WEBVTT - A. Gustave Eiffel, Part 2 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.080 Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History class from how 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:13.360 Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.599 I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. As we 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.599 have been saying a lot, because we're into it and 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:21.720 it's exciting and we want you along with us. We 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:26.080 are going to Paris this summer is so exciting. So 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:30.680 in early June, we are jaunting off Paris UH to 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:32.720 do a fun trip where we're gonna explore a lot 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.360 of the places that were important during the French Revolution. 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.360 And you two can come along with us. Uh. If 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.400 you are interested in checking that out, you can go 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.199 to our website missed in History dot com. Look at 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:44.879 the menu bar at the top of the page. One 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.560 of your options to click on says Paris trip exclamation 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:49.720 point uh. And if you do that, you will be 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.800 passed through to the website that will handle bookings. You 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:55.840 can check it out see where all we're gonna go 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.360 and the fun things we're gonna do. Uh. And if 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:00.520 that is for you, you you can come this and we 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:02.920 will all laugh and laugh and laugh. And like I've 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.440 said before, I will cry at many things because I 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.840 find things like museums in historical places, very moving. One 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.760 of my friends has noted that a lot of pictures 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.520 on the website where the bookings are happening are of food, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.040 and yes, we also plan to enjoy a whole lot 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:23.959 of French food. Oh yes, I'm already like scouting out 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.560 restaurants to take my husband on a date while we're there. 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.839 So this is the second of a two parter about 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.520 Gustava Fell. So I suggest you listen to the first 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.960 one first before this, or this might feel abrupt and 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:37.959 you may not appreciate the journey he went on to 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:42.160 become the the iconic builder that he ended up being. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.480 And we talked, as I said in the part one, 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.320 about Gestava Feld's early years, and that leads straight into 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:50.760 today's show, in which we were going to talk about 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.280 some of his most famous works. So just as a 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.040 quick link up, as you'll recall if you listen to 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.000 that first part. When we close that out, the employee 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.480 that he had trusted to be his representative in Latin 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.920 America and South America died. NFL had made the decision 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.079 to completely pull out of his overseas business. As the 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.480 Fell's work ended in South America, there were larger contracts 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.000 coming in in Europe. First, in eighteen seventy five, Fel 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.680 was tasked with creating a new terminus building for the 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:24.639 Austrian Railways station at Pest, Hungary that's now Budapest. It 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.360 was a three million franc project and the new building 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:31.080 was constructed around the old one to avoid a service disruption. 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.919 When the news station was nearing completion, the old one 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.880 inside of it was demolished and then the last phase 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.080 of construction was completed. One of the big stands that 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.440 it Fell took in this design was asserting that the 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.840 structural elements of the building should not be hidden, but 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.400 should be incorporated into the design. He felt like his 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:54.840 plans for the station quote carefully brought out the role 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:59.240 in the nature of the various materials as clearly as possible. Yeah, 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:04.320 he had ly championed iron work as an important structural 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.520 material and he thought like, why are we hiding it? 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.200 It's making our building stronger, or we could we could 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:12.760 make this part of the design. Uh. And just a 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.280 few months after the project for the station at Pest 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.040 was contracted, a Fells firm one another large contract, this 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.160 one in Portugal, and the competition for this bridge project 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:27.079 for the Portuguese Railway Company had been fierce. Several other 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.480 European companies had submitted proposals, and it would be a 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:34.679 boon to whoever secured that contract. The design by it 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:39.360 Fels partner too Phil Seig, which featured a large trust 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.760 parabolic arch, was also the lowest bid and it gained 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.240 the favor of the railroad with only minor modifications. It 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.800 was built exactly to plan, which was incredibly demanding. Because 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.560 of the river's conditions and the tight budget that they 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.120 had proposed it, Fell and his team were able to 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.800 cut costs, not by cutting corners, but by innovating. I 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.040 Fel came up with a way to support the arch 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:05.360 segments with cables building from each side inward, instead of 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:07.960 having to build a scaffolding in the river, which would 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:12.040 have driven up the expense. That bridge, the Maria Pia Bridge, 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:14.880 was completed in less than two years and it still stands, 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:17.839 although it's no longer in use, was made a National 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:22.800 Monument of Portugal in Yeah, it's quite lovely. There's some 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.280 great pictures of it online if you care to go looking. 