THE MODERN TOWER OF BABEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9325, 30 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MODERN TOWER OF BABEL.

AN INTERVIEW "WITH MONSIEUR EIFFEL. Tilk president of the Society of Civil Engineers of France is a most amiable and • charming man to talk to, and singularly unassuming, considering what •a great name he has made, for himBOlt. in tho world.- For will, not his name bo for ever associated with soma of the greatest engineering triumphs of the century — the great* viaduct of tho Garabit, the bridge of the Douro-Porto, the gigantic locks of the Panama Canal, and last, but not least, the colossal structure which alone would bear his name down to posterity ? M. Eiffel has certainly been a singularly successful man, and his successes date from a very early age. Ho bad scarcely finished his studies at the Ecole Centrale at Bordeaux when, in 1858, ho was entrusted with the superintendence of the construction of the large iron bridge in that city. He was only twenty-six years of age at the time, and people were astounded to watch the tact and scionce displayed by this youth, .who looked quite a boy for his years. The house in the Hue do Proni, where I was fortunate (writes ' our representative) in obtaining an interview with the threat engineer, looks like the residence of a successful man. I was received by M. Eiffel in his study, a small room filled"with bookcases and books. THK RACK BETWEEN THE TWO ASPIRANTS. " I feel honoured by your visit," said M. Eiffel, "and shall be glad to tell you anything I can which may be of interest to your paper, although 1 regret my time is very limited, as I have an appointment in an "hour."' Thanking him for his courtesy, I said, " You will naturally have guessed that my visit is principally to obtain, if possible, some new details about your wonderful tower, which is exciting the greatest interest over in England. " When do you anticipate getting it tfntirelv finished ?" I asked. "Towards the eni of February, if nil • goes well." " Have you any difficulty in getting men to work at such giddy heights ?" " None whatever ; the men, so to speak, bave gope up with the tower ; the greater number are men who have been in my employ for years, and are therefore well accustomed to this sort of work ; ' vcrtige' is unknown to them, and the man who will have the task of placing the tricolour flag on the extreme summit will be as much at his ease as an ordinary person would be in un armchair. Moreover* they are really well paid ; their wages have been gradually augmented, and now they get. on an average eight to nine francs a day. ,1 am certain I could, if necesssary, get- any number at the price, as the recent strike proved. Work begin# at six in the mornins;, in spile of the cold, which lias recently been as low as 2i)deg. at the top of the tower." " Have you had many accidents ?" "Fortunately not; there lias only been one accident since we started the work two years ago— little boy fell from the first stage and was killed the beginning of last year." " Where do you get your material from ?" "The iron is delivered in the rough Ftote at my works at Levallois ; it is then finished, put together, and each piece numbered. It is taken to the works of the tower quite ready for adjustment., so the work of the centremaitre is absolutely simple ;he cannot make a mistake. Every- ' thing works so easily that 1 only find it necessary to visit the chantier once a week."

THE STRATEGIC CSKS OF THE TOWER. " What gave you the idea of building Such » construction V " The idea id nob a new one: many engineers hare before now attempted a tower of 1000 feet. I need hardly remind you of the project of your English engineer Trevethick, in 353'2, whose idea was to erect an enormous monument 300 yards high to perpetuate the passing of the Reform Bill.* Still more recently, at the Philadelphia Exhibition, a similar idea was'started, but never got beyond becoming an obelisk IG'J yards high in honour of the great American struggle. Of course the priac: idea of my tower is to give a special attraction to the Exhibition." " But what will it be used for afterWards ?" " The tower -will become a sort of colossal observatory. The most celebrated scientific men of the world have been consulted on this point, and they are all unanimous in their approval of its ultimate aim, and there is hardly one who does net propose making eventually some use of the tower for the purpose of individual study or research. When I tell you that from the summit one will on a clear day be able see a radius of nearly sixty miles, one can understand how useful the tower will be from a strategic 'point of view' in case of ivar." "But would not a successfully directed Ehell from the enemy materially damage the tower " I think not. In spite of the progress of artillery', it would be extremely dillicult to hit the tower from any great distance, and even were it hit the effect on the enormous network of iron would be very slight, a few girders broken, but easily replaced, et ce otraii LwU.'' TfTK SCIENTIFIC POSSIBILITIES.

