The 72 names on the Eiffel Tower
Encyclopedia
The location of the names on the tower


On the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...

, seventy-two names of French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 scientists, engineers and some other notable people are engraved in recognition of their contributions. This is according to the design by Gustave Eiffel
Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French structural engineer from the École Centrale Paris, an architect, an entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...

. The engravings are found on the sides of the tower under the first balcony. The engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century and restored in 1986–1987 by Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower. The Tower is owned by the city of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.
The letters were originally done in gold and are about 60 cm high. Note: since the tower was repainted in 2010/2011, the letters are gold again.

Location

The list is split in four parts (for each side of the tower). The sides have been named for the parts of Paris that each side faces:
  • The North-East side

  • The South-East side

  • The South-West side

  • The North West side


Names

In the table below are all the names on the four sides. By clicking on the square symbol in the column title, the list is sorted alphabetically (in that column).
Name appearing Full name Occupation Location
Seguin Marc Seguin
Marc Seguin
Marc Seguin was a French engineer, inventor of the wire-cable suspension bridge and the multi-tubular steam-engine boiler.- Biography :...

engineer
NW01
Lalande Joseph Jérôme Lefrançais de Lalande
Jérôme Lalande
Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande was a French astronomer and writer.-Biography:Lalande was born at Bourg-en-Bresse...

astronomer
NW02
Tresca Henri Tresca
Henri Tresca
Henri Édouard Tresca was a French mechanical engineer, and a professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris....

engineer and mechanic
NW03
Poncelet Jean-Victor Poncelet Gernald
Jean-Victor Poncelet
Jean-Victor Poncelet was a French engineer and mathematician who served most notably as the commandant general of the École Polytechnique...

geometer
NW04
Bresse Jacques Antoine Charles Bresse
Jacques Antoine Charles Bresse
Jacques Antoine Charles Bresse was a French civil engineer who specialized in the design and use of hydraulic motors....

civil engineer and hydraulic engineer
NW05
Lagrange Joseph Louis Lagrange
Joseph Louis Lagrange
Joseph-Louis Lagrange , born Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia, was a mathematician and astronomer, who was born in Turin, Piedmont, lived part of his life in Prussia and part in France, making significant contributions to all fields of analysis, to number theory, and to classical and celestial mechanics...

mathematician
NW06
Belanger Jean-Baptiste-Charles-Joseph Bélanger
Jean-Baptiste-Charles-Joseph Bélanger
Jean-Baptiste Charles Joseph Bélanger was a French applied mathematician who worked in the areas of hydraulics and hydrodynamics. He was a professor at the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Ecole Polytechnique and École des Ponts et Chaussées in France...

mathematician and hydraulic engineer
NW07
Cuvier Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...

naturalist
NW08
Laplace Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste...

mathematician and astronomer
NW09
Dulong Pierre Louis Dulong
Pierre Louis Dulong
Pierre Louis Dulong was a French physicist and chemist, remembered today largely for the law of Dulong and Petit. He worked on the specific heat capacity and the expansion and refractive indices of gases....

physicist and chemist
NW10
Chasles Michel Chasles
Michel Chasles
Michel Floréal Chasles was a French mathematician.He was born at Épernon in France and studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris under Siméon Denis Poisson. In the War of the Sixth Coalition he was drafted to fight in the defence of Paris in 1814...

geometer
NW11
Lavoisier Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier , the "father of modern chemistry", was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry and biology...

chemist
NW12
Ampere André-Marie Ampère
André-Marie Ampère
André-Marie Ampère was a French physicist and mathematician who is generally regarded as one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism. The SI unit of measurement of electric current, the ampere, is named after him....

mathematician and physicist
NW13
Chevreul Michel Eugène Chevreul
Michel Eugène Chevreul
Michel Eugène Chevreul was a French chemist whose work with fatty acids led to early applications in the fields of art and science. He is credited with the discovery of margaric acid and designing an early form of soap made from animal fats and salt...

chemist
NW14
Flachat Eugène Flachat
Eugène Flachat
Eugène Flachat was a French civil engineer, remembered today for redesigning the Gare Saint-Lazare railway station in Paris in 1851 and other railroad related projects. A street in Paris is named after him and his name appears on the Eiffel tower....

engineer
NW15
Navier Claude-Louis Marie Henri Navier
Claude-Louis Navier
Claude-Louis Navier born Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier , was a French engineer and physicist who specialized in mechanics.The Navier–Stokes equations are named after him and George Gabriel Stokes....

