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Birmingham. Alabama
This pig iron plant, now shuttered, was once part of the steel manufacturing in the United States. The decline in steel production in the US began in the 1960's. Once a major exporter of steel, the US now purchases more steel from other countries than it exports.
The decline effected all steel mills in the US, yet what was unique about this plant, and others across some of the southern US. was the use of convict labor. Steel plants in northern states were most often unionized, therefore the workers had the ability to strike for higher wages, benefits and working conditions.
Not so in Alabama, as the convict workers were unable to go "on strike", being forced to work with painfully low ages and extremely poor working conditions.
Hundreds of thousands of steel workers lost their jobs, and many more lost work in businesses related to steel production.
I was invited to quite a many dinner and lunch during my stay here in Jeddah...mostly business related .
What amazes me is that the Saudis really go all out when they invite guests for dinner. They will provide only the best for their guests and the portion is usually really, really huge.
Mandi Rice which was originally from Yemen is vey famous in Saudi Arabia. It can be either lamb or chicken. The one that I had above is very special since it is made of the baby lamb. The meat is juicy and tender.
Location : Private Dinner in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
As is usually the case my series are broken up into mini themes for each day. Here we have some businesses related to the primary means of transport these days - the car.
Behind this auto electrical workshop is an empty lot. It used to be a popular used car sales lot. As you can see, "Cheap Cars". Only problem was that with supply problems for new cars in the post-pandemic period prices for second hand cars went through the roof (remember Australia now imports all its vehicles - we make nothing in this country anymore!). So the used car yard is empty and waiting to be sold off - expensive real estate, too expensive to sell cheap cars from.
All my Fine Art Photographs are for sell.
pablolopezphotography.com/featured/see-paris-as-birds-do-...
You can also download my images for your commercial or personal use through Licensing Pixels: licensing.pixels.com/featured/see-paris-as-birds-do-pablo...
The most emblematic icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, as seen from the distance from the Montparnasse Tower skydeck.
The Tour Maine-Montparnasse is a 210-metre (689 ft) office skyscraper located in the Montparnasse area of Paris. In 1995, French urban climber, Alain "Spiderman" Robert, using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices of any kind, scaled the building's exterior glass and steel wall to the top, almost falling in the process.
The Eiffel Tower, or La tour Eiffel in French, is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protests against the tower. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think." Socrates.
If the Acropolis was the most sacred place in Ancient Athens, the Agora was the most important place for the daily life of most Athenians. This place was the nerve center of the city, commercial exchanges, social gatherings, cultural, political and administrative activities were held here, justice was also imparted and of course the gods were worshiped in various temples. The agora was an open space surrounded by some of the most important buildings in the city. Currently, you can explore its ruins and relive the greatness of the place, the Temple of Hephaestus is its most spectacular monument. This temple, one of the best preserved from Ancient Greece, thanks to its conversion into a church in the 7th century, was ordered to be erected by Pericles in the mid-fifth century B.C., to praise the greatness of Athens in this important space. Dedicated to Hephaestus, god of metallurgy, but also to Athena as goddess of crafts, it was surrounded by businesses related to these works.
On my first visit to Athens in 2012 I photographed this temple with a similar composition, and I had among my plans to improve that image. On this occasion I knew that I could not photograph the temple at dusk since the Agora always closes before sunset, so I decided to visit the Agora just before sunset, to try at least one photograph at the golden hour. The storm clouds that day were fantastic, but they covered the sun when we arrived at the temple, we had to wait and wait and the sun wasn´t able to illuminate the temple. When we had already left the place, the sun finally came out, I quickly returned to the temple to capture this image, and moments later it became cloudy again. If situations are not ideal, there can always be an opportunity to capture a good image, think well and you will often find solutions where there seems to be only inconveniences.
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"No puedo enseñar a nadie nada, puedo solo hacerles pensar." Sócrates.
Si la Acrópolis era el lugar más sagrado de la Antigua Atenas, el Ágora era el lugar más importante para la vida diaria de la mayoría de los atenienses. Este lugar era el centro neurálgico de la ciudad, aquí se llevaban a cabo intercambios comerciales, reuniones sociales, actividades culturales, políticas y administrativas, además se impartía justicia y por supuesto se adoraba a los dioses en varios templos. El ágora era un espacio abierto rodeado de algunos de los edificios más importantes de la ciudad. Actualmente, se pueden recorrer sus ruinas y revivir la grandeza del lugar, siendo el Templo de Hefesto su monumento más espectacular. Este templo, uno de los mejor conservados de la Grecia clásica, gracias a su conversión en iglesia en el siglo VII, fue ordenado levantar por Pericles a mediados del siglo V a.C., para ensalzar la grandeza de Atenas en este espacio tan importante. Dedicado a Hefesto, dios de la metalurgia, pero también a Atenea en su versión de diosa de la artesanía, estaba rodeado de talleres relacionados con estos oficios.
En mi primera visita a Atenas en 2012 fotografié este templo con una composición similar, y tenía entre mis planes mejorar aquella imagen. En esta ocasión sabía que no podía fotografiar el templo al anochecer ya que el Ágora cierra siempre antes de la puesta de sol, por ello, decidí visitar el Ágora momentos antes del atardecer, para intentar al menos una fotografía a la hora dorada. Las nubes de tormenta aquel día eran fantásticas, pero cubrieron el sol cuando llegamos al templo, nos tocó esperar y esperar y el sol no conseguía filtrarse para iluminar el templo. Cuando ya habíamos dejado el lugar, finalmente salió el sol, rápidamente volví hasta el templo para capturar esta imagen, e instantes después se nubló de nuevo. Si las situaciones no son idóneas, siempre puede haber una oportunidad para capturar una buena imagen, piensa bien y a menudo encontrarás soluciones donde parece que hay solo inconvenientes.
Doesn't that hoodoo look like a huge turkey sitting there? That's all I see. This is sunrise in White Pocket back in February. Most of the color was right on the horizon, behind that wall of rock on the left there, but the textures here were too cool to pass over. And I had to capture the turkey. Actually, kinda reminds me of a Koopa Troopa, too, now.
Anyway. Haven't been active in anything photography-wise in months, which is a bummer, but I'll change that soon. Like this coming week when I will be on a reconnaissance mission in Colorado. Woo. Strictly a business-related trip (probably relocating there soon), but I'm going to try to get away once or twice to scope out RMNP.
My followers may have noticed that I haven't posted any images for the past couple of days. This was due to a combination of technical issues—our home fiber network was out of order—and a busy schedule filled with meetings and business-related travel. When waking up this morning I in a room with a view in St. Julian’s, Malta I knew I had to resume my daily activity and I hope that in the next couple of days I’ve got some spare time to continue sharing as a minimum one photograph a day. St. Julian’s is a coastal town in Malta that was originally a fishing village but has since transformed into a bustling hub of activity. More to come… St. Julian’s, Malta
The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an 1889 iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tallest building in Paris, it is the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named for its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair.
The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. Upon its completion, it surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France after the 2004 Millau Viaduct. The metal structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift, to the first and second levels. The walk to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by elevator. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Wikipedia
All my Fine Art Photographs are for sell.
pablolopezphotography.com/featured/la-tour-eiffel-pablo-l...
You can also download my images for your commercial or personal use through Licensing Pixels:
licensing.pixels.com/featured/la-tour-eiffel-pablo-lopez....
The most emblematic icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, as seen from below.
The Eiffel Tower, or La tour Eiffel in French, is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protests against the tower. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986 and 1987 by the Societe Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
This shot is from last Thursday evening's shoot with fellow photographers Jave & Jimmy.
Like so many of our outings, this one started out with us rushing out to our destination with little time to spare. And when I say rushing, I mean driving really fast. Triple digit fast, if you catch my drift. And I'd like to mention that I was not the one behind the wheel. Because if I was, we would have been driving a cool 65 mph and probably would not have made it here on time to take any shots. Although, in retrospect, the timing did not make much of a difference, since after about 20 minutes of shooting it started to rain on us continually for the next few hours. But, we would not be denied our shots on this day, because before we left San Jose, Jave, most intelligently, reminded me to bring my huge golfing umbrellas. These suckers are 7 foot in diameter. So, we did, what I like to call "Team Shooting" where one photographer would hold the two umbrellas over the three of us while the other two took their shots and we would rotate and took turns shooting. It was a little crowded and you may notice that my companions comps are fairly similar to my own, but that is the price you pay for shooting under umbrellas in the rain. This shot was actually taken when the rain let up for a bit. Good times :-)
After we were done at this location, we headed to baker beach to try a shot of the bridge from the other side of the fort, but as luck would have it. I got a business related call while walking out to our spot that I could not ignore and spend the next 45 minutes on the phone with a client while standing under one of my umbrellas in the rain. Not so much fun. But, I didn't feel that bad, because while I was working, my two amigos where struggling to get shots in the rain and finally gave up just about the time I hung up with my client. I think our conversation went something like...Did you guys get anything good? My amigos reply...Crap...lets get out of here. So, off we went to Tommy's in the City for some Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches and the warmth of in doors. I got a couple of more shots from this shots, but they are fairly similar with different cloud motion, so I'll save those for another day. Hope you guys enjoy the image and just remember...when it comes to umbrellas, size is King. :-)
Enjoy :-)
Canon 5D Mark II
Exposure: 30sec
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal Length: 16 mm
ISO Speed: 50 (to get as even an exposure as possible)
Lens: Canon EF16-35mm f2.8L II
Tripod Gitzo 2531
Head Arca Swiss B1
Filters:
1)Standard B+W UV that never leave my lens
2) Hi-Tech 1.2 Solid ND
3) Lee .6 & .9 soft edge ND grads (slightly staggered)
Thank you to all who stopped by to look at my other photos and comment and favorite them. It is much appreciated.
Lexcorp tower, the office of lex Luthor
A phone rings and Luthor, a stone cold man with a hatred for petty disturbances resents that his evening may be ruined by something as pathetic as a phonecall. What’s worse is he knows it’s not business related. For that, he uses a burner. Reluctantly he picks up the phone, lifts it to ear and lips and utters coldly, the words: what?
Bruce: lex Luthor?
Lex: who is this
Bruce: it’s Bruce Wayne. You know my voice
Lex: yes, yes I do. What can I do for you mr wayne. Looking for an investment perhaps?
Whilst on the other end of the line, it may be Bruce’s voice speaking the words, the man scraping his way through a lex corp ventilation system, most certainly does not dress in the sharply fitted suits that Bruce is so fond of but the heavy black and grey attire of the batman.
Bruce: my security service detected an intrusion last night. Some blue prints were stolen from the tech department.
Lex: oh dear. That’s terrible news. Nothing valuable I hope
Bruce: actually they were very valuable. Which is why my company has put so much into tracking down the culprit?
Lex: any luck? I do hope you find them
Bruce: well this is the strange part lex. Your name is written all over the crime scene. Now I’m sure you’re aware that I fully appreciate that you would want to keep this on the down low which is why I’m calling personally
Lex: and of course you assume blindly that your lackies in forensics made the right call? Yes?
Bruce: lex. There’s no reason to deny it. The men who’s prints were found on scene are known associates of yours. There is photographic evidence of you giving these men briefcases. I don’t need to ask what was in them
Lex: no you don’t. Because I’m sure you guessed that they were cases of wine. A gift to be given to an old friend
Bruce: who?
Lex: I’m afraid I haven’t the time for this Bruce. If you wish to make claims as grevious as these, I urge you to, in future go through my lawyers. Thank you good day Bruce
Bruce: lex...
He doesn’t respond. Simply because he has hung up. All Bruce hears is the monotonous tone of the line. Bruce removes the sim from his chunky phone and places it in his utility belt discarding the rest of the oversized piece of yuppie trash. He exits through the ventilation shaft having taken several Polaroid’s of the buildings various labs. He’ll examine them later but for now he has a second matter of business to attend to within metropolis itself
Sadarghat, Bangladesh, 2012
In life whoever is alive, has his own way of living.
