WEBVTT - A. Gustave Eiffel, Part 1 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.080 Welcome to Stuff you missed in History class from how 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:13.440 Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.439 I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy be Wilson, and I 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.520 apologize upfront because any listeners are going to be hearing 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:23.400 about this for the next couple of months. We're going 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.880 to Paris. It's true. Uh, if you want to get 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.480 in on that trip, because listeners can come with us, Uh, 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.960 you just go to our website. There is an option 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:33.360 in the menu bar at the top of the page 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.800 that says Paris trip exclamation point because of excitement, and 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:38.720 then that will give you all the details on booking. 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.400 Because we are going on this Paris trip in June, 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.600 and I have a little bit of the rabies about 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:51.080 France topics. So, uh, you're getting a two parter on 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.800 a French topic this week because I'm very excited and 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.440 it is the thing we will visit, at least I 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.160 will visit for sure when we are there. Literally only 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:02.640 everyone everyone has heard of what we call in the 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:06.600 US the Eiffel Tower actually fell, But that's a whole 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.399 other thing. Uh. That one structure itself and its construction 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.760 could easily be the subject of multiple episodes because there's 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.759 a whole fascinating story, particularly from the engineering and building standpoint. 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.440 Uh there, But the engineer it is named for, Gustava Fell, 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.160 contributed a great deal more to the world than that 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.520 one iconic structure. So we will talk about the building 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:32.040 of the turf l but we won't cover it in 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:38.160 complete exhaustive detail. And Gustava Fell's early life actually showed 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:40.400 no indication that he was going to end up famous 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.319 for his engineering work, and his later life actually went 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.680 in a totally different direction, and his expertise in iron 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.760 work was sought for projects throughout Europe and South America. 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.520 He also worked on one of the most iconic structures 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.680 in the United States as well, And his career is 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.720 interesting to me because it's mostly an impressive series of 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:03.280 successes except for one colossal scandal. Like I feel like 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.360 often when we talk about somebody who has become iconic historically, 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:09.480 it's like we're revealing all of the struggle and all 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.960 of the mistakes they made along the way. And in 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.120 this case, it's kind of like, yeah, he did that, 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.239 and it was on time and under budget, and also 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:19.080 that other one was on time and under budget, and 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.480 also this one was on time and under budget because 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.000 he was very exacting. So this is a little bit different, 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:27.840 uh than the I messed up a lot and then 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:29.359 I made a great thing. It's more like I made 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.320 a lot of great stuff. People just only remember one. 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:35.320 I was very competent. Yes, I was extraordinarily good at 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:37.840 what I did. Uh. And we will talk about some 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.880 criticisms of him as well. But in the first part 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:42.800 of this two parter, we're going to talk about his 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.320 early family life and how he eventually found himself working 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.400 with what we're very modern materials for the time. He 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.040 kind of stumbled into it. Uh. And then in the 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.160 second part, which will be the next episode, we will 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.919 delve into some of his most famous projects, as well 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.800 as the surprising turn that his efforts took in his 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:04.120 eight years. Alexandra Gustave I Fell was born December fifteenth, 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.240 eighteen thirty two. His family was originally from Germany. His 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.160 great great grandfather had moved to Paris in the early 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:15.480 seventeen hundreds, and the family trade was tapestry weaving up 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:20.639 until Alexandra Bunkauzenfel, who was Gustav's father, went into military 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:24.920 service instead of becoming a weaver. The elder Alexandra married 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:29.160 Gustave's mother, Katherine Melanie Munus, in the fall of eighteen 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:32.000 twenty four while he was stationed in Dijon that's roughly 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:36.000 two hundred miles southeast of Paris. Gustav had two sisters 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.520 born after him. There were Marie, who was born in 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.520 eighteen thirty four and Lure born in eighteen thirty six. 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.720 And Catherine was not a woman who married and had 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:46.600 kids and then stayed home to raise them. She was 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.120 a little unique for her time. She was actually an 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.880 entrepreneur with a very astute business instinct, and not long 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.760 after she became a mother, she decided that she would 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:59.520 take her family's business, which was charcoal, and expanded. She 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.400 arraigned for her company to become the distributor of coal 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.600 from more minds throughout France than they already had, in 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.520 order to capitalize on the growing need for coal in industry. 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.400 So both parents had very busy careers, but the family 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.120 was very close. Gustave and his mother especially were close. 