The Eiffel Tower Housed A Scientific Laboratory

Question: Have any scientists ever worked at the Eiffel Tower?

Answer: The Eiffel Tower was completed on March 31, 1889. At the time it was the world’s tallest man-made structure.

To inaugurate the magnificent metallic structure, Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, the tower’s designer, climbed its 1,710 steps and unfurled a French tricolor flag from its pinnacle.

Eiffel also engraved the names of 72 of the country’s scientists in the tower’s first-level gallery, and atop the structure he installed a laboratory that was used by himself and French scientists to study astronomy, meteorology, aerodynamics and physiology and test experiments such as Foucault’s Pendulum.

Eiffel had a strong interest in aerodynamics and performed a series of observations on falling bodies (dedicated equipment was installed from 1903 to 1905). He then imagined “an automatic device sliding the length of a stretched cable between the second level of the Tower and the ground”.

He had a small wind tunnel built at the foot of the tower. From August to December 1909 he carried out thousands of tests, including those on Wright Brothers airplanes and Porsche automobiles.

MessageToEagle.com

Source:
History.com

Visit Eiffel Tower