Memorable World History/Authors

A. Gustave Eiffel (Part II)

Eiffel by Guth, 1889

The main structural work was completed at the end of March, and on the 31st Eiffel celebrated this by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower. Since the lifts were not yet in operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took over an hour, Eiffel frequently stopping to make explanations of various features. Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, including Nouguier, Compagnon, the President of the City Council and reporters from Le Figaro and Le Monde Illustré completed the climb. At 2.35 Eiffel hoisted a large tricolor, to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired from the lower level.

By June construction had reached the second level platform, and on Bastille Day this was used for a fireworks display, and Eiffel held a celebratory banquet for the press on the first level platform.

The Panama Scandal

In 1887, Eiffel became involved with the French effort to construct a canal across the Panama Isthmus. The French Panama Canal Company, headed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, had been attempting to build a sea-level canal but came to the realization that this was impractical. The plan was changed to one using locks, which Eiffel was contracted to design and build. The locks were on a large scale, most having a change of level of 11 m (36 ft). Eiffel had been working on the project for little more than a year when the company suspended payments of interest on 14 December 1888, and shortly afterwards was put into liquidation. Eiffel's reputation was badly damaged when he was implicated in the financial and political scandal which followed. Although he was simply a contractor, he was charged along with the directors of the project with raising money under false pretenses and misappropriation of funds. On 9 February 1893, Eiffel was found guilty on the charge of misuse of funds, and was fined 20,000 francs and sentenced to two years in prison, although he was acquitted on appeal. The later American-built canal used new lock designs (see History of the Panama Canal).

Shortly after the trial Eiffel had announced his intention to resign from the Board of Directors of the Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel, and he did so at a General Meeting held on 14 February, saying: "I have absolutely decided to abstain from any participation in any manufacturing business from now on, and so that no one can be misled and to make it most evident that I intend to remain absolutely uninvolved with the management of the establishments which bear my name, I insist that my name should disappear from the name of the company." The company changed its name to La Société Constructions Levallois-Perret, with Maurice Koechlin as managing director. The name was changed to the Anciens Etablissements Eiffel in 1937.

Later career

About six months after his retirement from the Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel, Eiffel was approached by Felix-Max Richard, owner of the Comptoir General de Photographie. Felix-Max Richard had just lost a lawsuit against him by his brother to enforce a noncompetition agreement. Felix-Max Richard appealed the decision but felt he needed a back-up plan if his appeal was denied. On May 28, 1895, the court denied the appeal and Gustave Eiffel bought the Comptoir with three other men: Joseph Vallot, Alfred Besnier, and Leon Gaumont, who was thirty years his junior. The company was renamed L. Gaumont et Cie after its youngest partner because Eiffel did not want his name on the company. Leon Gaumont was manager and Eiffel was president from 1895 through 1906. The company went public in January 1907 and is one of the oldest motion picture companies in the world.

During those years, Eiffel guided the company, contributed to its capital investments and inventions, and was absorbed by the new technologies and decisions the company made in its first eleven years. In 1897, he collaborated with Louis-Paul Cailletet and Leon Gaumont on a motion picture camera that was installed in a hot-air balloon. According to the correspondence between Gaumont and Eiffel, Eiffel had dark rooms at his Beauleau-Sur-Mer and Vevey vacation homes where he experimented with chemical developers. He patented a photographic heliograph in 1907.