No matter whats his job.
No matter what he does for living.
The principle of living is similar in everywhere.
Labors unloading the banana from launch to a small boat. This banana come from the remote place of Bangladesh to Dhaka city.
I draw cars since I was born! =)
in class (while I was at school and college), at work, at free time.... etc
I keep my old sketches sometimes to review them for concept development, so I can notice the improvement of my drawings by time advances...
I recently throw my last 3 years collection, because when I've reviewed them, they were so ugly! although I felt they looked perfect then. =)
So, currently, I'm confused between taking a car design related masters or a business related topics, I'm now at a road junction, it's hard to chose, I like both subjects
An orange pouch and a yellow cable are paving the way for missions to the Moon. By monitoring space radiation and enabling faster communications, the Dosis-3D experiment and the Columbus Ka-band or ColKa terminal, respectively, are providing the insights needed to enable safer missions father out in space.
Orange Dosis-3D pouches are everywhere in the Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station. A series of active and passive dosimeters, they measure space radiation inside the module as well as how it penetrates the Space Station’s walls.
Radiation levels in space are up to 15 times higher than on Earth. As soon as humans leave the protective shield that is Earth’s atmosphere, space radiation becomes a serious concern.
The Columbus module is monitored by 11 passive dosimeters. The dosimeters are about the size of a pack of playing cards and attach to the walls of Columbus with Velcro. The detectors record how much radiation has been absorbed in total during the period they are in space.
This experiment has been monitoring radiation levels for a number of years and after each six-month crew rotation, the detectors are replaced to record changes in radiation.
In addition to the passive detectors, Dosis-3D uses active dosimeters that measure fluctuations in radiation levels over time. Data from all Station partners is shared to create as complete a picture of space radiation as possible.
Dosimeters will also be flown on the Gateway, the next human habitat to be built in the vicinity of the Moon, to generate a more accurate assessment of radiation in lunar orbit.
Meanwhile, the ColKa communications terminal visible in this image, will connect the Columbus module to the European Data Relay System satellites in geostationary orbit that transfer data via European ground stations. ColKa was installed during a recent spacewalk and began commissioning this week. It will enable faster uplink and downlink speeds between the European segment of the Space Station and European researchers on the ground.
The know-how gained from designing, building and running ColKa could potentially be used in exploring farther from Earth in the Gateway around the Moon. ESA will supply the ESPRIT module for communications, scientific experiments, and refuelling for the international lunar outpost.
These ambitious plans require reliable navigation and telecommunication capabilities to succeed. Building these independently would be costly, complex and inefficient.
If this work were outsourced to a consortium of space companies that could put a constellation of satellites around the Moon, each individual mission would become more cost-efficient.
As part of an initiative called Moonlight, ESA is now conducting deep analyses of the planned lunar missions and further developing possible solutions, both technical and business-related, to provide telecommunications and navigation services for the Moon.
Credits: ESA/NASA
The most emblematic icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, as seen from Tour Montparnasse.
The Eiffel Tower, or La tour Eiffel in French, is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protests against the tower. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986 and1987 by the Societe Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Visit my museum exhibit Empire and Empathy to view all of my great-grandfather’s 1909 photographs and for more information about the trip.Murray is one of 5 photographers featured in the book Twilight of the Romanovs: A Photographic Odyssey Across Imperial Russia the book is being printed in both German and English.
Original description
Looking down a side street
[Shot on Ilyinka, one of the most business related streets downtown. At the time, this street was full of banks, wholesale warehouses, freight outlets, offices, and the like. Two parallel neighboring streets (Varvarka and Nikolskaya) were of the same character. The Muscovites used to nicknamed this area the Moscow City (as a junior brother to the Square Mile within Greater London).]
Murray Howe, 1909
Copyrighted
For information about the trip or to inquire about use of the images, contact Murray's great-grandson:
Andrew Murray Howe V
ahowe@cranewoods.com
Palacio de Aguirre, Cartagena (Murcia), Spain
Built: 1898–1901
Architect: Víctor Beltrí (1862-1935)
Client: Camilo Aguirre, industrialist and newspaper proprietor
This opulent residence stands as a jewel of Cartagena’s late 19th-century bourgeois expansion, marrying Neo-Baroque monumentality with eclectic ornamental sophistication.
Commissioned by Camilo Aguirre, a wealthy entrepreneur whose fortune was rooted in the region’s mining boom and media influence, the palace functioned as both a family home and an architectural assertion of modern taste, cultural literacy, and upward mobility.
About Cartagena
In 1901, Cartagena was a city of strategic and symbolic importance in Spain—a historic naval stronghold undergoing a period of intense economic and urban renewal. Situated on the southeastern coast, it had long been home to the country’s principal Mediterranean naval base and shipyards.
By the turn of the 20th century, Cartagena was also at the center of a mining and industrial boom, driven by the extraction of silver, lead, and zinc from the nearby Sierra Minera. This influx of capital gave rise to a new class of bourgeois entrepreneurs, financiers, and professionals who sought to remake the city in their image: modern, cultured, and prosperous.
The construction of the Palacio de Aguirre in this context signals not only the personal ambition of its patron, Camilo Aguirre, but also the aspirations of a city eager to assert its place in the modern Spanish nation—as both a military bulwark and a symbol of civic progress, blending classical heritage with contemporary style.
Listed Status
The Palacio de Aguirre is officially designated as a Bien de Interés Cultural in the category of Monumento (Monument), which is the highest level of heritage protection in Spain. This status protects both its architectural integrity and decorative elements, including its polychrome tilework, sculptural ornamentation, and historic fabric.
Additionally, the building forms part of the Museo Regional de Arte Moderno (MURAM) and has been incorporated into the city's cultural and tourism infrastructure, further reinforcing its protected status.
🎨 Style: Historicist Eclecticism meets the Aesthetic Movement
The building synthesizes a rich variety of historicist vocabularies, from Baroque and Renaissance revival to the Aesthetic and Eastlake movements then circulating through European design discourse. Its intricate surface program reveals Beltrí’s fluency with:
•Arts & Crafts and Eastlake linearity, evident in the rhythmic scrolls, plant forms, and stylized beasts
•Spanish and Italian Baroque massing (note the heavily bracketed cornices and ornamental cresting)
•Renaissance grotesque motifs, especially in the ceramic panels
Ceramic Iconography: Pleasure, Labor, and Moral Complexity
A highlight of the façade is the vibrant polychrome tile frieze, where putti harvest grapes amid thistles and symbolic flora. This program draws directly on Roman and Renaissance precedents:
•The grape harvest invokes Bacchic fertility, but here labor is emphasized—putti are not frolicking but toiling, echoing bourgeois work ethic.
•The thistle, beneath soft flesh and ripe fruit, injects emotional and symbolic tension: a reminder of the pain beneath pleasure, or the hard reality beneath surface delight.
•Elsewhere, a putto presents a green parrot perched on a ring—a scene of exotic domesticity, but also allegory: a tamed, mimicking creature symbolizing artifice, desire, and aestheticized nature.
🐉 Scrollwork Beasts and Decorative Lineage
Surrounding these scenes, ceramic panels display scroll-and-beast motifs—hybrid zoomorphic forms emerging from foliage. These derive from:
•Roman grotesque wall painting, filtered through Renaissance revival and 19th-century pattern books.
•Possibly influenced by Moorish ornamental flattening or Japoniste abstraction, part of the wider Aesthetic Movement.
These “botanicomorphic” beasts, unreal by design, assert cultivated imagination—a hallmark of both imperial Rome and modern elite culture. Their presence signals control over the fantastical, a visual assertion of taste, intellect, and privilege.
🐝 Architectural Allegory in Relief and Iron
On the tower, relief bees and stylized botanical panels add another symbolic layer. The bee—a classical emblem of industry, order, and fertility—underscores the patron’s narrative: this is a house of productive labor, refined taste, and civilizing aspiration. Even the wrought iron balcony grilles echo Eastlake wood carving in their intricate scrollwork—nature made geometric, ornament made discipline.
A mixed-use building from the outset:
✔️ Primary Use: Family Residence
The upper floors, particularly the ornate corner rooms and formal salon spaces, were undoubtedly intended as private domestic quarters for the Aguirre family.
The architectural richness—putti, allegorical tiles, wrought iron balconies, and symbolic reliefs—aligns with the bourgeois ideal of the cultivated home, a stage for displaying wealth, refinement, and cultural legitimacy.
✔️ Secondary Use: Business and Social Functions
Camilo Aguirre was more than a rentier—he was an entrepreneur, linked to the regional press, mining interests, and finance.
Like many Spanish industrialist homes of the period, it is plausible that the ground floor or a lateral wing housed offices related to:
Aguirre’s publishing ventures (possibly editorial or administrative spaces)
Business meeting rooms for investment partnerships or civic involvement
Such arrangements were typical of urban palacetes—blending domestic life and elite professional activity in one structure.
Supporting Clues from the Architecture
The arched main door and grander-than-domestic vestibule suggest semi-public or business-related access.
The vertical zoning—more decorative and symbolic elements concentrated on upper façades—often marked a distinction between public-facing lower floors and private upper floors.
️ Afterlife: From Private Palace to Public Use
By the mid-20th century, the palace had ceased to function as a private residence.
It now houses the Museo Regional de Arte Moderno de Cartagena (MURAM)—a fitting reuse that continues the building’s role as a showcase of cultural aspiration.
Final Note
The Palacio de Aguirre is not just eclectic—it is encoded. It offers a narrative façade, in which labor and luxury, sensuality and discipline, mythology and modernity are layered into its ornament. Whether or not Camilo Aguirre grasped every classical or mythic reference, he certainly intended to project cultural legitimacy, moral rectitude, and aesthetic modernity—the values of a man made in the age of industry, but longing to be remembered in the idiom of empire.
About the Architect
Víctor Beltrí (1862–1935) was a prolific and versatile architect who played a transformative role in shaping Cartagena’s architectural identity during its late 19th- and early 20th-century boom. A Catalan by birth and trained in Barcelona, Beltrí brought to Murcia a refined blend of eclectic historicism, Modernisme, and regionalist idioms, applying them across public, religious, and residential buildings.
Here are some of his most notable surviving works, nearly all in Cartagena:
️ Casa Cervantes (1900–1901)
•One of his earliest major commissions in Cartagena, built for the industrialist José María Cervantes.
•Strongly eclectic, with Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance features.
•Known for its decorative stuccowork, ironwork balconies, and elegant symmetry.
🏫 Casa Llagostera (1916)
•A more Modernista work, distinguished by elaborate ceramic tile panels and stylized floral motifs.
•Famous for its ceramic depictions of Cervantine characters (Don Quixote and Sancho Panza), referencing the owner’s name.
🏨 Grand Hotel of Cartagena (1907)
•Perhaps Beltrí’s most iconic secular work.
•A true Modernista showpiece, with a curved corner façade, domed turret, lavish iron balconies, and Art Nouveau ornament.
•Its exuberant decorative program and urban prominence make it one of Cartagena’s architectural landmarks.
⛪ Iglesia de la Caridad (restoration and dome, early 20th c.)
•Beltrí contributed to the renovation of this Baroque church, particularly the dome and lateral chapels.
•The church is the spiritual heart of Cartagena, housing the patron saint Nuestra Señora de la Caridad.
🏫 Casa Clares (1905)
•Residential and commercial building with wrought iron balconies, stucco ornament, and a carefully proportioned façade.
•A good example of Beltrí’s ability to adapt ornamental richness to smaller-scale urban commissions.
️ Casino de Cartagena (remodeling, early 20th century)
•Beltrí was responsible for major interior renovations to this 19th-century social club.
