The Great Exhibitions

 The International Exhibition Movement

and Technological Progress
 The international exhibition movement was a
product of the Industrial Revolution, a
phenomenon that originated in Great Britain
and which, by the end of the nineteenth
century, had spread throughout the world.
 Industrialisation was a process that
fundamentally transformed agrarian
economies and created the world's first
industrial societies (Meredith and Dyster
1999: 27).
 It was the foundation of the modern world
and marked the most extensive economic
and social change the world had seen.
 The Industrial Revolution saw the
number of manufactured objects in
circulation within countries increase
dramatically.
 These new goods were produced
through a reorganisation of production,
namely that of machine production in
factories using inanimate sources of
mechanised power.
 These changes transformed economy
and society.
 The impact on all aspects of society
was profound, perhaps most obviously
in the material wealth industrialisation
engendered, though the distribution of
the material benefits of the revolution
was far from equal within societies.
 An extensive international economy
emerged during the nineteenth century,
being based on the expansion of world
trade, capital flows, migration,
communications and business.
 In this rapidly changing world, the role of
international exhibitions was to showcase
globally the advance of technological
progress, among other things.
 Four developments dictated the shape of
international exhibitions and all of them
related to the Industrial Revolution — mass
production, prefabrication, mass
communications and urbanisation.
 The focus of the international exhibition
movement was industrial trade and the
upward progress of industrial civilization.
 International exhibitions introduced to large
audiences many products that we, in our
modern society, now take for granted.
 They included the elevator (Dublin 1853), the
sewing machine, silver electroplating and
aluminium (Paris 1855), the calculating
machine (London 1862), telegraphy and
innovations in steel production, (Paris 1867),
the telephone (Philadelphia 1876), outdoor
electric lighting, the typewriter and the
phonograph (Paris 1878), the gas-powered
automobile (Paris 1889), motion pictures
(Paris 1900), controlled flight and the wireless
telegraph (St Louis 1904) and Kodachrome
photographs (San Francisco 1915)
 The Universal Exposition of
1889 (Exposition Universelle
de 1889) was a highly
successful international
exhibition and one of the few
world's fairs to make a profit.
 Its central attraction was the
Eiffel Tower, a 300-meter high
marvel of iron by Gustave
Eiffel.
 Over eighty other structures
on the Champ de Mars housed
exhibits, including the
impressive 1,452 foot long
Galerie des Machines by
Ferdinand Dutert.
 The fair attracted exhibits from
Europe, South America, the
United States, and the French
colonies, yet in the final
analysis it was a celebration of
French achievements on the
centennial of the French
Revolution.
 Interior of Gallery of Machines, showing machines being set
up, Paris Exposition, 1889.
 Palais des Machines Ferdinand Dutert,
architect; Victor Contamin, engineer
 View of the interior.
 Thisinnovative iron and glass structure
was the largest building in the
exposition, enclosing fifteen acres.
 Its most extensive exhibit was that of
Thomas Edison’s 493 inventions.
 Referred to at the time as a
"disconcerting industrial cathedral," the
Palais des Machines was reused for the
1900 Universal Exposition and
demolished in 1909
 Le
Palais de
Machines.
 Aerial view of Paris, France, from balloon, showing
the Eiffel Tower at right center.
 Gustave Eiffel, designer; Stephen Sauvestre,
architect;
Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, engineers

This view was taken from the Trocadero Palace.