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:20.479 But Catherine and Alexandra also prioritize their children, all of 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.800 their children and offered them an example of a dedicated 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.719 work ethic and a marriage of equals. When Catherine's coal 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.080 business started to grow really quickly, Alexandra left his civil 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.000 administrator job to go work with her, and together they 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.000 built a pretty nice fortune for the family. Eventually they 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.480 moved into a brewery business and they kept doing well there, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.200 But they were also seen as outsiders in high society. 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.280 I was really dominated by old money families who had 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.679 been wealthy for generations, so their new money just didn't 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.400 have the same shine to it. Yeah, they did not 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.279 have clout in high society circles. And they were actually 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:58.720 running that brewery. They had just made a big investment 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.680 in it after they sold their their coal company. I 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.640 should also mention that you'll often see that Gustav and 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.719 his sisters were raised largely by their grandmother on his 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:10.919 mother's side, which she They did stay with her the 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.680 majority of the time, but both Catherine and Alexander made 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.200 a point to always go home and spend time with 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.000 their children and be with them as much as they 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.200 could be. Gaustav also became close with his chemist uncle 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:25.560 Jean Baptiste Mora, who ran a large distillery, and Molarat's 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.840 friend Michel Pray, also an industrial chemist who made a 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.000 name for himself in mineral mining, and these two men 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.599 were pretty highly influential in the development of the Fails worldview. 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:40.720 Both believed basically in questioning everything. His uncle was particularly 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.800 anti royalist, and both thought that you should question things, 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:50.839 both philosophically and scientifically. Gustav found school to be really challenging. 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.839 It was boring at best and excruciating at worst, but 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.720 two of his teachers really ignited a love of learning 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.080 for him when he got to be a teenager. He 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:04.159 had a literature teacher named Monsieur Clements and a history 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.120 teacher named Monsieur de Jardines, and their entry into his 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.400 education really inspired him to continue it. They helped him 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.440 get caught up on his work, which he had follen 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.560 behind on by meaning I saw one estimate that he 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:19.840 was like a year behind his peers because he had 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:24.160 just stopped bothering. Yeah. They also helped him gain admission 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:27.320 and to the College Santa barb in Paris, which they 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.599 hope would lead him to getting entry into a cold 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.680 polytechnique to finish up his education. And the youngfl had 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.120 traveled to Paris from Dijon for the first time when 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.800 he was twelve and During that trip, which he took 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.760 with his mother, he really fell in love with the city. 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.200 But even though he had seemed entirely excited as a 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.599 slightly older young man to attend school there, he pretty 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:53.520 quickly became homesick. After he started at college, stab he 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.200 eventually found amusements in seeking out opportunities, for example, to 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.479 dance with young ladies. He made a note that he 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.400 preferred nancing with English girls rather than French girls because 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:04.960 he found them less reserved, and he also would attend 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:09.440 the occasional seance. So he wasn't really focusing on his studies. Uh, 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.040 he didn't get really passionate about his education. He kind 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.600 of sat right in the middle of his class achievement wise. 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.440 After his second year, his performance on his exams hadn't 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.800 been good enough to get him entry into a coal polytechnique, 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.600 so instead he went to a close said trial. He 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.800 didn't seem very dismayed by this change of plans, and 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.320 the need to go to a less prestigious school didn't 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.840 seem to phase him all that much. He wasn't focused 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.840 on engineering or metallurgy in his studies. Those are things 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:37.920 that you might expect of the man who would become 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:41.640 known for building these massive iron structures. When it came 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.960 time to select a concentration, he went into chemistry, probably 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.240 thinking he might eventually take over his uncle's business, although 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.440 due to a politically generated falling out in the family 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.040 that never really happened. No. As I said, his uncle 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:58.920 was very outspoken and like to question everything, and that 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:03.640 cost him problem with other members of the family. Gustav 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.040 graduated from a concentral in eighteen fifty five, and while 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.160 he had focused on chemistry and actually had really done 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:12.760 pretty well in those studies, for a change, he also 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.320 had a pretty well rounded education. Eighteen fifty five was 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.840 also the year that f l asked his mother for 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:23.880 a season past the Exhibition Universal in Paris. London's Great 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.440 Exhibition of eighteen fifty one, which has come up on 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:29.880 this podcast a number of times before, including Joseph Paxton's 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.040 Crystal Palace, had been a massive success, and the French 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.839 were eager to outdo it, in part because they felt 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:38.280 that they had invented the idea of having these sort 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.280 of world's fairs, and that the British had stolen the 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.400 concept from them and then acted as though it was 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.920 their own. But in any case, Paris in eighteen fifty 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.920 five was alive with this desire to show off the 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.120 best and the brightest in the newly constructed Palais de 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.640 Landes three on the Chancels. In fact, the Exposition Universal 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.720 had really carved out a different space from the London 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.880 Expo in terms of national identity and areas of expertise. 