•He introduced Neo-Mudejar elements, stained glass, and eclectic interiors that blend orientalist fantasy with bourgeois refinement.
🏥 Hospital de la Caridad Expansion
•Beltrí also worked on institutional architecture, contributing to the expansion of Cartagena’s medical infrastructure.
Summary of Beltrí’s Significance
Beltrí’s legacy lies in his stylistic range: from strict academic revivalism (as in the Palacio de Aguirre) to Art Nouveau experimentation, always tailored to his patrons’ ambitions. His buildings remain among the most photographed and best-preserved examples of Cartagena’s golden age architecture.
This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT
Arequipa is like an oasis by the Rio Chili in a desert between tall volcanoes.
It is a well preserved colonial city and there is an effort to extend agriculture in the region. There are fields by the river right into this town which is home to around one million people.
Some slopping areas on the outskirts though are very arid and people have no easy access to water. There are also a lot of businesses related to the mining industry.
It has a beautiful historical center but its air is polluted by an overflow of cars and buses running on diesel.
It offers lots of contrast but is a great city overall.
Walt Disney World
Pop Century Resort
Over the past couple of years, the Pop Century Resort has become a “home away from home” for me. By good fortune, I’ve had a lot of business-related activities in the Orlando area which has given me the opportunity to stay on WDW property and practice my photography during my time off while there. Why do I choose Pop Century? I choose it not only for the price (which is pretty cheap, even by Disney standards), but also because it has the best food court of all the value resorts (and actually one of the best on property, IMO). There’s also the cool theming and colors and endless photographic opportunities it possesses (if I was asked to describe Pop Century in one word, it would be “colorful”). It’s also an easy exit from the WDW property line and I-4 is right at the back door so it’s easy for me to get where I need to go in the morning to T.C.o.B. Don’t get me wrong, I would still choose the Polynesian over Pop most any day in the extremely rare occasion where money wasn’t a concern (FWIW, I’ve only stayed at the Polynesian once), but when I’m down there on business and flying solo, Pop Century is the perfect place to stay. Looking ahead to the future, when my kids get a little older, Pop Century is where we’ll likely stay when we take those last minute/spur of the moment weekend trips.
All that being said, as many times as I’ve stayed at Pop Century, I have never set one foot in this pool. Didn't quite nail the symmetry here (if I remember correctly, there is a pole with a big water spitting "flower" attached just to the right of the camera that prevented me from being "dead center").
These are some sketchbooks from the last year or so. I opened them to "interesting" pages. A lot of them have several skimpy pages. Some of them have million dollar ideas inside. Most of them have hundred dollar ideas between the covers.
The most emblematic icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, as seen from Tour Montparnasse.
The Eiffel Tower, or La tour Eiffel in French, is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protests against the tower. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986 and1987 by the Societe Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Palacio de Aguirre, Cartagena (Murcia), Spain
Built: 1898–1901
Architect: Víctor Beltrí (1862-1935)
Client: Camilo Aguirre, industrialist and newspaper proprietor
This opulent residence stands as a jewel of Cartagena’s late 19th-century bourgeois expansion, marrying Neo-Baroque monumentality with eclectic ornamental sophistication.
Commissioned by Camilo Aguirre, a wealthy entrepreneur whose fortune was rooted in the region’s mining boom and media influence, the palace functioned as both a family home and an architectural assertion of modern taste, cultural literacy, and upward mobility.
About Cartagena
In 1901, Cartagena was a city of strategic and symbolic importance in Spain—a historic naval stronghold undergoing a period of intense economic and urban renewal. Situated on the southeastern coast, it had long been home to the country’s principal Mediterranean naval base and shipyards.
By the turn of the 20th century, Cartagena was also at the center of a mining and industrial boom, driven by the extraction of silver, lead, and zinc from the nearby Sierra Minera. This influx of capital gave rise to a new class of bourgeois entrepreneurs, financiers, and professionals who sought to remake the city in their image: modern, cultured, and prosperous.
The construction of the Palacio de Aguirre in this context signals not only the personal ambition of its patron, Camilo Aguirre, but also the aspirations of a city eager to assert its place in the modern Spanish nation—as both a military bulwark and a symbol of civic progress, blending classical heritage with contemporary style.
Listed Status
The Palacio de Aguirre is officially designated as a Bien de Interés Cultural in the category of Monumento (Monument), which is the highest level of heritage protection in Spain. This status protects both its architectural integrity and decorative elements, including its polychrome tilework, sculptural ornamentation, and historic fabric.
Additionally, the building forms part of the Museo Regional de Arte Moderno (MURAM) and has been incorporated into the city's cultural and tourism infrastructure, further reinforcing its protected status.
🎨 Style: Historicist Eclecticism meets the Aesthetic Movement
The building synthesizes a rich variety of historicist vocabularies, from Baroque and Renaissance revival to the Aesthetic and Eastlake movements then circulating through European design discourse. Its intricate surface program reveals Beltrí’s fluency with:
•Arts & Crafts and Eastlake linearity, evident in the rhythmic scrolls, plant forms, and stylized beasts
•Spanish and Italian Baroque massing (note the heavily bracketed cornices and ornamental cresting)
•Renaissance grotesque motifs, especially in the ceramic panels
Ceramic Iconography: Pleasure, Labor, and Moral Complexity
A highlight of the façade is the vibrant polychrome tile frieze, where putti harvest grapes amid thistles and symbolic flora. This program draws directly on Roman and Renaissance precedents:
•The grape harvest invokes Bacchic fertility, but here labor is emphasized—putti are not frolicking but toiling, echoing bourgeois work ethic.
•The thistle, beneath soft flesh and ripe fruit, injects emotional and symbolic tension: a reminder of the pain beneath pleasure, or the hard reality beneath surface delight.
•Elsewhere, a putto presents a green parrot perched on a ring—a scene of exotic domesticity, but also allegory: a tamed, mimicking creature symbolizing artifice, desire, and aestheticized nature.
🐉 Scrollwork Beasts and Decorative Lineage
Surrounding these scenes, ceramic panels display scroll-and-beast motifs—hybrid zoomorphic forms emerging from foliage. These derive from:
•Roman grotesque wall painting, filtered through Renaissance revival and 19th-century pattern books.
•Possibly influenced by Moorish ornamental flattening or Japoniste abstraction, part of the wider Aesthetic Movement.
These “botanicomorphic” beasts, unreal by design, assert cultivated imagination—a hallmark of both imperial Rome and modern elite culture. Their presence signals control over the fantastical, a visual assertion of taste, intellect, and privilege.
🐝 Architectural Allegory in Relief and Iron
On the tower, relief bees and stylized botanical panels add another symbolic layer. The bee—a classical emblem of industry, order, and fertility—underscores the patron’s narrative: this is a house of productive labor, refined taste, and civilizing aspiration. Even the wrought iron balcony grilles echo Eastlake wood carving in their intricate scrollwork—nature made geometric, ornament made discipline.
A mixed-use building from the outset:
✔️ Primary Use: Family Residence
The upper floors, particularly the ornate corner rooms and formal salon spaces, were undoubtedly intended as private domestic quarters for the Aguirre family.
The architectural richness—putti, allegorical tiles, wrought iron balconies, and symbolic reliefs—aligns with the bourgeois ideal of the cultivated home, a stage for displaying wealth, refinement, and cultural legitimacy.
✔️ Secondary Use: Business and Social Functions
Camilo Aguirre was more than a rentier—he was an entrepreneur, linked to the regional press, mining interests, and finance.
Like many Spanish industrialist homes of the period, it is plausible that the ground floor or a lateral wing housed offices related to:
Aguirre’s publishing ventures (possibly editorial or administrative spaces)
Business meeting rooms for investment partnerships or civic involvement
Such arrangements were typical of urban palacetes—blending domestic life and elite professional activity in one structure.
Supporting Clues from the Architecture
The arched main door and grander-than-domestic vestibule suggest semi-public or business-related access.
The vertical zoning—more decorative and symbolic elements concentrated on upper façades—often marked a distinction between public-facing lower floors and private upper floors.
️ Afterlife: From Private Palace to Public Use
By the mid-20th century, the palace had ceased to function as a private residence.
It now houses the Museo Regional de Arte Moderno de Cartagena (MURAM)—a fitting reuse that continues the building’s role as a showcase of cultural aspiration.
Final Note
The Palacio de Aguirre is not just eclectic—it is encoded. It offers a narrative façade, in which labor and luxury, sensuality and discipline, mythology and modernity are layered into its ornament. Whether or not Camilo Aguirre grasped every classical or mythic reference, he certainly intended to project cultural legitimacy, moral rectitude, and aesthetic modernity—the values of a man made in the age of industry, but longing to be remembered in the idiom of empire.
About the Architect
Víctor Beltrí (1862–1935) was a prolific and versatile architect who played a transformative role in shaping Cartagena’s architectural identity during its late 19th- and early 20th-century boom. A Catalan by birth and trained in Barcelona, Beltrí brought to Murcia a refined blend of eclectic historicism, Modernisme, and regionalist idioms, applying them across public, religious, and residential buildings.
Here are some of his most notable surviving works, nearly all in Cartagena:
️ Casa Cervantes (1900–1901)
•One of his earliest major commissions in Cartagena, built for the industrialist José María Cervantes.
•Strongly eclectic, with Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance features.
•Known for its decorative stuccowork, ironwork balconies, and elegant symmetry.
🏫 Casa Llagostera (1916)
•A more Modernista work, distinguished by elaborate ceramic tile panels and stylized floral motifs.
•Famous for its ceramic depictions of Cervantine characters (Don Quixote and Sancho Panza), referencing the owner’s name.
🏨 Grand Hotel of Cartagena (1907)
•Perhaps Beltrí’s most iconic secular work.
•A true Modernista showpiece, with a curved corner façade, domed turret, lavish iron balconies, and Art Nouveau ornament.
•Its exuberant decorative program and urban prominence make it one of Cartagena’s architectural landmarks.
⛪ Iglesia de la Caridad (restoration and dome, early 20th c.)
•Beltrí contributed to the renovation of this Baroque church, particularly the dome and lateral chapels.
•The church is the spiritual heart of Cartagena, housing the patron saint Nuestra Señora de la Caridad.
🏫 Casa Clares (1905)
•Residential and commercial building with wrought iron balconies, stucco ornament, and a carefully proportioned façade.
•A good example of Beltrí’s ability to adapt ornamental richness to smaller-scale urban commissions.
️ Casino de Cartagena (remodeling, early 20th century)
•Beltrí was responsible for major interior renovations to this 19th-century social club.
•He introduced Neo-Mudejar elements, stained glass, and eclectic interiors that blend orientalist fantasy with bourgeois refinement.
🏥 Hospital de la Caridad Expansion
•Beltrí also worked on institutional architecture, contributing to the expansion of Cartagena’s medical infrastructure.
Summary of Beltrí’s Significance
Beltrí’s legacy lies in his stylistic range: from strict academic revivalism (as in the Palacio de Aguirre) to Art Nouveau experimentation, always tailored to his patrons’ ambitions. His buildings remain among the most photographed and best-preserved examples of Cartagena’s golden age architecture.
This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT
Palacio de Aguirre, Cartagena (Murcia), Spain
Built: 1898–1901
Architect: Víctor Beltrí (1862-1935)
Client: Camilo Aguirre, industrialist and newspaper proprietor
This opulent residence stands as a jewel of Cartagena’s late 19th-century bourgeois expansion, marrying Neo-Baroque monumentality with eclectic ornamental sophistication.
Commissioned by Camilo Aguirre, a wealthy entrepreneur whose fortune was rooted in the region’s mining boom and media influence, the palace functioned as both a family home and an architectural assertion of modern taste, cultural literacy, and upward mobility.