M.. Eiffel then went on to give me a lot of interesting scientific details with reference to the ultimate utility oi the tower. He spoke of the 'novel meteorological observations that would be practicable at this altitude, observations which have hitherto never been accurately made from balloons, and of the astronomical researches which would be facilitated at this great height in consequence of the pureness of the air and the absence of the fog which usually obscures the horizon at lesser altitudes. Even from a botanical point of view interesting experiments would be made, as M. Berthelot lias proved from his experiments on a much mailer tower. The air on the summit will be as pure as it is possible to get it anywhere, and absolutely free from microbes. Who knows, thought I, but what in some not very remote future a.- sanatorium of a novel kind may be. established at the top of the Eiffe 1 Tower? ' Not the least interesting of the practical applications of the tower, he went on to tell me, would be the lighting of the Exhibition and a part of Paris by the enormous electric lamps which would be placed «at different heights on the tower, and v,4iich would give it a fairy like appearance, and doubtless still further enhance its value as an attraction to the Exhibition. The following Sunday I made my way to the foot of the tower at the appointed time, when, to my great astonishment, I found quite a large and distinguished gathering tf ladies and gentlemen waiting for the llustrious engineer. Sunday was evidently 'Hon jour de reception."

THE IRON LEVIATHAN. 1 occupied the time while we were waiting for M. Eiffel in having a good look at the leviathan mass of ironwork above me. No description can possibly give an adequate idea of the impression caused by the stupendous construction when standing directly underneath it and looking up at it for the first time. It seems absolutely too colossal to grasp all at once in one's mind, so to speak ; the ordinary human eye is too small to take in at a glance such dimensions as these ; one cannot help looking up; the effect produced is one of fascination, and which takes some time to gob used to. If this is the impression caused now, when the tower is unfinished, what will it be when the remaining 75 metres are completed? The building has now reached the tremendous height of 225 metres, which is 50 higher than any other monument in the world. The metre is 89*37 inches. Everything seems well calculated to be in proportion to the enormous height it will eventually attain.

UP THE TO WEB WITH M. EIFFEL. The first flight of stairs were of very gentle gradient, and led by easy stages to the etage, which brings one already to the very respectable height of 57 metres from the ground. It is from here, M. Eiffel told ns, that one has the first impression of "vertige," if one has it all. Many people coming up here for the first time feel their knees trembling under them when they look over from the centre of the platform into the yawning gulf below. Yet this is only the first stage; far away above us at fche top of a forest of ironwork, is the floor Df the second elage; it almost makes one giddy to look up. After being conducted By M. Eiffel oyer the different sections of this portion, which resembled a colossal workshop, with tramway lines all round, 170-started on our further journey skyward..

The stairs hero became more restricted, as they only, consisted of a spiral staircase with a straight"bit in ever/ four terms it was beginning to get giddy work, as several of the lady visitors remarked. There was a canvas, screen hung along tho handrail right up to the top, and which M. Eiffel told us laughingly he had had put purposely on account of the ladies who visited him, at a personal expense to himself of ufc least 200f. Of course, when tho tower is completed there "will be 'no necessity to use these stairs, as lifts will take one right up to the summit. There mil be four up to the first floor, two to the second, and one, capable of taking sixty-five persons at a time, to the summit. The cost of weekdays is to bo 3f. to the first platform or sf. the whole journey, and on Sundays If. and 31. respectively. 'The view from the sebond (Uuje was somewhat marred by tho mist, but one had a very good idea of what it will be like, and also of the enormous extent of ground covered by the Exhibition buildings spread out like a map beneath us.