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.080 So as the animosity waned and Britain and France started 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.560 building a more cordial relationship, which was cemented by Queen 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.440 Victoria's visit to the Prisian Expo, the French started focusing 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.679 more on showcasing their taste for design and art instead 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.280 of making a real run at trying to shame Britain's 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:25.160 more industrial and manufacturing focused show that had happened four 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:28.880 years prior. And Gustave Fel was on hand to see 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.040 and explore all of this. And while that experience must 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:36.000 have been enthralling and very exciting, young Gustav eventually had 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:38.360 to figure out a career path, and we will get 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:40.440 to that right after we first pause for a little 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:50.760 sponsor break. Since the plan to take over his uncle's 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.360 distillery was no longer in place by the time he 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.320 graduated from school, fl took a foundry apprenticeship with his 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.240 brother in law, Joseph Colin, and this was not a 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.200 paying position. So while i Fel used the opportunity to 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.160 learn as much as he could about iron founding, he 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.800 also started looking for a permanent job with an income immediately. 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.760 The next year, eighteen fifty six, it Fell visited the 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.040 offices and workshop of Charles Nipvou in the eighth Arrondissement 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:20.600 as one of a series of visits that he made 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.600 to inquire after work. This was a pretty fortuitous visit 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:28.920 because Nippoo was already at the forefront of the railway industry. 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.679 He designed both tracks and engines, and he offered Gustavo 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.880 Felt a job. I Fell would work as the private 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.440 secretary and would get an on the job education and 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.000 engineering and material science while he was at it. At 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.080 the same time, it Fell took economics classes through a 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:50.720 Sunday program at Ecode. Means, yeah, the ecodeman was basically 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.880 letting him have a private tutorship and getting full course 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.160 credit for it so that he could continue his work. 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:58.120 And it is kind of funny to me, this is 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.040 sort of that cases somebody just stumbling into what ends 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.360 up being the thing that defines them, because he was 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.080 visiting a lot of different offices and places along the 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.559 way when he happened to meet with Neva and just 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:13.720 kind of struck his moment. But this all seems ideal, 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:18.200 but Nava was in some serious financial trouble after a 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.800 really expensive project that he had been working on had 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.520 gone completely awry, and one day Neva just didn't show 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:26.840 up at the office and for two weeks he was 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:31.240 missing and the businesses bills and management went completely unattended. 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.079 NFL was actually afraid that his new boss had killed himself. 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.360 There were some clues that have fell had put together 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.080 and really feared for this man's life, but in reality 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.199 he seems to have had a nervous breakdown, and after 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.640 he returned to work, Gustav actually stayed with Neva to 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.400 help him close up the business, even though he knew 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:51.320 he was not going to get paid for these efforts because, 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:55.000 as we said, deep financial trouble. But Nava did find 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.560 a Fl a new job at a company de Chemin 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.400 de Faire de Luest that's the Western Railway Company, and 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:04.040 this was not the end of his relationship though with Nibva. 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.880 Gustav earned a hundred and twenty five francs a month 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:09.520 in his new position and worked with the chief engineer 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.720 as the company kept expanding its considerable railway holdings. That 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.719 chief engineer was Eugene flesh At, who was an innovator 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.160 in the use of sheet metal iron work. At this point, 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.400 iron as an architectural material was still pretty new in France, 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:29.280 and Fleshat had been a significant contributor in the slow 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.360 acceptance in France. England was a bit ahead of France 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.000 and incorporating iron into construction and had been experimenting with 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.760 it all the way back in the seventeen hundreds. Yet 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.840 some of that was economic, like it was just expensive 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.520 to start experimenting with this new material and France did 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:47.800 not have the money or interest in spending the money 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:49.880 to do that. And also some of it was aesthetic. 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.120 They weren't really ready to adopt this new thing yet. 