About Cartagena
In 1901, Cartagena was a city of strategic and symbolic importance in Spain—a historic naval stronghold undergoing a period of intense economic and urban renewal. Situated on the southeastern coast, it had long been home to the country’s principal Mediterranean naval base and shipyards.
By the turn of the 20th century, Cartagena was also at the center of a mining and industrial boom, driven by the extraction of silver, lead, and zinc from the nearby Sierra Minera. This influx of capital gave rise to a new class of bourgeois entrepreneurs, financiers, and professionals who sought to remake the city in their image: modern, cultured, and prosperous.
The construction of the Palacio de Aguirre in this context signals not only the personal ambition of its patron, Camilo Aguirre, but also the aspirations of a city eager to assert its place in the modern Spanish nation—as both a military bulwark and a symbol of civic progress, blending classical heritage with contemporary style.
Listed Status
The Palacio de Aguirre is officially designated as a Bien de Interés Cultural in the category of Monumento (Monument), which is the highest level of heritage protection in Spain. This status protects both its architectural integrity and decorative elements, including its polychrome tilework, sculptural ornamentation, and historic fabric.
Additionally, the building forms part of the Museo Regional de Arte Moderno (MURAM) and has been incorporated into the city's cultural and tourism infrastructure, further reinforcing its protected status.
🎨 Style: Historicist Eclecticism meets the Aesthetic Movement
The building synthesizes a rich variety of historicist vocabularies, from Baroque and Renaissance revival to the Aesthetic and Eastlake movements then circulating through European design discourse. Its intricate surface program reveals Beltrí’s fluency with:
•Arts & Crafts and Eastlake linearity, evident in the rhythmic scrolls, plant forms, and stylized beasts
•Spanish and Italian Baroque massing (note the heavily bracketed cornices and ornamental cresting)
•Renaissance grotesque motifs, especially in the ceramic panels
Ceramic Iconography: Pleasure, Labor, and Moral Complexity
A highlight of the façade is the vibrant polychrome tile frieze, where putti harvest grapes amid thistles and symbolic flora. This program draws directly on Roman and Renaissance precedents:
•The grape harvest invokes Bacchic fertility, but here labor is emphasized—putti are not frolicking but toiling, echoing bourgeois work ethic.
•The thistle, beneath soft flesh and ripe fruit, injects emotional and symbolic tension: a reminder of the pain beneath pleasure, or the hard reality beneath surface delight.
•Elsewhere, a putto presents a green parrot perched on a ring—a scene of exotic domesticity, but also allegory: a tamed, mimicking creature symbolizing artifice, desire, and aestheticized nature.
🐉 Scrollwork Beasts and Decorative Lineage
Surrounding these scenes, ceramic panels display scroll-and-beast motifs—hybrid zoomorphic forms emerging from foliage. These derive from:
•Roman grotesque wall painting, filtered through Renaissance revival and 19th-century pattern books.
•Possibly influenced by Moorish ornamental flattening or Japoniste abstraction, part of the wider Aesthetic Movement.
These “botanicomorphic” beasts, unreal by design, assert cultivated imagination—a hallmark of both imperial Rome and modern elite culture. Their presence signals control over the fantastical, a visual assertion of taste, intellect, and privilege.
🐝 Architectural Allegory in Relief and Iron
On the tower, relief bees and stylized botanical panels add another symbolic layer. The bee—a classical emblem of industry, order, and fertility—underscores the patron’s narrative: this is a house of productive labor, refined taste, and civilizing aspiration. Even the wrought iron balcony grilles echo Eastlake wood carving in their intricate scrollwork—nature made geometric, ornament made discipline.
A mixed-use building from the outset:
✔️ Primary Use: Family Residence
The upper floors, particularly the ornate corner rooms and formal salon spaces, were undoubtedly intended as private domestic quarters for the Aguirre family.
The architectural richness—putti, allegorical tiles, wrought iron balconies, and symbolic reliefs—aligns with the bourgeois ideal of the cultivated home, a stage for displaying wealth, refinement, and cultural legitimacy.
✔️ Secondary Use: Business and Social Functions
Camilo Aguirre was more than a rentier—he was an entrepreneur, linked to the regional press, mining interests, and finance.
Like many Spanish industrialist homes of the period, it is plausible that the ground floor or a lateral wing housed offices related to:
Aguirre’s publishing ventures (possibly editorial or administrative spaces)
Business meeting rooms for investment partnerships or civic involvement
Such arrangements were typical of urban palacetes—blending domestic life and elite professional activity in one structure.
Supporting Clues from the Architecture
The arched main door and grander-than-domestic vestibule suggest semi-public or business-related access.
The vertical zoning—more decorative and symbolic elements concentrated on upper façades—often marked a distinction between public-facing lower floors and private upper floors.
️ Afterlife: From Private Palace to Public Use
By the mid-20th century, the palace had ceased to function as a private residence.
It now houses the Museo Regional de Arte Moderno de Cartagena (MURAM)—a fitting reuse that continues the building’s role as a showcase of cultural aspiration.
Final Note
The Palacio de Aguirre is not just eclectic—it is encoded. It offers a narrative façade, in which labor and luxury, sensuality and discipline, mythology and modernity are layered into its ornament. Whether or not Camilo Aguirre grasped every classical or mythic reference, he certainly intended to project cultural legitimacy, moral rectitude, and aesthetic modernity—the values of a man made in the age of industry, but longing to be remembered in the idiom of empire.
About the Architect
Víctor Beltrí (1862–1935) was a prolific and versatile architect who played a transformative role in shaping Cartagena’s architectural identity during its late 19th- and early 20th-century boom. A Catalan by birth and trained in Barcelona, Beltrí brought to Murcia a refined blend of eclectic historicism, Modernisme, and regionalist idioms, applying them across public, religious, and residential buildings.
Here are some of his most notable surviving works, nearly all in Cartagena:
️ Casa Cervantes (1900–1901)
•One of his earliest major commissions in Cartagena, built for the industrialist José María Cervantes.
•Strongly eclectic, with Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance features.
•Known for its decorative stuccowork, ironwork balconies, and elegant symmetry.
🏫 Casa Llagostera (1916)
•A more Modernista work, distinguished by elaborate ceramic tile panels and stylized floral motifs.
•Famous for its ceramic depictions of Cervantine characters (Don Quixote and Sancho Panza), referencing the owner’s name.
🏨 Grand Hotel of Cartagena (1907)
•Perhaps Beltrí’s most iconic secular work.
•A true Modernista showpiece, with a curved corner façade, domed turret, lavish iron balconies, and Art Nouveau ornament.
•Its exuberant decorative program and urban prominence make it one of Cartagena’s architectural landmarks.
⛪ Iglesia de la Caridad (restoration and dome, early 20th c.)
•Beltrí contributed to the renovation of this Baroque church, particularly the dome and lateral chapels.
•The church is the spiritual heart of Cartagena, housing the patron saint Nuestra Señora de la Caridad.
🏫 Casa Clares (1905)
•Residential and commercial building with wrought iron balconies, stucco ornament, and a carefully proportioned façade.
•A good example of Beltrí’s ability to adapt ornamental richness to smaller-scale urban commissions.
️ Casino de Cartagena (remodeling, early 20th century)
•Beltrí was responsible for major interior renovations to this 19th-century social club.
•He introduced Neo-Mudejar elements, stained glass, and eclectic interiors that blend orientalist fantasy with bourgeois refinement.
🏥 Hospital de la Caridad Expansion
•Beltrí also worked on institutional architecture, contributing to the expansion of Cartagena’s medical infrastructure.
Summary of Beltrí’s Significance
Beltrí’s legacy lies in his stylistic range: from strict academic revivalism (as in the Palacio de Aguirre) to Art Nouveau experimentation, always tailored to his patrons’ ambitions. His buildings remain among the most photographed and best-preserved examples of Cartagena’s golden age architecture.
This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT
A girl beholds the most emblematic icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower, or La tour Eiffel in French, is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protests against the tower. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986 and1987 by the Societe Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
From Wikipedia:
"The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an 1889 iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tallest building in Paris, it is the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named for its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair.
The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. Upon its completion, it surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France after the 2004 Millau Viaduct. The metal structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift, to the first and second levels. The walk to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by elevator. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower."
Big Cypress National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in southern Florida, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Miami. The 720,000-acre (2,900 km2) Big Cypress, along with Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, became the first national preserves in the United States National Park System when they were established on 11 October 1974
Big Cypress borders the wet freshwater prairies of Everglades National Park to the south, and other state and federally protected cypress country in the west, with water from the Big Cypress flowing south and west into the coastal Ten Thousand Islands region of Everglades National Park. When Everglades National Park was established in 1947, Big Cypress was originally intended to be included; however, because the land had not been purchased from its private owners, Big Cypress was ultimately released from the park system
Big Cypress National Preserve differs from Everglades National Park in that, when it was established by law in 1974, the Miccosukee, Seminole and Traditional people were provided with permanent rights to occupy and use the land in traditional ways; in addition, they have first rights to develop income-producing businesses related to the resources and use of the preserve, such as guided tours
The preserve is the most biologically diverse region of the terrestrial Everglades. While dominated by a wet cypress forest, it is host to an array of flora and fauna, including mangroves, orchids, alligators, venomous snakes like the cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti) and eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus), a variety of birds, and the Florida panther, (Puma concolor couguar) and the Florida Black Bear.
The preserve is also home to nine federally listed endangered species including the West Indian Manatee, the eastern indigo snake (Drymarchon corais couperi), and the Florida Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis pratensis).
Palacio de Aguirre, Cartagena (Murcia), Spain
Built: 1898–1901
Architect: Víctor Beltrí (1862-1935)
Client: Camilo Aguirre, industrialist and newspaper proprietor
This opulent residence stands as a jewel of Cartagena’s late 19th-century bourgeois expansion, marrying Neo-Baroque monumentality with eclectic ornamental sophistication.
Commissioned by Camilo Aguirre, a wealthy entrepreneur whose fortune was rooted in the region’s mining boom and media influence, the palace functioned as both a family home and an architectural assertion of modern taste, cultural literacy, and upward mobility.
About Cartagena
In 1901, Cartagena was a city of strategic and symbolic importance in Spain—a historic naval stronghold undergoing a period of intense economic and urban renewal. Situated on the southeastern coast, it had long been home to the country’s principal Mediterranean naval base and shipyards.
By the turn of the 20th century, Cartagena was also at the center of a mining and industrial boom, driven by the extraction of silver, lead, and zinc from the nearby Sierra Minera. This influx of capital gave rise to a new class of bourgeois entrepreneurs, financiers, and professionals who sought to remake the city in their image: modern, cultured, and prosperous.
The construction of the Palacio de Aguirre in this context signals not only the personal ambition of its patron, Camilo Aguirre, but also the aspirations of a city eager to assert its place in the modern Spanish nation—as both a military bulwark and a symbol of civic progress, blending classical heritage with contemporary style.
Listed Status
The Palacio de Aguirre is officially designated as a Bien de Interés Cultural in the category of Monumento (Monument), which is the highest level of heritage protection in Spain. This status protects both its architectural integrity and decorative elements, including its polychrome tilework, sculptural ornamentation, and historic fabric.
Additionally, the building forms part of the Museo Regional de Arte Moderno (MURAM) and has been incorporated into the city's cultural and tourism infrastructure, further reinforcing its protected status.
🎨 Style: Historicist Eclecticism meets the Aesthetic Movement
The building synthesizes a rich variety of historicist vocabularies, from Baroque and Renaissance revival to the Aesthetic and Eastlake movements then circulating through European design discourse. Its intricate surface program reveals Beltrí’s fluency with:
•Arts & Crafts and Eastlake linearity, evident in the rhythmic scrolls, plant forms, and stylized beasts
•Spanish and Italian Baroque massing (note the heavily bracketed cornices and ornamental cresting)
•Renaissance grotesque motifs, especially in the ceramic panels
Ceramic Iconography: Pleasure, Labor, and Moral Complexity
A highlight of the façade is the vibrant polychrome tile frieze, where putti harvest grapes amid thistles and symbolic flora. This program draws directly on Roman and Renaissance precedents:
•The grape harvest invokes Bacchic fertility, but here labor is emphasized—putti are not frolicking but toiling, echoing bourgeois work ethic.