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.039 But though the project went well, there was some unease 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.840 for Gustava fell. For one, he and Seig had started 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.720 bickering over whether it fl could hire his brother in 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:37.520 law again. He had hired his brother in law on 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.400 a previous job, and he wanted to do so again 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.320 and say Rigg wasn't into it. Uh. And for another, 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.480 he seemed to really miss his family, and he actually 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.200 asked his wife, Marguerite, and their youngest child to move 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.719 to Portugal for the duration of the project. That was 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.479 something he had never done before. But Marguerite got sick. 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.159 She had experienced several bouts with pneumonia, and she became 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.320 very ill while living in Portugal. She traveled back to 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.400 Paris for treatment, but died in eighteen seventy seven at 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.359 the age of thirty two before the bridge was finished. 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.880 Gustave's sister, Marie and her husband Dr. Albert Hinok, who 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.640 she married a year after her first husband died, helped 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:19.200 him raise his children after Marguerite's death. But that wasn't 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.480 the only tragedy that came his way in the late 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:25.159 eighteen seventies. His mother also died in February of eighteen 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.000 seventy eight, so in the span of just a few months, 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.640 he lost two of the most important people in his life. 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.520 After the bridge was completed, Sarah wrote a paper about 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:38.000 its success and presented it at the French Society of Engineers. 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.120 While a Fell had been open about his part in 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:45.520 the project as well as another engineer, once SARAHI seemed 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.119 to want to take full credit for the successful bridge 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.640 for himself, I Fell became really irritated. He wrote his 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:55.800 own paper about the work, downplaying his partner's contribution. By 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.760 eighteen seventy nine, the relationship between the two of them 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:02.679 had completely so word and their partnership was ended. Yeah, 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:04.640 this is a thing that comes up a lot in 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.600 sort of criticism of Gustava Fell. There are some questions 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:11.919 about whether or not he was ever really very magnanimous 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.240 about letting other people have their time in the spotlight 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.440 on things they had collaborated on. So in this case 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:21.920 it is a little bit like some people will point 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.560 to this as a moment of like his his pride 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.760 becoming the problem. But once the dust had settled from 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.320 this disagreement, a Fell actually changed the name of his 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:36.920 firm to company destabisiment if sareg actually attempted to get 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.159 a portion of the company's assets, which he felt he 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.680 was entitled to remember, he had put in a greater 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.200 portion of capital when they first started the company, and 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:48.719 he went after what he thought was his fair sharing 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.000 court and this led to a legal battle that dragged 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:57.000 on for twelve long years. Eventually, Sarah was granted a 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.880 payment worth four times his initial investment with A Fell, 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.000 but that was it uh in terms of how much 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.400 the company had grown during that time. That seemed a 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.680 little insulting and it was considered a loss. In the 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.080 midst of this strife, it Fell was also involved in 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.120 another legal matter, although this one was a lot less contentious. 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.080 He had been going by it Fell, but his family 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.960 name legally was still hyphenated, so in eighteen eighty Gustav 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:26.720 legally had the family names changed from Bonchazen Fell to 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.760 simply Fell. Yeah, when his great great grandfather had moved 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.480 from Germany to France, he had done the hyphen nation 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.840 on the name, and then they had really gone by 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:37.400 a Fel for most of the time, so he was like, 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.520 let's just strike that and this will be our legal name. 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:43.800 In eighteen eighty fl began construction on the Viaduct of Garabee, 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.600 and this was a massive structure. It actually had a 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.160 similar design to the Maria Pia Bridge with a Trust 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:53.400 parabolic arch, but this bridge was much larger, and at 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.520 this point Gustava Fell had become so well respected that 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.480 he was really the only engineer that was seriously considered 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.320 for this channel lenging project. It was not put out 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.320 to bids the way most projects would be. They literally 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.240 were like, the only person who can build this is 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.880 Gustava Fell. It was immediately after this contract was in 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.120 place that a Fell formally and legally severed all of 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.040 his ties with his former partners Serig. This was also 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.200 a project that required pre setting the build site with 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:23.680 essentially a many town for the workers because the bridge 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.000 was in a pretty remote and undeveloped area. Because the 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.360 build was expected to last for a few years, provisions 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:32.839 had to be made for the workers to move with 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.719 their families if they wanted. Everything from living spaces to 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.360 retail stores that could provide the necessities to schools all 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.600 had to be built for the construction on the bridge 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.440 could even start, and as he had done throughout his career, 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.000 Gustava Fell rose to meet these challenges. The viaduct, which 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.520 included more than twenty six tons of iron in its 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.120 construction and cost roughly three million francs. Was completed at 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.120 the end of eight four. Accomplishing such a mass of 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.680 goal made it Fell famous. He was already well known 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.160 in construction, but this really kind of made him famous 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.760 throughout the country and even in in throughout Europe. As 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:12.480 you recall, this happened in Portugal, and it was sort 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:14.520 of part of the reason that he got his nickname, 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.920 which was the Magician du Feri or the iron Magician. 