mathematician
NW16
Legendre Adrien-Marie Legendre
Adrien-Marie Legendre
Adrien-Marie Legendre was a French mathematician.The Moon crater Legendre is named after him.- Life :...

geometer
NW17
Chaptal Jean-Antoine Chaptal
Jean-Antoine Chaptal
Jean-Antoine Claude, comte Chaptal de Chanteloup was a French chemist and statesman. He established chemical works for the manufacture of the mineral acids, soda and other substances...

agronomist and chemist
NW18
Jamin Jules Célestin Jamin
Jules Jamin
Jules Célestin Jamin was a French physicist. He was professor of physics at École Polytechnique from 1852 to 1881 and received the Rumford Medal in 1858 for his work on light...

physicist
SW01
Gay-Lussac Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
- External links :* from the American Chemical Society* from the Encyclopædia Britannica, 10th Edition * , Paris...

chemist
SW02
Fizeau Hippolyte Fizeau
Hippolyte Fizeau
Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau was a French physicist.-Biography:Fizeau was born in Paris. His earliest work was concerned with improvements in photographic processes. Following suggestions by François Arago, Léon Foucault and Fizeau collaborated in a series of investigations on the interference of...

physicist
SW03
Schneider Eugène Schneider
Eugène Schneider
Joseph Eugène Schneider was a French industrialist who in 1836 co-founded the Schneider company with his brother Adolphe.-Biography:...

industrialist
SW04
Le Chatelier Louis Le Chatelier
Louis Le Chatelier
Louis Le Chatelier was a French chemist and industrialist who developed a method for producing aluminium from bauxite in 1855. The method was later superseded by the Bayer process. His son was the well known chemist Henri Louis Le Chatelier. His name is inscribed on the Eiffel tower.-References:...

engineer
SW05
Berthier Pierre Berthier mineralogist
SW06
Barral Jean-Augustin Barral
Jean-Augustin Barral
Jean-Augustin Barral was a French agronomist and balloonist.Barral was born in Metz . He studied at a polytechnic school and became a physicist as well as a professor of chemistry and agronomy...

agronomist, chemist, physicist
SW07
De Dion Henri de Dion
Henri de Dion
Earl Henri de Dion was a French engineer of École Centrale Paris. His work helped in the construction of the Eiffel Tower. For his contributions to its construction, de Dion was honored by being listed as one of the 72 names on the Eiffel Tower.-References:...

engineer
SW08
Goüin Ernest Goüin
Ernest Goüin
Ernest Goüin was a French civil engineer and industrialist.In 1846 he founded Ernest Goüin & Cie. ; the company initially built locomotives, and diversified into bridge building and railway construction projects.His name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.-Biography:Born on 20...

engineer and industrialist
SW09
Jousselin Louis Didier Jousselin
Louis Didier Jousselin
Louis Didier Jousselin was a French engineer. He built a three-kilometre-long bridge in less than three months during the Siege of Hamburg in 1813. His name is immortalised on the Eiffel Tower.-Biography:...

engineer
SW10
Broca Paul Pierre Broca
Paul Broca
Pierre Paul Broca was a French physician, surgeon, anatomist, and anthropologist. He was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Gironde. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that has been named after him. Broca’s Area is responsible for articulated language...

physician and anthropologist
SW11
Becquerel Antoine César Becquerel
Antoine César Becquerel
Antoine César Becquerel was a French scientist and a pioneer in the study of electric and luminescent phenomena.He was born at Châtillon sur LoCrea...

physicist
SW12
Coriolis Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis
Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis
Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis or Gustave Coriolis was a French mathematician, mechanical engineer and scientist. He is best known for his work on the supplementary forces that are detected in a rotating frame of reference. See the Coriolis Effect...

engineer and scientist
SW13
Cail Jean-François Cail
Jean-François Cail
Jean-François Cail was a French entrepreneur and industrialist who was a key figure in French industrialization. He started his career in 1824 as a factory worker making machinery for the sugar industry. The firm expanded and was renamed Derosne-Cail in 1832. It manufactured a variety of...

industrialist
SW14
Triger Jacques Triger
Jacques Triger
Jacques Triger was a French mining engineer who invented the 'Triger process' for digging through water logged ground.The work is done inside a chamber open at the bottom and in which compressed air is pumped to keep water out. Originally developed for use in a coal mine , it was later applied...