•The thistle, beneath soft flesh and ripe fruit, injects emotional and symbolic tension: a reminder of the pain beneath pleasure, or the hard reality beneath surface delight.
•Elsewhere, a putto presents a green parrot perched on a ring—a scene of exotic domesticity, but also allegory: a tamed, mimicking creature symbolizing artifice, desire, and aestheticized nature.
🐉 Scrollwork Beasts and Decorative Lineage
Surrounding these scenes, ceramic panels display scroll-and-beast motifs—hybrid zoomorphic forms emerging from foliage. These derive from:
•Roman grotesque wall painting, filtered through Renaissance revival and 19th-century pattern books.
•Possibly influenced by Moorish ornamental flattening or Japoniste abstraction, part of the wider Aesthetic Movement.
These “botanicomorphic” beasts, unreal by design, assert cultivated imagination—a hallmark of both imperial Rome and modern elite culture. Their presence signals control over the fantastical, a visual assertion of taste, intellect, and privilege.
🐝 Architectural Allegory in Relief and Iron
On the tower, relief bees and stylized botanical panels add another symbolic layer. The bee—a classical emblem of industry, order, and fertility—underscores the patron’s narrative: this is a house of productive labor, refined taste, and civilizing aspiration. Even the wrought iron balcony grilles echo Eastlake wood carving in their intricate scrollwork—nature made geometric, ornament made discipline.
A mixed-use building from the outset:
✔️ Primary Use: Family Residence
The upper floors, particularly the ornate corner rooms and formal salon spaces, were undoubtedly intended as private domestic quarters for the Aguirre family.
The architectural richness—putti, allegorical tiles, wrought iron balconies, and symbolic reliefs—aligns with the bourgeois ideal of the cultivated home, a stage for displaying wealth, refinement, and cultural legitimacy.
✔️ Secondary Use: Business and Social Functions
Camilo Aguirre was more than a rentier—he was an entrepreneur, linked to the regional press, mining interests, and finance.
Like many Spanish industrialist homes of the period, it is plausible that the ground floor or a lateral wing housed offices related to:
Aguirre’s publishing ventures (possibly editorial or administrative spaces)
Business meeting rooms for investment partnerships or civic involvement
Such arrangements were typical of urban palacetes—blending domestic life and elite professional activity in one structure.
Supporting Clues from the Architecture
The arched main door and grander-than-domestic vestibule suggest semi-public or business-related access.
The vertical zoning—more decorative and symbolic elements concentrated on upper façades—often marked a distinction between public-facing lower floors and private upper floors.
️ Afterlife: From Private Palace to Public Use
By the mid-20th century, the palace had ceased to function as a private residence.
It now houses the Museo Regional de Arte Moderno de Cartagena (MURAM)—a fitting reuse that continues the building’s role as a showcase of cultural aspiration.
Final Note
The Palacio de Aguirre is not just eclectic—it is encoded. It offers a narrative façade, in which labor and luxury, sensuality and discipline, mythology and modernity are layered into its ornament. Whether or not Camilo Aguirre grasped every classical or mythic reference, he certainly intended to project cultural legitimacy, moral rectitude, and aesthetic modernity—the values of a man made in the age of industry, but longing to be remembered in the idiom of empire.
About the Architect
Víctor Beltrí (1862–1935) was a prolific and versatile architect who played a transformative role in shaping Cartagena’s architectural identity during its late 19th- and early 20th-century boom. A Catalan by birth and trained in Barcelona, Beltrí brought to Murcia a refined blend of eclectic historicism, Modernisme, and regionalist idioms, applying them across public, religious, and residential buildings.
Here are some of his most notable surviving works, nearly all in Cartagena:
️ Casa Cervantes (1900–1901)
•One of his earliest major commissions in Cartagena, built for the industrialist José María Cervantes.
•Strongly eclectic, with Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance features.
•Known for its decorative stuccowork, ironwork balconies, and elegant symmetry.
🏫 Casa Llagostera (1916)
•A more Modernista work, distinguished by elaborate ceramic tile panels and stylized floral motifs.
•Famous for its ceramic depictions of Cervantine characters (Don Quixote and Sancho Panza), referencing the owner’s name.
🏨 Grand Hotel of Cartagena (1907)
•Perhaps Beltrí’s most iconic secular work.
•A true Modernista showpiece, with a curved corner façade, domed turret, lavish iron balconies, and Art Nouveau ornament.
•Its exuberant decorative program and urban prominence make it one of Cartagena’s architectural landmarks.
⛪ Iglesia de la Caridad (restoration and dome, early 20th c.)
•Beltrí contributed to the renovation of this Baroque church, particularly the dome and lateral chapels.
•The church is the spiritual heart of Cartagena, housing the patron saint Nuestra Señora de la Caridad.
🏫 Casa Clares (1905)
•Residential and commercial building with wrought iron balconies, stucco ornament, and a carefully proportioned façade.
•A good example of Beltrí’s ability to adapt ornamental richness to smaller-scale urban commissions.
️ Casino de Cartagena (remodeling, early 20th century)
•Beltrí was responsible for major interior renovations to this 19th-century social club.
•He introduced Neo-Mudejar elements, stained glass, and eclectic interiors that blend orientalist fantasy with bourgeois refinement.
🏥 Hospital de la Caridad Expansion
•Beltrí also worked on institutional architecture, contributing to the expansion of Cartagena’s medical infrastructure.
Summary of Beltrí’s Significance
Beltrí’s legacy lies in his stylistic range: from strict academic revivalism (as in the Palacio de Aguirre) to Art Nouveau experimentation, always tailored to his patrons’ ambitions. His buildings remain among the most photographed and best-preserved examples of Cartagena’s golden age architecture.
This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT
(Not finished yet- I have curtains to put up, some more furniture coming for the other side of the room, my computer chairs, and my prints and canvas' on the way but wanted to show you how far I am!) I have worked this entire work on my new 'space' for working and for keeping all of my photo stuff- and I am really happy so far!! I am actually not an organized person except for when it comes to my business related things. It is going to be SO much easier to find things for sessions now that everything has a space!!
The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The third level observatory's upper platform is at 279.11 m the highest accessible to public in the European Union and the highest in Europe as long as the platform of the Ostankino Tower, at 360 m, remains closed as a result of the fire of August 2000. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.
The tower stands 320 metres (1,050 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, because of the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift (elevator), to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by lift - stairs exist but they are not usually open for public use. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city.
History
Origin
First drawing of the Eiffel Tower by Maurice Koechlin
The design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers who worked for the Compagnie des Establissments Eiffel after discussion about a suitable centrepiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair which would celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. In May 1884 Koechlin, working at his home, made an outline drawing of their scheme, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals". Initially Eiffel himself showed little enthusiasm, but he did sanction further study of the project, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to the first level and other embellishments. This enhanced version gained Eiffel's support, and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885 Eiffel read a paper on the project to the Société des Ingiénieurs Civils: after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying that the tower would symbolise "not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude."
Little happened until the beginning of 1886, when Jules Grévy was re-elected as President and Édouard Lockroy was appointed as Minister for Trade. A budget for the Exposition was passed and on 1 May Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition which was being held for a centerpiece for the exposition, which effectively made the choice of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion: all entries had to include a study for a 300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. On 12 May a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals and on 12 June it presented its decision, which was that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or insufficiently worked out. After some debate about the exact site for the tower, a contract was finally signed on 8 January 1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, and granted him one and a half million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated cost of six and a half million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the following twenty years. Eiffel later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.
The "Artists Protest"
Caricature of Gustave Eiffel comparing the Eiffel tower to the Pyramids.
The projected tower had been a subject of some controversy, attracting criticism both from those who did not believe that it was feasible and also from those who objected on artistic grounds. Their objections were an expression of a longstanding debate about relationship between architecture and engineering. This came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: A "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the French arts establishment, including Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet: a petition was sent to Charles Alphand, the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, and was published by Le Temps.
"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"
Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian Pyramids : "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way ? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris ?" These criticisms were also masterfully dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, ironically saying "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell that …this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and going on to point out that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before and was already under construction. Indeed, Garnier had been a member of the Tower Commission that had assessed the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the Tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"
Some of the protestors were to change their minds when the tower was built: others remained unconvinced. Guy de Maupassant[20] supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure. Today, the Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.
Construction
Foundations of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower under construction between 1887 and 1889
Work on the foundations started in January 1887. Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg but the other two, being closer to the river Seine were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft)[21] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block built of limestone each with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork. Each shoe was anchored into the stonework by a pair of bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. The foundations were complete by 30 June and the erection of the ironwork began. The very visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed:
The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 0.1 mm (0.04 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from the factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all there were 18,038 pieces of puddle iron using two and a half million rivets.
At first the legs were constructed as cantilevers but about halfway to the first level construction was paused in order to construct a substantial timber scaffold. This caused a renewal of the concerns about the structural soundness of the project, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel has gone mad: he has been confined in an Asylum" appeared in the popular press. At this stage a small "creeper" crane was installed in each leg, designed to move up the tower as construction progressed and making use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in each leg. The critical stage of joining the four legs at the first level was complete by March 1888. Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost precision, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments in order to precisely align the legs: hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, each capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and in addition the legs had been intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold.
No more than three hundred workers were employed on site, and because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died during construction.
Inauguration and the 1889 Exposition
The 1889 Exposition Universelle for which the Eiffel Tower was built
The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 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 tricolore, to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired from the lower level. There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and the fitting out of the facilities for visitors, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the Exposition on 6 May, and even then the lifts had not been completed.
The tower was an immediate success with the public, and lengthy queues formed to make the ascent. Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays, and by the end of the exhibition there had been nearly two million visitors.
Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. In the opening weeks of the First World War the powerful radio transmitters using the tower were used to jam German communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.
Subsequent events
10 September 1889 Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message— To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.
19 October 1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont in his Dirigible No.6 won a 10,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St Cloud to the Eiffel tower and back in less than half an hour.
1910 Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are today known as cosmic rays.[28]
4 February 1912 Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower with his home-made parachute.
1914 A radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications during the lead-up to the First Battle of the Marne.
1925 The con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but related occasions.
1930 The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.
1925 to 1934 Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.
1940–1944 Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika[citation needed], but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. Some say Hitler was later persuaded to keep the tower intact so it could later be used for communications. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris.
3 January 1956 A fire damaged the top of the tower.
1957 The present radio antenna was added to the top.
1980s A restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue and Josephine Street in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, later as the Red Room and now as the Cricket Club (owned by the New Orleans Culinary Institute). The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000 pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a 40-foot (12 m) cargo container.
31 March 1984 Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through the arches of the tower.
1987 A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the Paris police upon reaching the ground.
27 October 1991 Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures of bungee jumping (not allowed) from the second floor of the Tower. Facing the Champ de Mars, Thierry Devaux was using an electric winch between each figure to go back up. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth bungee jump.
New Year's Eve 1999 The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris's Millennium Celebration. On this occasion, flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower, and fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. Since then, the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris's night sky, and the 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance every hour on the hour.
28 November 2002 The tower received its 200,000,000th guest.
2004 The Eiffel Tower began hosting an ice skating rink on the first floor each winter.
Design of the tower
Material
The Eiffel Tower from below
The puddle iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes, while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125-metre-square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.
