Alexandre Gustave Eiffel: An engineer scientist

Abstract

Eiffel is best remembered for engineering the tower that is a Paris landmark and bears his name. However, Eiffel has many other firsts to his credit. He was one of the first to experimentally obtain material properties of wrought iron that permitted him to proportion structural members in bridges and buildings that he built to sustain the service loads experienced by them. Having struggled to get a good estimate of wind forces on the many tall structures that he designed and constructed during his career, Eiffel was among the first to experimentally obtain data on fluid flow around an object and establish accurately the drag on a body dropped in air in his later years. He developed one of the earliest versions of the ‘wind tunnel’ that today plays a pivotal role in aerodynamic studies. This article traces the evolution of Alexandre Gustave Eiffel as an engineer and scientist.