The Eiffel Tower is the only surviving structure from
the 1889 exposition.
 View from the Seine.
Gustave Eiffel’s
tower was greatly
criticized during its
two-year
construction period
as being an
"abomination and
eyesore," its
"barbarous mass"
looming over the
Paris skyline.
 When the fair
opened, however, it
became the most
visited attraction and
subsequently the
grand symbol of
Paris that it is today.
 Palais des Arts Libéraux, from beneath the
Eiffel Tower
 Jean Camille Formigé, architect
 It has been called a
technological masterpiece
in building-construction
history.
 Built in commemoration of
the French Revolution, the
Eiffel Tower is one of the
world's premier tourist
attractions.
 It has been compared to
the Great Pyramid of Giza
and St. Peter's Basilica in
Rome.
 Nothing remotely like it has
ever been constructed.
 The tower is located on the
Left Bank of the Seine
River, at the northwestern
extreme of the Parc du
Champ de Mars, a park in
front of the École Militaire
that used to be a military
parade ground.
 Garden underneath Eiffel Tower
 Galerie Viveinne Toyshop- Paris
 Eiffeltower
internals
 Eiffel tower inside elevator
 The tower was built for the Paris World's Fair in
1889.
 When the French Government was organizing this
event, a competition was held for designs for a
suitable monument.
 Over 100 designs were submitted, and the World's
Fair Committee selected the conception of a 984
foot (300 meter) open-lattice wrought iron tower.
 This design was the creation of Alexendre-Gustave
Eiffel. He was a renown French civil engineer who
specialized in metal construction.
 His previous works included an iron bridge at
Bordeaux, the 540 foot (162 meter) Garabit viaduct,
the moveable dome at the observatory in Nice, and
the framework of the Statue of Liberty in New York
Harbor.
 Eiffelstartled the world with the
construction of the tower.
 In contrast to such older monuments,
Eiffel's tower was completed in a matter
of months with a small labor force.
 Eiffel made use of advanced
knowledge of the behavior of metal arch
and metal truss form under loading,
including wind forces.
 His results started a revolution in civil
engineering and architectural design.
 With the completion of the tower, Eiffel
earned the nickname, "magician of iron."
 The tower was almost torn down on several
occasions and despite long and continuous
protests, the tower vindicated itself
aesthetically.
 With the advent of radio and television, the
Eiffel Tower gained even greater importance
as a transmission tower.
 For many years, it was the tallest man-made
structure on earth.
 This tower's dimensions are remarkable.
 The current height of the tower is 1069 feet
(320.75 meters), which is about the
equivalent of a 105-story building.
 It is still the tallest structure in Paris by a very
wide margin
 . Its size is very deceiving since there are no
other structures close to it.
 The levels accessible to the public are at
heights of 189 feet (57.63 meters), or 19
stories; 380 feet (115.73 meters), or 38
stories; and 896 feet (273 meters), or 89
stories.
 The base of the tower covers a square
area of 328 feet (100 meters) on a side.
 One can stand in the center of the area at
the base and look directly up at the floor of
the second level, 38 stories above.
 The tower is built of puddled iron (very pure
structural iron), and weights 7300 metric tons.
 It is extremely light. The tower actually weighs
less than the air that surrounds it!
 If a scale model of the tower one foot (30 cm)
high were constructed, it would weigh only as
much as a nickel (seven grams)! The four pillars
supporting the tower are aligned to the points of
the compass.
 Another unique feature is the tower's base. The
four semi-circular arches required elevators to
ascend on a curve.
 The glass-cage machines were designed by the
Otis Elevator Company of the United States.
 These elevators provide visitors a fantastic view
as they ride to the top of the tower.
 This tower moves in the wind. On days with
high, gusting winds, the wind can reach
speeds in excess of 100 mph (160 kph) at the
summit of the tower.
 Visitors can feel the tower swaying gently at
the summit.
 Under such wind conditions, the tower is
usually closed to the public, although there is
always an engineer present at the summit to
monitor telecommunications equipment.
 The magnitude of the sway in the tower,
under worst-case conditions, is about six
inches (15 cm).
 There is no danger of the tower being
damaged by wind-induced movement
since it is designed to withstand
movements easily five times beyond
those produced by the highest winds
ever recorded.
 Today, the movements are monitored
by a laser alignment system.
 The tower also leans very slightly in
bright sunlight, as one side is heated by
the sun and expands slightly.
 The Eiffel Tower was built for the International
Exhibition of Paris of 1889 commemorating
the centenary of the French Revolution. The
Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII of
England, opened the tower. Of the 700
proposals submitted in a design competition,
Gustave Eiffel's was unanimously chosen.

However it was not accepted by all at first,

and a petition of 300 names - including those
of Maupassant, Emile Zola, Charles Garnier
(architect of the Opéra Garnier), and Dumas
the Younger - protested its construction.
 At 300 metres (320.75m including antenna),
and 7000 tons, it was the world's tallest
building until 1930. Other statistics include:
 2.5 million rivets.
 300 steel workers, and 2 years (1887-1889)
to construct it.
 Sway of at most 12 cm in high winds.
 Height varies up to 15 cm depending on
temperature.
 15,000 iron pieces (excluding rivets).
 40 tons of paint.
 1652 steps to the top.
 It was almost torn down in 1909, but was saved
because of its antenna - used for telegraphy at
that time. Beginning in 1910 it became part of the
International Time Service. French radio (since
1918), and French television (since 1957) have
also made use of its stature.

During its lifetime, the Eiffel Tower has also

witnessed a few strange scenes, including being
scaled by a mountaineer in 1954, and parachuted
off of in 1984 by two Englishmen. In 1923 a
journalist rode a bicycle down from the first level.
Some accounts say he rode down the stairs,
other accounts suggest the exterior of one of the
tower's four legs which slope outward.

However, if its birth was difficult, it is now

completely accepted and must be listed as one of
the symbols of Paris itself.
 The tower has three platforms. A
restaurant (extremely expensive;
reservations absolutely necessary), the
Jules Verne is on the second platform.
The top platform has a bar, souvenir
shop, and the (recently restored) office
of Gustave Eiffel.

From its platforms - especially the

topmost - the view upon Paris is superb.
It is generally agreed that one hour
before sunset, the panorama is at its
best.
 Eiffel and Aviation

After the debacle of the Panama Canal with

Ferdinand De Lessups, Gustave Eiffel began to
experiment with enterprises to prove the
usefulness of his tower.
 He had begun to develop a passionate interest
in that which, at the turn of the century, was
considered avant-garde science: meteorology,
radiotelegraphy and aerodynamics.
 In 1889, M. Eiffel began to fit the peak of the
tower as an observation station to measure the
speed of wind.
 He also encouraged several scientific
experiments including Foucault's giant
pendulum, a mercury barometer and the first
experiment of radio transmission.
 In 1898, Eugene Ducretet at the Pantheon,
received signals from the tower.
 AfterM. Eiffel had experimented in the
field of meterology, he begun to look at
the effects of wind and air resistance,
the science that would later be termed
aerodynamics, which has become a
large part of both military and
commerical aviation as well as rocket
technology.
 Gustave Eiffel imagined an automatic
device sliding along a cable that was
stretched between the ground and the
second floor of the Eiffel Tower.
 The limited capacity of the available
measuring instruments, led M. Eiffel to a
more sophisticated knowledge in aviation
and, eventually, to wind tunnel experiments.
 He built a wind tunnel on the Champ de
Mars, which was in use from 1909-1911.
 The tunnel was sufficient for lab experiments
bit inadequate for the study of airplanes.
However, with the help of several other
engineers, Leon Rith, Lapresle, and Eiffel
made over 5,000 tests in this lab.
 Almost all the pioneers of aviation tested in
this wind tunnel.