Wind considerations
At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, however, as experienced bridge builders, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be […] will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.[37]
Researchers have found that Eiffel used empirical and graphical methods accounting for the effects of wind rather than a specific mathematical formula. Careful examination of the tower shows a basically exponential shape; actually two different exponentials, the lower section overdesigned to ensure resistance to wind forces. Several mathematical explanations have been proposed over the years for the success of the design; the most recent is described as a nonlinear integral equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point. As a demonstration of the tower's effectiveness in wind resistance, it sways only 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.
Accommodation
When built, the first level contained two restaurants: an "Anglo-American Bar", and a 250 seat theatre. A 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) promenade ran around the outside.
On the second level, the French newspaper Le Figaro had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, Le Figaro de la Tour, was produced. There was also a pâtisserie.
On the third level were laboratories for various experiments and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests. This is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike models of Gustave and some guests.
Engraved names
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Maintenance
Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tonnes of paint every seven years to protect it from rust. The height of the Eiffel Tower varies by 15 cm due to temperature.
Aesthetic considerations
In order to enhance the impression of height, three separate colours of paint are used on the tower, with the darkest on the bottom and the lightest at the top. On occasion the colour of the paint is changed; the tower is currently painted a shade of bronze. On the first floor there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session of painting.
The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grillwork arches, added in Stephen Sauvestre's sketches, which served to reassure visitors that the structure was safe, and to frame views of other nearby architecture.
One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 storeys, only a very few of the taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.
Popularity
More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889, including 6,719,200 in 2006. The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Passenger lifts
Ground to the second level
The original lifts (elevators) to the first and second floors were provided by two companies. Both companies had to overcome many technical obstacles as neither company (or indeed any company) had experience with installing lifts climbing to such heights with large loads. The slanting tracks with changing angles further complicated the problems. The East and West lifts were supplied by the French company Roux Combaluzier Lepape, using hydraulically powered chains and rollers. The North and South lifts were provided by the American company Otis using car designs similar to the original installation but using an improved hydraulic and cable scheme. The French lifts had a very poor performance and were replaced with the current installations in 1897 (West Pillar) and 1899 (East Pillar) by Fives-Lille using an improved hydraulic and rope scheme. Both of the original installations operated broadly on the principle of the Fives-Lille lifts.
The Fives-Lille lifts from ground level to the first and second levels are operated by cables and pulleys driven by massive water-powered pistons. The hydraulic scheme was somewhat unusual for the time in that it included three large counterweights of 200 tonnes each sitting on top of hydraulic rams which doubled up as accumulators for the water. As the lifts ascend the inclined arc of the pillars, the angle of ascent changes. The two lift cabs are kept more or less level and indeed are level at the landings. The cab floors do take on a slight angle at times between landings.
The principle behind the lifts is similar to the operation of a block and tackle but in reverse. Two large hydraulic rams (over 1 metre diameter) with a 16 metre travel are mounted horizontally in the base of the pillar which pushes a carriage (the French word for it translates as chariot and this term will be used henceforth to distinguish it from the lift carriage) with 16 large triple sheaves mounted on it. There are 14 similar sheaves mounted statically. Six wire ropes are rove back and forth between the sheaves such that each rope passes between the 2 sets of sheaves 7 times. The ropes then leave the final sheaves on the chariot and pass up through a series of guiding sheaves to above the second floor and then through a pair of triple sheaves back down to the lift carriage again passing guiding sheaves.
This arrangement means that the lift carriage, complete with its cars and passengers, travels 8 times the distance that the rams move the chariot, the 128 metres from the ground to the second floor. The force exerted by the rams also has to be 8 times the total weight of the lift carriage, cars and passengers, plus extra to account for various losses such as friction. The hydraulic fluid was water, normally stored in three accumulators, complete with counterbalance weights. To make the lift ascend, water was pumped using an electrically driven pump from the accumulators to the two rams. Since the counterbalance weights provided much of the pressure required, the pump only had to provide the extra effort. For the descent, it was only necessary to allow the water to flow back to the accumulators using a control valve. The lifts were operated by an operator perched precariously underneath the lift cars. His position (with a dummy operator) can still be seen on the lifts today.
The Fives-Lille lifts were completely upgraded in 1986 to meet modern safety requirements and to make the lifts easier to operate. A new computer-controlled system was installed which completely automated the operation. One of the three counterbalances was taken out of use, and the cars were replaced with a more modern and lighter structure. Most importantly, the main driving force was removed from the original water pump such that the water hydraulic system provided only a counterbalancing function. The main driving force was transferred to a 320 kW electrically driven oil hydraulic pump which drives a pair of hydraulic motors on the chariot itself, thus providing the motive power. The new lift cars complete with their carriage and a full 92 passenger load weigh 22 tonnes.
Owing to elasticity in the ropes and the time taken to get the cars level with the landings, each lift in normal service takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each floor. The average journey time between floors is just 1 minute.
The original Otis lifts in the North and South pillars in their turn proved to be inferior to the new (in 1899) French lifts and were scrapped from the South pillar in 1900 and from the North pillar in 1913 after failed attempts to repower them with an electric motor. The North and South pillars were to remain without lifts until 1965 when increasing visitor numbers persuaded the operators to install a relatively standard and modern cable hoisted system in the north pillar using a cable-hauled counterbalance weight, but hoisted by a block and tackle system to reduce its travel to one third of the lift travel. The counterbalance is clearly visible within the structure of the North pillar. This latter lift was upgraded in 1995 with new cars and computer controls.
The South pillar acquired a completely new fairly standard electrically driven lift in 1983 to serve the Jules Verne restaurant. This was also supplied by Otis. A further four-ton service lift was added to the South pillar in 1989 by Otis to relieve the main lifts when moving relatively small loads or even just maintenance personnel.
The East and West hydraulic (water) lift works are on display and, at least in theory, are open to the public in a small museum located in base of the East and West tower, which is somewhat hidden from public view. Because the massive mechanism requires frequent lubrication and attention, public access is often restricted. However, when open, the wait times are much less than the other, more popular, attractions. The rope mechanism of the North tower is visible to visitors as they exit from the lift.
Second to the third level
The original spiral stairs to the third floor which were only 80 centimetres wide. Note also the small service lift in the background.
The original lifts from the second to the third floor were also of a water-powered hydraulic design supplied by Léon Edoux. Instead of using a separate counterbalance, the two lift cars counterbalanced each other. A pair of 81-metre-long hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. A lift car was mounted on top of the rams. Ropes ran from the top of this car up to a sheave on the third level and back down to a second car. The result of this arrangement was that each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway walking between the cars along a narrow gangway with a very impressive and relatively unobstructed downward view. The ten-ton cars held 65 passengers each or up to four tons.
One interesting feature of the original installation was that the hoisting rope ran through guides to retain it on windy days to prevent it flapping and becoming damaged. The guides were mechanically moved out of the way of the ascending car by the movement of the car itself. In spite of some antifreeze being added to the water that operated this system, it nevertheless had to close to the public from November to March each year.
The original lifts complete with their hydraulic mechanism were completely scrapped in 1982 after 97 years of service. They were replaced with two pairs of relatively standard rope hoisted cars which were able to operate all the year round. The cars operate in pairs with one providing the counterbalance for the other. Neither car can move unless both sets of doors are closed and both operators have given a start command. The commands from the cars to the hoisting mechanism are by radio obviating the necessity of a control cable. The replacement installation also has the advantage that the ascent can be made without changing cars and has reduced the ascent time from 8 minutes (including change) to 1 minute and 40 seconds. This installation also has guides for the hoisting ropes but they are electrically operated. The guide once it has moved out of the way as the car ascends automatically reverses when the car has passed to prevent the mechanism becoming snagged on the car on the downward journey in the event it has failed to completely clear the car. Unfortunately these lifts do not have the capacity to move as many people as the three public lower lifts and long lines to ascend to the third level are common. Most of the intermediate level structure present on the tower today was installed when the lifts were replaced and allows maintenance workers to take the lift halfway.
The replacement of these lifts allowed the restructuring of the criss-cross beams in upper part of the tower and further allowed the installation of two emergency staircases. These replaced the dangerous winding stairs that were installed when the tower was constructed.
Restaurants
The tower has two restaurants: Le 58 tour Eiffel, on the first floor 311 ft (95 m) above sea level; and the Le Jules Verne, a gastronomical restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. In January 2007, the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse was brought in to run Jules Verne.
Attempted relocation
According to interviews given in the early 1980s, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with French President Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company which operated the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored to its original location.
Economics
The American TV show Pricing the Priceless speculates that in 2011 the tower would cost about $480,000,000 to build, that the land under the tower is worth $350,000,000, and that the scrap value of the tower is worth $3,500,000. The TV show estimates the tower makes a profit of about $29,000,000 per year, though it is unlikely that the Eiffel Tower is managed so as to maximize profit.
It costs $5,300,000 to repaint the tower, which is done once every seven years. The electric bill is $400,000 per year for 7.5 million kilowatt-hours.
The Tokyo Tower in Japan is a very similar structure of very similar size. It was finished in 1958 at a final cost of ¥2.8 billion ($8.4 million in 1958).
Source Wikipedia
The Eiffel Tower, or La tour Eiffel in French, is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protests against the tower. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986 and1987 by the Societe Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
first self portrait of 2011.
so, 2011 has come around pretty darn fast, and 2010 was so eventful for me - both personal & business wise that I couldn't have asked for a better year really.
2011 is going to be big, and bursting at the seems I hope. I have tonnes of ideas I'm raring to go with, just need my bloody camera back...
www.charlottesetonephoto.blogspot.com - *brand new* business related blog
www.charloustonephoto.tumblr.com - personal blog
A girl beholds the most emblematic icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower, or La tour Eiffel in French, is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protests against the tower. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986 and1987 by the Societe Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The third level observatory's upper platform is at 279.11 m the highest accessible to public in the European Union and the highest in Europe as long as the platform of the Ostankino Tower, at 360 m, remains closed as a result of the fire of August 2000. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.
The tower stands 320 metres (1,050 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, because of the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift (elevator), to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by lift - stairs exist but they are not usually open for public use. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city.
History
Origin
First drawing of the Eiffel Tower by Maurice Koechlin
The design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers who worked for the Compagnie des Establissments Eiffel after discussion about a suitable centrepiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair which would celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. In May 1884 Koechlin, working at his home, made an outline drawing of their scheme, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals". Initially Eiffel himself showed little enthusiasm, but he did sanction further study of the project, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to the first level and other embellishments. This enhanced version gained Eiffel's support, and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885 Eiffel read a paper on the project to the Société des Ingiénieurs Civils: after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying that the tower would symbolise "not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude."
Little happened until the beginning of 1886, when Jules Grévy was re-elected as President and Édouard Lockroy was appointed as Minister for Trade. A budget for the Exposition was passed and on 1 May Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition which was being held for a centerpiece for the exposition, which effectively made the choice of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion: all entries had to include a study for a 300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. On 12 May a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals and on 12 June it presented its decision, which was that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or insufficiently worked out. After some debate about the exact site for the tower, a contract was finally signed on 8 January 1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, and granted him one and a half million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated cost of six and a half million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the following twenty years. Eiffel later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.
The "Artists Protest"
Caricature of Gustave Eiffel comparing the Eiffel tower to the Pyramids.
The projected tower had been a subject of some controversy, attracting criticism both from those who did not believe that it was feasible and also from those who objected on artistic grounds. Their objections were an expression of a longstanding debate about relationship between architecture and engineering. This came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: A "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the French arts establishment, including Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet: a petition was sent to Charles Alphand, the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, and was published by Le Temps.
"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"
Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian Pyramids : "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way ? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris ?" These criticisms were also masterfully dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, ironically saying "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell that …this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and going on to point out that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before and was already under construction. Indeed, Garnier had been a member of the Tower Commission that had assessed the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the Tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"
Some of the protestors were to change their minds when the tower was built: others remained unconvinced. Guy de Maupassant[20] supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure. Today, the Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.