engineer
SW15
Giffard Henri Giffard
Henri Giffard
Henri Giffard was a French engineer. In 1852 he invented the steam injector and the powered airship.-Career:Baptiste Henri Jacques Giffard was born in Paris in 1825...

engineer
SW16
Perrier François Perrier
François Perrier
Francois Perrier was a French soldier and geodesist.Perrier was born at Valleraugue , , descended from a family of Protestants, of Cevennes. After finishing his studies at the Lyceum of Nimes and at St...

geographer and mathematician
SW17
Sturm Jacques Charles François Sturm mathematician
SW18
Cauchy Augustin Louis Cauchy
Augustin Louis Cauchy
Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy was a French mathematician who was an early pioneer of analysis. He started the project of formulating and proving the theorems of infinitesimal calculus in a rigorous manner, rejecting the heuristic principle of the generality of algebra exploited by earlier authors...

mathematician
SE01
Belgrand Eugene Belgrand
Eugène Belgrand
Eugène Belgrand was a French engineer who made significant contributions to the modernization of the Parisian sewer system during the 19th century rebuilding of Paris. Much of Belgrand's work remains in use today.-Civil engineering:...

engineer
SE02
Regnault Henri Victor Regnault
Henri Victor Regnault
Henri Victor Regnault was a French chemist and physicist best known for his careful measurements of the thermal properties of gases. He was an early thermodynamicist and was mentor to William Thomson in the late 1840s....

chemist and physicist
SE03
Fresnel Augustin-Jean Fresnel
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
Augustin-Jean Fresnel , was a French engineer who contributed significantly to the establishment of the theory of wave optics. Fresnel studied the behaviour of light both theoretically and experimentally....

physicist
SE04
De Prony Gaspard de Prony
Gaspard de Prony
Gaspard Clair François Marie Riche de Prony was a French mathematician and engineer, who worked on hydraulics. He was born at Chamelet, Beaujolais, France and died in Asnières-sur-Seine, France.-Education and early works:...

engineer
SE05
Vicat Louis Vicat
Louis Vicat
Louis Vicat French engineer.He graduated from École Polytechnique 1804 and École des Ponts et Chaussées 1806....

engineer
SE06
Ebelmen Jacques-Joseph Ebelmen
Jacques-Joseph Ebelmen
Jacques-Joseph Ebelmen was a French chemist who was a professor at the Ecole des Mines. Born to Claude Louis Ebelmen, a forest surveyor, and Jeanne Claude Grenier, he had an efficient and proud childhood....

chemist
SE07
Coulomb Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb was a French physicist. He is best known for developing Coulomb's law, the definition of the electrostatic force of attraction and repulsion. The [SI unit] of charge, the coulomb, was named after him....

physicist
SE08
Poinsot Louis Poinsot
Louis Poinsot
Louis Poinsot was a French mathematician and physicist. Poinsot was the inventor of geometrical mechanics, showing how a system of forces acting on a rigid body could be resolved into a single force and a couple.-Life:...

mathematician
SE09
Foucault Léon Foucault
Léon Foucault
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault was a French physicist best known for the invention of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of the Earth's rotation...

physicist
SE10
Delaunay Charles-Eugène Delaunay
Charles-Eugène Delaunay
Charles-Eugène Delaunay was a French astronomer and mathematician. His lunar motion studies were important in advancing both the theory of planetary motion and mathematics.-Life:...

astronomer
SE11
Morin Arthur Morin
Arthur Morin
Arthur Jules Morin was a French physicist. He conducted experiments in mechanics and invented the Morin dynamometer....

mathematician and physicist
SE12
Haüy René-Just Haüy mineralogist
SE13
Combes Charles Combes
Charles Combes
Charles-Pierre-Mathieu Combes was a French engineer. He was Inspector-General of Mines and the Director of the School of Mines in Paris. His name is on the Eiffel Tower.-Biography:...

engineer and metallurgist
SE14
Thénard Louis Jacques Thénard
Louis Jacques Thénard
Louis Jacques Thénard , was a French chemist.His father, a poor peasant, managed to have him educated at the academy of Sens, and sent him at the age of sixteen to study pharmacy in Paris. There he attended the lectures of Antoine François Fourcroy and Louis Nicolas Vauquelin...

chemist
SE15
Arago Dominique François Jean Arago
François Arago
François Jean Dominique Arago , known simply as François Arago , was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician.-Early life and work:...