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:55.400 That will come up in Part two as well. But 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.720 with the railway, fl designed his first structure. It was 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.559 a bridge seventy two eat uh that's just short of 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.760 twenty two that would be constructed with cast iron and 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:08.200 sheet iron, and this design was approved for construction for 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:12.400 the Saint Germain railway. At the same time, Nippo was 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:14.800 working to sell off his company, which he had never 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.040 really been good at running. He wanted to sell it 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.000 to a larger firm that would pay him to continue 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.920 to do engineering and design work without having to worry 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.960 about all the administrative tasks that he just couldn't get 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.920 a handle on trying to run his own business. He 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.679 sold to a Belgian company and not only got the 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.920 position he wanted, but also arranged for Gestava Fel to 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.920 be given a senior position in the French office as 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.800 head of research, which paid two in fifty francs a month. Yeah, 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:43.800 that was a big jump for him. That doubled his income. 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:46.200 He went from being like an entry level employee to 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.280 a senior employee at a different company. It was a 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.280 nice way of saying thank you for sticking with me 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.840 in that whole messy business. A while back, uh And 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:58.120 with the new Belgian company, Nevo secured a high profile project. 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:00.520 This is a bridge over the guard on the river 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:04.400 at Bordeaux that would link to previously separated rail systems 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.080 and Charles nabva entrusted a fell with the metal assembly. 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.760 He ran the entire side of that operation, and this 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.360 was no small ask because the project was huge and 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.239 it had only a twenty four month window for completion. 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.960 The project didn't just involve the iron bridge. Before the 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.760 construction could even start, it Fell had to set up 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.360 workshops and a temporary service bridge at the site so 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.600 that the iron work could be assembled there before it 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.040 was installed. But it Fell managed all of this and 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:39.040 the bridge work itself very efficiently. He used hydraulic pile driving, 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.080 which is a really new technique, to drive hollow caissons 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:46.280 into the riverbed that could serve as workspaces during construction. 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:51.120 And as a side note, Casson disease decompression sickness, characterized 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.840 by the formation of gas bubbles in the body when 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.680 a person moves quickly from a high pressure environment to 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.600 a lower pressure environment, is in fact named for this 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:03.000 con ruction technique, because these cassans would be pressurized so 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.400 that people could work in them underwater and then they 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.680 would go back to regular top side without really any 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.320 transition time. Uh. But there is no record of any 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.920 such illness happening on a Fell's Bordeaux Bridge project. The 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.600 only injury on record took place when a riveter fell 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.440 into the river during construction, and Gustavo Fell jumped into 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.320 the water to rescue the worker, and then he instituted 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.880 a series of new safety measures immediately after the whole 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.520 thing was done, including uh, the men always had to 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.160 be tethered with a rope if they were riveting up 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.000 on the bridge. And it should be noted though, that 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:42.520 the laborer who fell was actually believed to have been 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:46.080 intoxicated at the time of the accident. So while of 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.760 course they needed all these safety measures, he was not 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:50.840 being safe on the job to begin with. Part of 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.320 the reason that it Fell was so efficient was that 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:57.280 he was very precise and his design and calculations. While 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.520 other engineers were developing designs through trial and error, he 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.680 was doing really meticulous math before the project started to 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.720 make sure that his ideas were structurally sound. This bridge 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.160 was a success, and it led to it Fell's promotion 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.400 in eighteen sixty to Engineer General. He was given a 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.560 salary of nine thousand francs a year, plus a five 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.239 percent share of the profits on any of his projects. 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.600 He could also not be dismissed with less than a 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.440 year's notice. Yeah, that's a sweet deal and at this point, 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.560 Gustava Fel was successful, he was stable, and he was 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.320 in his late twenties, and what he really really wanted 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.240 was a family of his own. And he had dated 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:37.280 a number of women, and he even tried to become 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:39.960 engaged to one of the young ladies that he had dated, 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.480 but her family did not think he was of high 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.280 enough social standing. That's kind of his what we talked 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.680 about a moment ago with his parents being very successful 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.680 but never quite being accepted by the wealthier high society 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.800 kind of coming back to bite him. But he reunited 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.240 with a young woman from his hometown of Dijon that 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.600 he had known since childhood, and there he finally found 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:07.119 his match. Stav married Marie Goudlay on July eighteen sixty two. Marie, 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.199 who went by Marguerite, was the granddaughter of one of 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.560 the fl family business partners, so blending the two families 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:15.960 is a pretty natural fit. The two of them went 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.960 on to have five children. The first was a daughter 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.760 named Claire, who was born in eighteen sixty three, which 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.800 was the year after their wedding. Yes, she uh one 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.000 thing that I read suggested that she had just