Construction
Foundations of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower under construction between 1887 and 1889
Work on the foundations started in January 1887. Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg but the other two, being closer to the river Seine were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft)[21] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block built of limestone each with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork. Each shoe was anchored into the stonework by a pair of bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. The foundations were complete by 30 June and the erection of the ironwork began. The very visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed:
The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 0.1 mm (0.04 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from the factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all there were 18,038 pieces of puddle iron using two and a half million rivets.
At first the legs were constructed as cantilevers but about halfway to the first level construction was paused in order to construct a substantial timber scaffold. This caused a renewal of the concerns about the structural soundness of the project, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel has gone mad: he has been confined in an Asylum" appeared in the popular press. At this stage a small "creeper" crane was installed in each leg, designed to move up the tower as construction progressed and making use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in each leg. The critical stage of joining the four legs at the first level was complete by March 1888. Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost precision, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments in order to precisely align the legs: hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, each capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and in addition the legs had been intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold.
No more than three hundred workers were employed on site, and because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died during construction.
Inauguration and the 1889 Exposition
The 1889 Exposition Universelle for which the Eiffel Tower was built
The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 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 tricolore, to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired from the lower level. There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and the fitting out of the facilities for visitors, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the Exposition on 6 May, and even then the lifts had not been completed.
The tower was an immediate success with the public, and lengthy queues formed to make the ascent. Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays, and by the end of the exhibition there had been nearly two million visitors.
Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. In the opening weeks of the First World War the powerful radio transmitters using the tower were used to jam German communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.
Subsequent events
10 September 1889 Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message— To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.
19 October 1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont in his Dirigible No.6 won a 10,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St Cloud to the Eiffel tower and back in less than half an hour.
1910 Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are today known as cosmic rays.[28]
4 February 1912 Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower with his home-made parachute.
1914 A radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications during the lead-up to the First Battle of the Marne.
1925 The con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but related occasions.
1930 The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.
1925 to 1934 Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.
1940–1944 Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika[citation needed], but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. Some say Hitler was later persuaded to keep the tower intact so it could later be used for communications. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris.
3 January 1956 A fire damaged the top of the tower.
1957 The present radio antenna was added to the top.
1980s A restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue and Josephine Street in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, later as the Red Room and now as the Cricket Club (owned by the New Orleans Culinary Institute). The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000 pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a 40-foot (12 m) cargo container.
31 March 1984 Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through the arches of the tower.
1987 A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the Paris police upon reaching the ground.
27 October 1991 Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures of bungee jumping (not allowed) from the second floor of the Tower. Facing the Champ de Mars, Thierry Devaux was using an electric winch between each figure to go back up. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth bungee jump.
New Year's Eve 1999 The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris's Millennium Celebration. On this occasion, flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower, and fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. Since then, the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris's night sky, and the 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance every hour on the hour.
28 November 2002 The tower received its 200,000,000th guest.
2004 The Eiffel Tower began hosting an ice skating rink on the first floor each winter.
Design of the tower
Material
The Eiffel Tower from below
The puddle iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes, while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125-metre-square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.
Wind considerations
At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, however, as experienced bridge builders, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be […] will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.[37]
Researchers have found that Eiffel used empirical and graphical methods accounting for the effects of wind rather than a specific mathematical formula. Careful examination of the tower shows a basically exponential shape; actually two different exponentials, the lower section overdesigned to ensure resistance to wind forces. Several mathematical explanations have been proposed over the years for the success of the design; the most recent is described as a nonlinear integral equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point. As a demonstration of the tower's effectiveness in wind resistance, it sways only 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.
Accommodation
When built, the first level contained two restaurants: an "Anglo-American Bar", and a 250 seat theatre. A 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) promenade ran around the outside.
On the second level, the French newspaper Le Figaro had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, Le Figaro de la Tour, was produced. There was also a pâtisserie.
On the third level were laboratories for various experiments and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests. This is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike models of Gustave and some guests.
Engraved names
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Maintenance
Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tonnes of paint every seven years to protect it from rust. The height of the Eiffel Tower varies by 15 cm due to temperature.
Aesthetic considerations
In order to enhance the impression of height, three separate colours of paint are used on the tower, with the darkest on the bottom and the lightest at the top. On occasion the colour of the paint is changed; the tower is currently painted a shade of bronze. On the first floor there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session of painting.
The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grillwork arches, added in Stephen Sauvestre's sketches, which served to reassure visitors that the structure was safe, and to frame views of other nearby architecture.
One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 storeys, only a very few of the taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.
Popularity
More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889, including 6,719,200 in 2006. The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Passenger lifts
Ground to the second level
The original lifts (elevators) to the first and second floors were provided by two companies. Both companies had to overcome many technical obstacles as neither company (or indeed any company) had experience with installing lifts climbing to such heights with large loads. The slanting tracks with changing angles further complicated the problems. The East and West lifts were supplied by the French company Roux Combaluzier Lepape, using hydraulically powered chains and rollers. The North and South lifts were provided by the American company Otis using car designs similar to the original installation but using an improved hydraulic and cable scheme. The French lifts had a very poor performance and were replaced with the current installations in 1897 (West Pillar) and 1899 (East Pillar) by Fives-Lille using an improved hydraulic and rope scheme. Both of the original installations operated broadly on the principle of the Fives-Lille lifts.
The Fives-Lille lifts from ground level to the first and second levels are operated by cables and pulleys driven by massive water-powered pistons. The hydraulic scheme was somewhat unusual for the time in that it included three large counterweights of 200 tonnes each sitting on top of hydraulic rams which doubled up as accumulators for the water. As the lifts ascend the inclined arc of the pillars, the angle of ascent changes. The two lift cabs are kept more or less level and indeed are level at the landings. The cab floors do take on a slight angle at times between landings.
The principle behind the lifts is similar to the operation of a block and tackle but in reverse. Two large hydraulic rams (over 1 metre diameter) with a 16 metre travel are mounted horizontally in the base of the pillar which pushes a carriage (the French word for it translates as chariot and this term will be used henceforth to distinguish it from the lift carriage) with 16 large triple sheaves mounted on it. There are 14 similar sheaves mounted statically. Six wire ropes are rove back and forth between the sheaves such that each rope passes between the 2 sets of sheaves 7 times. The ropes then leave the final sheaves on the chariot and pass up through a series of guiding sheaves to above the second floor and then through a pair of triple sheaves back down to the lift carriage again passing guiding sheaves.
This arrangement means that the lift carriage, complete with its cars and passengers, travels 8 times the distance that the rams move the chariot, the 128 metres from the ground to the second floor. The force exerted by the rams also has to be 8 times the total weight of the lift carriage, cars and passengers, plus extra to account for various losses such as friction. The hydraulic fluid was water, normally stored in three accumulators, complete with counterbalance weights. To make the lift ascend, water was pumped using an electrically driven pump from the accumulators to the two rams. Since the counterbalance weights provided much of the pressure required, the pump only had to provide the extra effort. For the descent, it was only necessary to allow the water to flow back to the accumulators using a control valve. The lifts were operated by an operator perched precariously underneath the lift cars. His position (with a dummy operator) can still be seen on the lifts today.
The Fives-Lille lifts were completely upgraded in 1986 to meet modern safety requirements and to make the lifts easier to operate. A new computer-controlled system was installed which completely automated the operation. One of the three counterbalances was taken out of use, and the cars were replaced with a more modern and lighter structure. Most importantly, the main driving force was removed from the original water pump such that the water hydraulic system provided only a counterbalancing function. The main driving force was transferred to a 320 kW electrically driven oil hydraulic pump which drives a pair of hydraulic motors on the chariot itself, thus providing the motive power. The new lift cars complete with their carriage and a full 92 passenger load weigh 22 tonnes.
Owing to elasticity in the ropes and the time taken to get the cars level with the landings, each lift in normal service takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each floor. The average journey time between floors is just 1 minute.
The original Otis lifts in the North and South pillars in their turn proved to be inferior to the new (in 1899) French lifts and were scrapped from the South pillar in 1900 and from the North pillar in 1913 after failed attempts to repower them with an electric motor. The North and South pillars were to remain without lifts until 1965 when increasing visitor numbers persuaded the operators to install a relatively standard and modern cable hoisted system in the north pillar using a cable-hauled counterbalance weight, but hoisted by a block and tackle system to reduce its travel to one third of the lift travel. The counterbalance is clearly visible within the structure of the North pillar. This latter lift was upgraded in 1995 with new cars and computer controls.
The South pillar acquired a completely new fairly standard electrically driven lift in 1983 to serve the Jules Verne restaurant. This was also supplied by Otis. A further four-ton service lift was added to the South pillar in 1989 by Otis to relieve the main lifts when moving relatively small loads or even just maintenance personnel.
The East and West hydraulic (water) lift works are on display and, at least in theory, are open to the public in a small museum located in base of the East and West tower, which is somewhat hidden from public view. Because the massive mechanism requires frequent lubrication and attention, public access is often restricted. However, when open, the wait times are much less than the other, more popular, attractions. The rope mechanism of the North tower is visible to visitors as they exit from the lift.
Second to the third level
The original spiral stairs to the third floor which were only 80 centimetres wide. Note also the small service lift in the background.
The original lifts from the second to the third floor were also of a water-powered hydraulic design supplied by Léon Edoux. Instead of using a separate counterbalance, the two lift cars counterbalanced each other. A pair of 81-metre-long hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. A lift car was mounted on top of the rams. Ropes ran from the top of this car up to a sheave on the third level and back down to a second car. The result of this arrangement was that each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway walking between the cars along a narrow gangway with a very impressive and relatively unobstructed downward view. The ten-ton cars held 65 passengers each or up to four tons.
One interesting feature of the original installation was that the hoisting rope ran through guides to retain it on windy days to prevent it flapping and becoming damaged. The guides were mechanically moved out of the way of the ascending car by the movement of the car itself. In spite of some antifreeze being added to the water that operated this system, it nevertheless had to close to the public from November to March each year.
The original lifts complete with their hydraulic mechanism were completely scrapped in 1982 after 97 years of service. They were replaced with two pairs of relatively standard rope hoisted cars which were able to operate all the year round. The cars operate in pairs with one providing the counterbalance for the other. Neither car can move unless both sets of doors are closed and both operators have given a start command. The commands from the cars to the hoisting mechanism are by radio obviating the necessity of a control cable. The replacement installation also has the advantage that the ascent can be made without changing cars and has reduced the ascent time from 8 minutes (including change) to 1 minute and 40 seconds. This installation also has guides for the hoisting ropes but they are electrically operated. The guide once it has moved out of the way as the car ascends automatically reverses when the car has passed to prevent the mechanism becoming snagged on the car on the downward journey in the event it has failed to completely clear the car. Unfortunately these lifts do not have the capacity to move as many people as the three public lower lifts and long lines to ascend to the third level are common. Most of the intermediate level structure present on the tower today was installed when the lifts were replaced and allows maintenance workers to take the lift halfway.
The replacement of these lifts allowed the restructuring of the criss-cross beams in upper part of the tower and further allowed the installation of two emergency staircases. These replaced the dangerous winding stairs that were installed when the tower was constructed.
Restaurants
The tower has two restaurants: Le 58 tour Eiffel, on the first floor 311 ft (95 m) above sea level; and the Le Jules Verne, a gastronomical restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. In January 2007, the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse was brought in to run Jules Verne.
Attempted relocation
According to interviews given in the early 1980s, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with French President Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company which operated the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored to its original location.
Economics
The American TV show Pricing the Priceless speculates that in 2011 the tower would cost about $480,000,000 to build, that the land under the tower is worth $350,000,000, and that the scrap value of the tower is worth $3,500,000. The TV show estimates the tower makes a profit of about $29,000,000 per year, though it is unlikely that the Eiffel Tower is managed so as to maximize profit.