astronomer and physicist
SE16
Poisson Simeon Poisson mathematician and physicist
SE17
Monge Gaspard Monge
Gaspard Monge
Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse was a French mathematician, revolutionary, and was inventor of descriptive geometry. During the French Revolution, he was involved in the complete reorganization of the educational system, founding the École Polytechnique...

geometer
SE18
Petiet Jules Petiet
Jules Petiet
Jules Petiet was a French mechanical engineer who worked on the early development of the French railroad network. He was a designer of locomotives, as well as the chief executive of the Chemins de Fer du Nord railroad company...

engineer
NE01
Daguerre Louis Daguerre
Louis Daguerre
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and physicist, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography.- Biography :...

artist and chemist
NE02
Wurtz Charles-Adolphe Wurtz
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz
Adolphe Wurtz was an Alsatian French chemist. He is best remembered for his decades-long advocacy for the atomic theory and for ideas about the structures of chemical compounds, against the skeptical opinions of chemists such as Marcellin Berthelot and Etienne Henri Sainte-Claire Deville...

chemist
NE03
Le Verrier Urbain Le Verrier astronomer
NE04
Perdonnet Albert Auguste Perdonnet
Albert Auguste Perdonnet
Jean Albert Vincent Auguste Perdonnet was a French railroad engineer. He published the first French textbook on railroad engineering in 1828. He also worked to investigate and remove the causes of railroad accidents....

engineer
NE05
Delambre Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre astronomer
NE06
Malus Etienne-Louis Malus
Étienne-Louis Malus
- External links :...

physicist
NE07
Breguet Louis Breguet
Louis-François-Clement Breguet
Louis Francois Clement Breguet , was a French physicist and watchmaker, noted for his work in the early days of telegraphy...

physicist and inventor
NE08
Polonceau Camille Polonceau engineer
NE09
Dumas Jean Baptiste André Dumas chemist
NE10
Clapeyron Émile Clapeyron engineer
NE11
Borda Jean-Charles de Borda
Jean-Charles de Borda
Jean-Charles, chevalier de Borda was a French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor.-Life history:...

mathematician
NE12
Fourier Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier mathematician
NE13
Bichat Marie François Xavier Bichat
Marie François Xavier Bichat
Marie François Xavier Bichat , French anatomist and physiologist, was born at Thoirette .Bichat is best remembered as the father of modern histology and pathology. Despite the fact that he worked without a microscope he was able to advance greatly the understanding of the human body...

anatomist and physiologist
NE14
Sauvage François Clément Sauvage mechanic
NE15
Pelouze Théophile-Jules Pelouze
Théophile-Jules Pelouze
Théophile-Jules Pelouze was a French chemist. He was born at Valognes, and died in Paris....

chemist
NE16
Carnot Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot mathematician
NE17
Lamé Gabriel Lamé
Gabriel Lamé
Gabriel Léon Jean Baptiste Lamé was a French mathematician.-Biography:Lamé was born in Tours, in today's département of Indre-et-Loire....

geometer
NE18

Women

The list contains no women. The list has been criticized for excluding the name of Sophie Germain
Sophie Germain
Marie-Sophie Germain was a French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. Despite initial opposition from her parents and difficulties presented by a gender-biased society, she gained education from books in her father's library and from correspondence with famous mathematicians such as...

, a noted French mathematician whose work on the theory of elasticity was crucial to the construction of the tower itself. Germain's biographer, Mozans, suggested that she was excluded because she was a woman.

Hydraulic engineers and scholars

14 hydraulic engineers and scholars were among the 72 scientists listed on the Eiffel Tower, and Gustave Eiffel
Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French structural engineer from the École Centrale Paris, an architect, an entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...

 did indeed acknowledge the leading scientists in the field of hydrodynamics and fluid mechanics. Note the absence of Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy
Henry Darcy
Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy was a French engineer who made several important contributions to hydraulics.-Biography:...

 (1803–1858). This might be a consequence of Darcy's provincial career in Dijon, his short career lifespan and a lack of teaching involvement. It might also illustrate that some of Darcy's findings were not widely used until the 20th century (e.g. the Darcy friction factor). The omission of the names of Antoine Chézy (1718–1798) and Joseph Valentin Boussinesq (1842–1929) is also noticeable but possibly understandable. Chézy was less famous and Boussinesq was still a young researcher in the 1880s.

Further reading

  • Georges Barral: "Le Panthéon Scientifique de la Tour Eiffel". 1982, Nouvelle Librairie Parisienne, Paris - ASIN
    Amazon Standard Identification Number
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    B001DAV29Y

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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