and when it ran out

450
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:58,359
Speaker 1: of money, all of those investors who had contributed to

451
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:00,880
Speaker 1: the project were left with no way to get their

452
00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:03,120
Speaker 1: money back. So there were some people who believed in this,

453
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 1: spent their life savings to try to be part of it,

454
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:09,919
Speaker 1: and then we're left destitute. The whole enterprise became a

455
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,080
Speaker 1: huge scandal, and Gustava Fell was in the middle of it.

456
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: He had initially been against the project, which de la

457
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,680
Speaker 1: SEPs had conceived without locks. It wasn't until the addition

458
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:22,200
Speaker 1: of a lock system that if L had gotten involved.

459
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,440
Speaker 1: And just like Ferdinand del SEPs and his son Charles,

460
00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:28,919
Speaker 1: Gustava Fell was charged with fraud for his involvement in

461
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:31,800
Speaker 1: the mismanaged canal project, even though he had not been

462
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:35,760
Speaker 1: part of that business administration side in he was actually

463
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: sentenced to two years in prison and he was also fined,

464
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: but that verdict was overturned by a higher court. But

465
00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:45,160
Speaker 1: even though at that point he had cleared his record,

466
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:47,600
Speaker 1: he just felt as though his name as a builder

467
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,679
Speaker 1: was tainted forever due to the extensive coverage that this

468
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 1: whole scandal had gotten in the press for years. At

469
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 1: that point, it Fell withdrew from his firm and it

470
00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 1: was renamed Lass Society Dick Construction leve Valois Parae. At

471
00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 1: that point, Maurice Coklan, one of the engineers who had

472
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 1: originally conceived of the tower that made a Fel famous,

473
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 1: took over as managing director of the company. But Gustava

474
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: Fell did not retire to an idle life. He merely

475
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:17,439
Speaker 1: switched gears and began a second career in science. He

476
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,439
Speaker 1: started conducting his own research with the intention that he

477
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:23,440
Speaker 1: was going to share any of his findings freely, and

478
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:27,719
Speaker 1: in eight he started conducting experiments at his famed tower.

479
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:30,480
Speaker 1: As part of the construction agreement that it Fell had

480
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,240
Speaker 1: signed to build the tower, he paid for a significant

481
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 1: amount of its cost, and in return he was entitled

482
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:39,679
Speaker 1: to money made from the visitors for twenty years. After that,

483
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:42,400
Speaker 1: the city government would take full possession of the structure,

484
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 1: and the intent was that it would be taken down

485
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 1: at that point. But by the late eighteen nineties the

486
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 1: engineer turned research scientists had added an antenna to the

487
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 1: tower and was running wireless telegraph experiments there. And as

488
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:57,719
Speaker 1: a consequence of this work, which was seen for its

489
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:02,639
Speaker 1: value immediately, particularly for milly Harry applications, the city extended

490
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:05,399
Speaker 1: the concession to a Fell to continue his work. So

491
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 1: he basically retained that same agreement on the tower uh

492
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: for a much longer period of time, and the tower,

493
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 1: of course was never disassembled as had originally been planned,

494
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:16,919
Speaker 1: since we were talking about it, because we are going

495
00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: to go see it in a couple of months. In

496
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:24,160
Speaker 1: addition to the telegraph and radio transmissions, I Fell began

497
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:28,680
Speaker 1: investigating aerodynamics, which he had become fascinated by while working

498
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 1: on the Statue of Liberty. He built a wind tunnel

499
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 1: at the tower in nineteen o nine and an aero

500
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,520
Speaker 1: dynamics laboratory in nineteen twelve and another part of the

501
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 1: city where he could do even larger wind tunnel experiments

502
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 1: and in his lab at a toy a. Fel used

503
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 1: model aircraft in his larger wind tunnel to study the

504
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 1: optimal designs of things like propeller thrust and speed and

505
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 1: angle of inclination and air resistance, and his work there

506
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 1: also contributed to missile design and how bombs were released.

507
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 1: His work directly impacted the aircraft that France used in

508
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: the First World War and established new levels of knowledge

509
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:07,639
Speaker 1: in aircraft science. I have actually seen some people comment

510
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:10,159
Speaker 1: that he really should be just as well known for

511
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: his work in aircraft engineering as he is for having

512
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:16,520
Speaker 1: built this iconic tower. But u that doesn't get talked

513
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:20,399
Speaker 1: about very often. But for all this work in the

514
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:24,920
Speaker 1: Smithsonian Institution awarded him the Langley Gold Medal. Just as

515
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: he had been in engineering bridges and other structures, Fell

516
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 1: was meticulous in his calculations and measurements in aerodynamics, which

517
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: Alexander Graham Bell said, quote have given engineers the data

518
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 1: for designing and constructing flying machines upon sound scientific principles.