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.199 And sometimes you'll also see this translated as the iron Wizard. 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:25.000 I like that one better, but it's just me Iron Wizard. 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:27.920 It's fun. It makes me picture him in a pointy 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:35.640 hat with stars on it. Kind of uh, fantagious sty 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:41.880 he's making little iron uh little iron Tory Fell there 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:45.200 walking in in a row. Okay, we're about to talk 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.200 about a famous structure that gestap it Fell contributed to 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:50.640 that's here in the US. But first wee will take 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.319 a quick break to hear about one of those sponsors. 0:09:53.360 --> 0:10:04.520 He was keeping this show going while Fels Firm continued 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.400 to work steadily. The next high profile job that he 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.400 worked on was actually the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.480 World that was the original title for that piece, even 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.120 though we these days just called the Statue of Liberty. 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:21.400 Eduard Rene Le Fabre had initiated the idea of a 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.960 gift to the United States shortly after the Lincoln assassination 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.160 in eighteen sixty five, but this project took years to 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:32.000 really get momentum uh and get to the point where 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.520 they could send sculptor Frederic August Berteldi to the US 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.199 to survey the possibilities and come up with a design. 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.160 This statue is often cited as a gift of the 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:43.840 French government to the United States, but it was actually 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.079 not from the government. It was funded by private donors, 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.960 the people of France, who all gave their money so 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.000 that they could share this moment of of sort of 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:58.440 brotherhood and support, the only exception being a fairly sizable 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.400 donation from the city of Paris. Architect Eugene violet Le 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:06.000 Duc initially started work on the engineering of the structure, 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:09.400 and with his guidance, the head had been completed in 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:13.120 time to be displayed at the eighteen seventy eight Exposition Universe, 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.520 But Violet l Duke died in the fall of eighteen 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.320 seventy nine and it was Gustave it Fell that was 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.440 the replacement. It Fell developed a skeletal support plan for 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:28.080 this massive sculpture and designed the stairwells within so the 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.280 observation area would be easy to reach, and because the 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.320 statute was going to be so very exposed when it 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.360 was installed in New York, Fell took great care to 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:42.000 plant with an eye towards stability, even inforceful wind gusts. 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.800 So the copper sheeting that's used on it, each piece 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.920 is anchored to the interior framework. None of those sheets 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.319 are simply riveted to an adjacent sheet or sheets uh 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.640 and none of the sheets are load bearing in any way. 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.160 As we mentioned in our Emma Lazarous episode, there were 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.400 some issues with putting together the financial capital on the 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.960 U S side of things to complete the pedestal where 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:06.600 Lady Liberty would eventually stand. As a consequence, the team 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.560 working on the statue in France slowed down their production 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:11.480 rate towards the end of the build, while the United 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:14.320 States worked to raise the money to finish their construction. 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:18.679 But eventually, everything, of course did come together, and just 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:20.640 as he had done with a number of his projects 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.480 that he had shipped to South America, Fell, along with 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.520 berthel D and their teams, took the Statue of Liberty, 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.920 which they had built in its entirety apart, breaking it 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:33.000 down into three hundred and fifty component pieces for shipping, 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:35.720 and then those pieces were packed into two hundred and 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:39.360 fourteen custom crates loaded on a ship which left France 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.880 on May eighty five. It took a little less than 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:44.920 a month to make it to New York. That ship 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:49.079 arrived on June seventeenth, and after months of unpacking an assembly, 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.360 the statue was finally fully assembled in April eighteen eighty six. 