THE EIFFEL TOWER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2745, 15 February 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE EIFFEL TOWER.

Safe?— The London correspondent of the Freeman's Journal says :—'' The shutting of the Eiffel Tower for the winter, for the execution of " necessary repairs," is a step calculated to cause unpleasant sensations in the minds of. those confiding tourists who ascended its dizzy height under the firm conviction that it was as perfect in construction and as secure in every particular as the Arch of Triumph. The gentlemen who are financing the tower are not likely to have thrown away the possible receipts for the next nix months for any but a very sufficient reason, and no mere trumpery defect in the structure could have impelled them to that sacrifice. Tho question whether tho Eiffel Tower is safe i» being , eagerly discussed both here and in Paris, and there is a sharp divergence of view amonw experts on the subject. The atory that after every storm carts full of rivets were picked up at its base in the early morning , is manifestly the invention of some Yankee envious of Paris possessing the highest tower in the uuiverso ; but if M. Eiffel's handiwork comes to grief it will not be bocause it is faultily riveted. The real questiou is whether tho foundations are secure, and at that point there is some ground for doubt. It is a positive fact that for the last month or eix weeks of the Exhibition the great concrete blocks which encased one of the fsur of the tower—the first foot on the right hand coining from the Trooadero— showed signs of being rent asunder, and the crevices bo formed—two or three inches broad—were filled in and concealed with freeh cement more than once. The flooring of a wooden bouse erected on the same foot got so much oufc of plumb that wedges of planking six or seven inches deep had to be introduced at one end to keep it straight. Those flaws were undoubtably caused by some displacement or subsidence of the concrete blocks, but the officials of the tower stated in reply to enquiries on the spot that these concrete blocks were more for ornament and finish than anything else, and that they afforded no support to the tower. If there was no strain on them, the dofecte that appeared are all the more inexplicaple ; bat the closing of the tower induces a strong suspicion that the statement of the officials were not reliable. Meanwhile the public will ba curious to learn what the repairs are which M, ijrorijdere qeoeasary,"