started 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.400 going by Marguerite to make things easier since his mother 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:32.760 was a marie and so they would be easy to 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.640 to differentiate when people were speaking about them. And this 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.359 marriage was a happy one, but unfortunately a series of 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:44.520 problems unfolded NFL's life soon after the wedding. While he 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.920 had been promoted again by the company, it quickly became 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.960 a parent that there were some serious problems with finances 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.240 and the business was not stable anymore, and he knew 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.359 he had to get out, and so after putting together 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:01.360 a few independent projects and some consulting tracks, he decided 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:02.960 he would just set out on his own and go 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:05.800 into business for himself. At the same time, he and 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.040 his new bride took on the full time care of 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.840 Gustav's sister, Lore, who had some serious health problems. She 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:14.960 died in the summer of eighteen sixty four, and Gustav, 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:19.080 who really doated on both of his sisters, grieved very deeply. 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.200 So he was in the midst of personal and professional 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:26.359 upheaval as he and Marguerite were starting their family. Fortunately, 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:28.840 that move, though, to work for himself, proved to be 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.960 a really good one. In the spring of the following year, 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.720 a Fel traveled to Egypt, as part of a lucrative 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:37.440 government contract he had gotten in which he was managing 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:41.200 the manufacturer of a large order of locomotives like several 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:45.159 dozen engines. While touring northern Africa, he visited the Suez 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.320 Canal construction site and he made the acquaintance of Ferdinand 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.200 de la Sepps, whose company was building it delas EPs, 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.280 and Gustav's business relationship with him would later be the 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:57.440 cause of a great deal of trouble for a fl 0:18:57.520 --> 0:18:59.440 but that is going to come up in the second 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.080 part of its episode. When the French government decided to 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:07.040 host another expo in eighteen sixty seven, Gustav Fell hoped 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:10.119 to be involved in construction of the main hall, but 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:12.280 while he had been working on a lot of projects, 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:14.640 he didn't have a workshop of his own, so there 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.359 wasn't any way that he could capture a big contract 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:21.240 for this exhibition. Instead, he served as an assistant to 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.720 Jean Baptiste Kruntz, who was the director of works and designed, 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:27.760 among other things, the arch girders for one of the galleries, 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:32.080 which established the mathematical design rules of all wrought iron 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:36.080 construction going forward. Yeah, he was working really constantly on 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:37.959 a lot of projects, and as we had said, he 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.560 was very, very careful and meticulous with his math, and 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:43.520 he really set down a lot of the rules that 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.639 builders used going forward from that point. And while his 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:51.280 work on the exhibition was productive, even before the show opened, 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.040 gustav had begun looking for a place to set up 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.040 his own iron work so that he would not lose 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.840 out on future opportunities. In late eighteen sixty six, he 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:02.840 had secured a location in northern Paris to do just that, 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.520 and he began advertising his availability to design and build 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.159 projects from boilers to reservoirs. We will talk about his 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:14.159 early days offering full engineering and construction services and just 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.959 a moment, but we're going to pause before we do 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:26.920 and have a sponsor break. It was not an easy 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:29.760 run for Gustavo Fell getting his business off the ground. 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:32.080 While he did get a fair amount of work, it 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.919 was all relatively small contracts. He built things like small 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:39.000 bridges and gas works and even the iron framework for 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:42.640 a synagogue, but large scale projects were at least initially 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.720 few and far between. In October sixty eight, Gustava Fell 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.760 started a partnership with another ico, Central Alum, to form 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.920 the firm Gustavo fell a company. His partner too feel 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.640 Sawig was the junior partner, although he fronted a lot 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.639 more money than it failed it. Their initial contract was 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.320 for five years and was renewed when it expired. Nfl 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.080 continued to work really steadily throughout the end of the 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:12.720 eighteen sixties and basically established himself as the authority on 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:16.439 iron bridge and railway construction. And during this time he 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.639 developed many of the standards in both design and construction 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:23.800 processes that remained in place for decades. But he really 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:27.719 wanted to move beyond primarily building bridges and start working 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.680 on buildings. But as he looked into expanding his skills 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:36.000 into grander efforts, his actual work became more scarce. As 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.520 the eighteen sixties near their end, there was unrest in 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:43.560 France as Napoleon the Third was facing growing resentment after 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:46.440 making a number of bad moves that left France without 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:49.200 many allies in the period leading up to the Franco 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:53.960 Prussian War. Yeah, that's the very, very very quick and 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:58.360 dirty version of for a fl. He was more concerned 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:00.600