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.920 The dedication ceremony for it was held on October twenty 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.320 of that same year. As Gstava Fell had been working 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.199 on the iconic French gift to the United States, another 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.480 project was starting to take root. In the early eighteen eighties, 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:11.080 plans began for another Paris Exposition Universal, this time to 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.560 align with the hundredth anniversary of the start of the 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:17.280 French Revolution. By the time things really started to get 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.120 organized for the event, it was already eighteen eighty six, 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.160 so the clock was ticking for an eighteen eighty nine 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:26.920 expo to be put together. Yeah, that's a little tight Yeah, 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.520 people had been working on it up to that point, 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.040 but they didn't really have all their pieces in place 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.280 to be like, now we have a full planning committee, 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:37.760 let's make this thing happen. And it sounds like ample 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.920 time for something on a smaller scale, but not something 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.440 as massive as these expositions were. Yeah, and exactly when 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.240 the idea of a tower as the centerpiece of this 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:51.280 show came into being is a little bit fuzzy. But 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.760 in May eighty six, an announcement was published in the 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.440 Government paper asking for submissions of ideas to build an 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:03.079 iron tower for the X. There were specific needs included 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.600 in this announcement. It had to be built on the 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.400 Chendo Mao, and it had to be three hundred meters 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:12.680 tall with a one twenty five square footprint, and all 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.959 submissions had to be submitted within sixteen days of this announcement, 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.200 so they only had two weeks in a tiny bit 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.680 of change to get their designs made, drafted, and submitted. 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.640 If those requirements seemed very very specific, it's because they were. 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.080 They perfectly matched a design that it Fell had ready 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:35.000 to go. Two of his engineers, Maurice cook Lan and 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:39.200 Emil Newgate, had already been working on the tower design 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:44.000 along with architects Defend Silvestra. Their earliest sketches of it 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.520 date back to eighteen eighty four, two years before the 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.680 Minister of Science and Industry published this call for submissions. 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:55.360 It was absolutely no surprise that among the one hundred 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.040 submissions for the tower contract was a design from a 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.320 Fell's firm. Were actually more submissions than that. That was 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.400 like the narrowed down these are the serious ones. After 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.280 a month of analysis of these various proposals, it was 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.360 determined that only a Fell's team had a workable design, 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.200 and initially uh Gustava Fell himself had not been especially 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:21.000 wowed with the ideas of Cookland and Neuguie, but he 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.440 encouraged him to keep going Usially, yeah, sure, keep working 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.960 on that, and once uh Sylvesta got involved, he kind 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.840 of liked where it was headed. But as he realized 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.880 what a feat this tower would be if it came 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:37.160 to fruition, he actually bought out the patent rights from 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.040 the other three men on the design, and in the 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.000 terms of their deal, their names would always remain connected 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:44.680 to the project because there was going to be some 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.600 prestige if it got accepted and they would each get 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:51.720 one percent of the estimated cost to build it. So, ultimately, 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.960 in a move that could be interpreted as very astute 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:59.280 or a very selfish or maybe both, I felt signed 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.960 the contracts not as his company but on behalf of 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.640 himself alone. Taking ownership in this way also gave f 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.520 L rights to income from tower tourism long after the 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.800 expo was over. He later asserted that he had only 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.600 wanted to take ownership quotes to assume company responsibility for 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.720 the enterprise and to devote to its realization efforts, which 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.960 I certainly didn't believe at the time would be onerous. 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.600 And it is true that had the men pursued submitting 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.120 the designs on their own, they wouldn't have had the 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.640 same means to build it if it had been accepted 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.480 without the f L name and the associated resources that 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.520 came with it. Yeah, this is another one of those 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.520 times I mentioned in the first episode that he sometimes 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.280 gets criticized as being kind of selfish, not very good 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.440 about sharing credit, and wanting to kind of be the 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:50.320 star of the show in regards to some of these projects. Uh, 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.720 he claims that it was completely magnanimous. He really thought like, no, 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.280 let me own it, and that way I will have 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:58.920 all of the resources to build it, and I will 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.160 take all the risk, and you're names will still be attached. 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.600 But it's legally and financially all on me. But other 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.679 people are like, no, dude, you wanted all the credit. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.960 Also in eight six, Gustav's eldest daughter, Claire, got married. 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.679 She married a man named Adolph Salle, and this was 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.399 actually a huge boon to their family because sal became 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:21.840 one of a Fell's closest friends and collaborators, so he 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:24.199 maintained that close knit family that he had had from 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:26.160 the time he was a child. And one of those 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.879 little tidbits that you hear a lot of times and like, 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.280 uh fun facts about Paris kinds of articles on the internet. 