519
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:45,200
Speaker 1: Fel designed a fighter plane in nineteen seventeen, and his designs,

520
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 1: which he distributed without any renumeration, were used to build

521
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 1: two prototypes by the company that would eventually evolve into

522
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: Air France. Those designs were eventually abandoned, though in nineteen

523
00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 1: twenty Gestava Fell actually retired uh he was in his

524
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:03,720
Speaker 1: eighties at that point. And he spent much of his

525
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: time in the mansion that he had built for his

526
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,640
Speaker 1: entire family on the Rue Rebelais, and he wrote his

527
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:10,960
Speaker 1: memoirs during this time, but he did not have any

528
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 1: intention to publish them. He just wanted the family to

529
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,040
Speaker 1: have a record of his life and work. And he

530
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 1: had this very unique experience. We often talk about people

531
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: not getting to know how important their work was while

532
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:23,720
Speaker 1: they were alive, but he had a sense while he

533
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 1: was still alive of the impact that his work had

534
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 1: had on the world. It Fell died on December nine

535
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 1: at his home in his mansion. He was one. Twenty

536
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 1: six years later, his bust was installed at the base

537
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:42,480
Speaker 1: of his iconic tower, and the Turife remained the tallest

538
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:45,000
Speaker 1: building in the world until nineteen thirty, and that was

539
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 1: when the Chrysler Building in New York City was constructed.

540
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,560
Speaker 1: There have of course been other jockeying for positions of

541
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 1: who was tallest. At one point there was an addition

542
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,640
Speaker 1: to the top of a Fell's tower which made it

543
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: tallest again for a second. But now it's of course

544
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:04,160
Speaker 1: far behind many other impressive and slightly frightening things around

545
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:10,640
Speaker 1: the world. But I really was a little taken Aback.

546
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 1: I didn't realize just how many kind of important structures

547
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:16,440
Speaker 1: he had built throughout Europe that have gotten you know,

548
00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 1: unless you're into engineering history or particularly his biography, people

549
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:23,680
Speaker 1: may not realize that a lot of the infrastructure of

550
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 1: Europe is particularly you know, post industrial age he was

551
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 1: involved in in some way. Yeah, fascinating cool and I

552
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 1: kind of love him, even though he maybe had some

553
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 1: problems sharing credit. But he clearly was also a genius,

554
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: and I appreciate that he was very, very very obsessed

555
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 1: with um making sure that all the numbers were correct.

556
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: Like I I feel like at a time when people

557
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 1: were just playing guessing games, trying to put things together

558
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 1: and see if they worked, he was like, no, let's

559
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 1: actually map all this out on paper and make sure

560
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 1: the math is right. And he probably saved a lot

561
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,600
Speaker 1: of time in terms of like the development of architecture

562
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 1: and engineering. Yeah, like for the world, not just for him. UM. Anyway,

563
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: clearly I think he's cool. You have some cool listener mail.

564
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 1: I do. Uh. This is from our listener Kaylee, who

565
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 1: is writing us from Devon. I like that because I

566
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 1: have a Devon rex cat that's maybe super nerdy and

567
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 1: not Germane at all, but there it is. She is

568
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 1: actually writing about sort of our Scaling Michael podcast. She said,

569
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:35,640
Speaker 1: I loved your podcast about Scaling Michaels, so I thought

570
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 1: i'd send you a card from my favorite natural landmark

571
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: in my area, Brent Tour. The pictured tour is not

572
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:44,320
Speaker 1: part of the more Land, but is the remnant of

573
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,760
Speaker 1: a volcano back when much of England was under a

574
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 1: shallow sea. It's incredibly steep and offer stunning views all around.

575
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 1: It's also incredibly blustery, sometimes so windy it is hard

576
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,720
Speaker 1: to talk perfect spot for a church. There are many

577
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 1: stories about the struggle to build, say Michael's Church, which

578
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,959
Speaker 1: has a capacity of twenty, some involving the Devil and

579
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:07,040
Speaker 1: making the church sometimes be referred to as the Devil's Church.

580
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: Brides used to have to be carried up the steep

581
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 1: hill to their ceremony. But it is a beautiful church

582
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 1: in a bizarre natural landmark, and I wanted to share

583
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 1: it with you briefly. Thank you so much for the show,

584
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:20,280
Speaker 1: and hello from Devon Kaylee. That's a very cool story

585
00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:22,560
Speaker 1: about a thing I did not really know about at all.

586
00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:24,480
Speaker 1: So now I want to look that up and maybe

587
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: will we'll see what happens. Uh. If you would like

588
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 1: to write to us, you can do so at History

589
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:32,000
Speaker 1: podcast at how stuff works dot com. You can also

590
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 1: find us on social media as missed in History and

591
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 1: at the website missed in History dot com. If you'd

592
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:39,560
Speaker 1: like to subscribe to the podcast, that sounds like a

593
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: grand idea to me, you can do that on the

594
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:44,760
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

595
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:47,560
Speaker 1: are listening again. If you're interested and want to get

596
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: information on our trip to Paris in June, you can

597
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,080
Speaker 1: do that at our website missed in History dot com.

598
00:32:52,280 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 1: Click on the link in the menu bar that says

599
00:32:54,400 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 1: Paris trip and you'll get all the info. For more

600
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,240
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how staff

601
00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 1: works dot com