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.720 The design style for this tower was not greeted with 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:40.480 universal enthusiasm. It was driven entirely by the needs of 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.480 the structure. There was no attempts to cover up the 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.360 iron work with masonry, and the lines of it were 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:50.359 determined mathematically to be the angles and positions of supports 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.960 required to sustain the desired height, which was to be 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.560 the tallest building in the world. Yeah, there were also 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.320 people like what is this tower for nothing? Just to 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:04.320 begin good? And it seemed kind of wasteful and silly 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.399 to some people to just build a tower for the 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:09.240 sake of building a tall thing. But this idea to 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:13.119 promote and showcase the materials of industrial modern design at 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.800 the time deeply offended a lot of Paris's art community. 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.000 A group called the Committee of three hundred, referencing the 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.520 three hundreds of height for the proposed tower, actually submitted 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.280 a petition to the Minister of Works condemning the design 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.040 and insisting that it was going to mar the beauty 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.960 of Paris if it were built a Fell's tower would 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.200 they felt being affront to the very ideals of France, 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.880 and they called it useless and a monstrosity. For his part, 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.680 Gustav defended the tower and asserted that there was plenty 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.600 of art and good design, and that there was no 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.680 reason the French shouldn't become just as renowned for their 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.640 engineering prowess as they had for their artistry and other fields. 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.800 He famously argued that the pyramids at Giza were nothing 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.399 more than artificial mountains, and yet they became some of 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.280 the most revered structures on Earth. Yeah, that's another thing 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:06.600 that people sometimes point to you and go, ma'am, that's 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:08.840 some ego to be like, know, what I'm building is 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:14.760 like the pyramids, you guys. Um. But he was right, uh, 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.760 eventually so despite the detractors. Though construction did begin in 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.080 January seven, and throughout the next two years of the 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:26.480 build Fel and his critics continued to trade barbs even 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.800 after it was completed. The complaints continued for a bit. 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.720 Writer Guie de Montisson, who had been one of the 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.280 men who spearheaded the petition committee, allegedly ate lunch in 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:38.760 the restaurant at the base of the structure every day 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:40.600 because he claimed that was the only place that he 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.520 could eat where he would not be seeing a Fel's eyesore. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:45.960 You just have to see it the whole time you're 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:49.480 going there. Well, he claimed that there was. He wasn't 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:52.440 safe anywhere in Paris, Like everywhere he went he just 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.000 saw this horrible thing he hated. So at least if 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:57.160 he was in the horrible thing he hated, he wasn't 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.399 looking at it. We will get to some of the 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:04.280 specifics of the exposition and Universal Tower in just a minute, 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:15.160 but first we will take a quick sponsor break. The effort, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.960 manpower and material needed to build the tower was of 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.800 course startling. Like I said, this could be a whole 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:23.680 episode on its own. We're kind of giving you the 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.479 speedy version. But more than fifty engineers and designers had 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.760 a hand in creating more than five thousand designed sketches 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.560 that detailed every single aspect of the tower. A hundred 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.960 and fifty workers at a Fell's factory at Levare manufactured 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.480 the needed pieces, which were then carted to the Schende 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:44.639 Mar and assembled by work site crews that ranged from 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:47.840 a hundred and fifty to three hundred men. Building on 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:50.439 the lessons that it Fell learned while working on a 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.040 statue of Liberty, he made sure that the tower for 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.840 the Expo and universal could withstand wind. The Tory Fell 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.440 can sway as much as six inches at the top 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:02.600 and as does sind to handle that movement. Yet also 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:05.600 you'll see a factoid sometimes that it bends slightly in 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:08.320 the sun and it can just rebounds back from that. 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:11.920 And one of the interesting aspects of how the tower 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.920 was assembled, at least to me, was its riveting process. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.120 There's a great description of it on the torfl official 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:20.119 website that describes it. I'm just going to read what 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:21.600 they wrote because they'll do it better than if I 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.119 try to parse it and rewrite it. And that reads 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.360 quote first. The pieces were assembled in the factory using bolts, 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:31.600 later to be replaced one by one with thermally assembled rivets, 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:35.680 which contracted during cooling, thus ensuring a very tight fit. 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:39.480 A team of four men was needed for each rivet assembled, 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:42.280 one to heat it up, another to hold it in place, 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:44.760 a third to shape the head, and a force to 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:47.919 beat it with a sledge hammer. Only a third of 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.720 the two point five million rivets used in the construction 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:54.240 of the tower were inserted directly on site. When the 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:58.080 tower was completed, it was an almost instant popular success. 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.200 Almost two million people visit did the tower, which served 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:03.879 as the gateway to the exposition, and for the first 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:10.320 time the Exposition Universal made rather than lost money. Yeah, 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.400 that was always like not a not a profitable enterprise, 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:15.520