It costs $5,300,000 to repaint the tower, which is done once every seven years. The electric bill is $400,000 per year for 7.5 million kilowatt-hours.
The Tokyo Tower in Japan is a very similar structure of very similar size. It was finished in 1958 at a final cost of ¥2.8 billion ($8.4 million in 1958).
Source Wikipedia
Eddie Ewing and Marge Nicholds-Ewing, ca. 1924, Los Angeles Co., CA. Caption on left: "How's this for a drib snap HUH?" (spelling as recorded); Caption on right: "Guess who this is?" Marge, my maternal Grandmother, and Eddie, my Grandfather, were 21 and 20, respectively. Marge was born near Bath, England in October 1902, and Eddie was born in Ontario, Canada, in October 1903. They both immigrated into the U.S. and were eventually naturalized as U.S. citizens. These photos are from an album Eddie assembled and partially labeled of their trip to Los Angeles and of their first years in L.A. They had only been married a short time during this period. My mother, their only child, was not born until March 1929. Marge and Eddie lived the life of the Roaring 20's, and Eddie played saxophone in jazz bands, at least for awhile.
Note how small the palm trees are in these photos. Anyone familiar with L.A. will remark at how tall the typical L.A. palms are today, compared to those seen here, 91 years later...
I was very close to my maternal grandparents, and with the turbulent relationship of my parents, a continuous crisis of separation, divorce and remarriage, my grandparents often seemed like my second parents. We lived with them more than once when my parents were split up. While they had their issues, Marge and Eddie were great people, and treated my mom and I, as well as my sister, Kerry Marie Egger, and, later, my brother Brian, with kindness and selfless devotion. They were together, through better and worse, until Marge died suddenly in 1969, at the age of 67. Ed died in 1981 at the age of 76. They both live in my heart always, as the ones who cared for me, took me traveling repeatedly to the Pacific Northwest, visiting the great National Parks and other scenic wonders. It is from them I learned to love nature, including plants. In later years, Marge was an enthusiastic gardener, and their backyard was a refuge of beautiful, exotic and interesting plants and spaces, even though they were not wealthy people, and never had a gardener that I remember. Both Marge and Eddie worked full-time in relatively humble, business-related careers throughout my childhood. Ed worked for some company whatever in downtown L.A. He kept the company's books, honestly, carefully and competently, for many years, but was terminated unfairly and harshly by some corporate dude... Left with next to nothing by them.
Character Creation
Caroline "Carol" Ferris is a fictional character appearing in the DC Comics Universe. She is one of many characters who has used the name Star Sapphire, and the long-time love interest of Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern. In her role as Star Sapphire, Ferris has been active as both a supervillain and, more recently, as a superhero.
Ferris has appeared in various media outside comics, primarily in association with Green Lantern. Kari Wahlgren, Jennifer Hale, Olivia d'Abo, and others have voiced the character in animated television series and films. Furthermore, Ferris appears in the live-action film Green Lantern, portrayed by Blake Lively.
Publication history
Carol Ferris first appeared in Showcase #22, and was created by John Broome and Gil Kane. As a Star Sapphire, she first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #16.
As her normal self (or, in other words, when she wasn't being Star Sapphire), Carol's character has remained fairly constant all the way from her first appearance in 1959 up through to the present day.
She's lived her life, had her ups and downs (both business related and in regards to her personal life), but mostly she's been portrayed fairly constantly throughout. Initially she was portrated as a lonely multimillionairess (or it was that Hal Jordan thought).
It is true that, as time has gone on and cultural sensibilities have changed, she's undergone significant changes in how her character was written, but no more so than would be the case with any other character who's had such a long publication history (1959-present). As a comparison, her character has changed in portrayal a fair amount less than, say, Lois Lane's has.
In recent years though, with the advent of the Star Sapphire Corps, and the accompanying ability her new ring granted her to remain herself as Star Sapphire, the major event in her life is that she's started to act as Star Sapphire, as a hero, on a regular basis, spending much of her time out among the stars, while still returning to Earth periodically to keep up with the company she owns.
Fictional Character History
As Star Sapphire
Unlike her civilian identity, Carol's alter ego, Star Sapphire, on the other hand, has gone through some very significant changes as time has gone on.
Femme Fatale (1959 - 1987)
Throughout this period, Carol's Star Sapphire persona was more prone to strong emotion, or being controlled or compelled by the Zamarons. She had varying degrees of control over her actions. Her main motivation often had a lot to do with winning Hal Jordan's heart, and/or seeking to be the Zamaron queen.
Villain (1987-1995)
She didn't really act in any way that could be considered truly malicious. And, in fact, would more often help Hal than vex him.
During this time, her modus-operandi shifted and she moved towards some seriously dark territory. Slavery, mind control, torture, even murder. Her relationship with her Star Sapphire persona changed towards something more like a split-personality, one that she very much wanted to be rid of.
Hero (2007 - present)
During the War of Light storyline, the Zamarons rethought their strategy in bringing love to the universe. They became less cynical, and acted with more open hearts when they gave up sending out Star Sapphire crystals, and instead forged rings that let the bearer retain most of, or even complete control over themselves (depending on their ability to control and focus their own emotions). They founded the Star Sapphire Corps, and sought out Carol to lead and guide them.
Carol accepted the charge and has sense fought to defend Zamaron from first the Sinestro Corps, then the Black Lanterns. Following that, she fought against the Blackest Night, helped guide The Predator to be a positive force, aided Hawkgirl and Hawkman against Queen Shrike during Brightest Day, fought against Krona in the War of the Green Lanterns, and has since joined Kyle Rayner's New Guardians team to continue her heroics.
Major Story Arcs
Secret Origin
Carol Ferris, owner of Ferris Air
(In Green Lantern #29-35 May-Nov 2009)
As a little girl, Carol was brought to watch the plains take off by her father, Carl Ferris (then owner of Ferris Aircraft). A young Hal Jordan was there too, watching his father's test flight. Carol and Hal talked, and found that they both wanted to be pilots when they grew up. Tragedy struck however, and Hal's father's plane crashed.
Years later, a grown woman, Carol's father had retired from running his company and left it to Carol to run. Prior to that, Carol had been fulfilling her dream of being a pilot, but she gave that up to run the company because she felt it was her responsibility.
Two years after she assumed control of the company, she went to a meeting at Arden Air. She was making a deal to buy the company from Ken Arden. Hal Jordan, who still blamed Carol's father for his dad's death (Carl Ferris had skied on materials to cut costs on the plane Hal's father had been flying that day), was working there.
There was a test flight flying out of Arden that day, and it went wrong. Hal, in his debut appearance as Earth's Green Lantern, saved the flight. Carol saw the whole thing, and was immediately smitten with him, much to Hector Hammond's consternation. Hammond, one of Carol's employees, had been trying to get Carol to agree to go out with him for some time, though Carol had continually refused him.
A week later, Carol was having trouble keeping her company afloat because some of the people who would have given her design contracts didn't respect her the way they had her father (presumably because she was a woman and, at that time, there was more than a little gender prejudice going around about things like women running businesses). For the same reason, she was getting a lot of resignations from former Arden employees who didn't like the change in leadership.
At the same time, Hammond was exposed to something and mutated into a highly disfigured telepath. When Hal came into her office to throw in his resignation with the rest (though, in his case, it had more to do with the grudge he still had against her father). Carol let him vent a little about his grudge, but then asked if he wanted to fly again. Hal had just recently crashed a test flight (when he'd gotten his Green Lantern ring) and prior to that, he had a real reputation as a risk-taker and a hot-head. Ken Arden had only kept him on because he'd known his dad. No one wanted to hire him either, just like no one seemed to want to fly for her. Hal took the job.
Hal flew his first test flight for Carol the next day, and when he landed the plain, Hammond attacked, intent on his feelings for Carol. Hal saved her though, but disappeared afterward mysteriously.
A couple days later, Hal showed up at Carol's house at night and demanded to see her father. It was then revealed that her father was sick, dying really. Carol told Hal that the guilt he had about his father's death had eaten him up inside over the years. Hal and Carol made a real connection that night, Hal telling Carol he was so sorry for what she was going through and that she wasn't alone.
From there on, Carol ran Ferris Aircraft with just Hal Jordan and Tom Kalmaku as her employees. Hal asked her out on a date, but Carol just smiled and said "Oh Jordan, everyone knows. I don't date employees". She went on to make her company into a success.
Note: This origin story is somewhat different, and more completely told, that the one told in the 1959-1960 Green Lantern books. The difference can be accounted for by the various events that would reshape reality in the DC Universe, such as Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, and Infinite Crisis.
Justice
(In Justice #6-#7 Aug-Oct 2006)
In the midst of another crisis, where the villains have learned the heroes secret identities, John Stewart comes looking for Hal Jordan at Ferris Aircraft. Later, fearing for Carol's safety, Hal breaks up with her (again). He tells Carol he's just self-centered, and Carol cries hearing it.
The War of Light
(In Green Lantern #18-20, 38, 45, and Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #2 May 2007-Sept 2009)
Carol's first major story arc after Hal's return, in which the two reconcile some of their emotions for one another. Unbeknownst to Carol at the time the Zamarons were consolidating the power of the Star Sapphire and creating their own intergalactic corps, the Star Sapphire Corps. In doing so they created instead of the Star Sapphire a number of Violet Power Rings.
In preparation for the anticipated events of Blackest Night, Carol was once again confronted by the power of the Zamarons, except it was in the unfamiliar version of the power ring. This allowed Carol to enact a degree of control over the ring which she never had previously, and in which she maintained control of her conscious mind during when she wore the ring. She was thus identified by Queen Aga'Po as the one that could be able to tame the sentient embodiment of love, the Predator.
As the events of the War of Light began to come to a head, she was instructed by the Zamarons that she was to be the leader of the Star Sapphire Corps, and that if she didn't accept, she wouldn't be there to help Hal when he would really need it.
On Zamaron, she helped to build the ranks of the new Star Sapphire Corps, and when Sinestro attacked, intent on freeing the female members of the Sinestro Corps who were imprisoned there in sapphire crystals awaiting a time when those crystals would be able to draw out the love in their hearts and reform them. The process and already worked on Yrra Cyrill (formerly known as Finality), and Yrra joined Carol in defending Zamaron.
Carol and Sinestro fought in a pitched battle in the midst of the conflict, but their fight was interrupted by onset of the Blackest Night.
Blackest Night
(In Green Lantern #45-48, 50-51, Blackest Night #1-8, and Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3 Sept 2009-May 2010)
When the Blackest Night fell over the universe, Carol was on Zamaron, defending it and her Corps from attack by the Sinestro Corps. Carol was battling Sinestro himself, when the Black Lantern Corps arrived on the scene and attacked both Corps. Carol and Sinestro called a true to fight back against them, then Hal Jordan teleported in with the aide of Indigo-1 and Munk of the Indigo Tribe (note: members of the Indigo have the ability to teleport, and they are the only type of lantern in the spectrum that can do so).
The new additions (minus Munk whom Indigo-1 sent to Oa) joined Carol in her fight, but the battle was effectively lost when two Black Lantern rings entered the Sat Sapphire central power battery and called Khufu and Chay-ara, whose dead bodies (frozen in an eternal embrace) were being used to power the battery.
The battery was destroyed, the Star Sapphires and Zamarons fled Zamaron, The Predator broke free of it's crystal prison, and Carol teleported away with Indigo-1, Hal, and Sinestro. Indigo-1 teleported them to Korugar, Sinestro's planet of origin. Indigo-1 told them that they had to unite all the Corps to battle the Black Lanterns. She'd brought them to Korugar so that Sinestro could retake control of all of his Corps from Mongul. Sinestro won, and then two Black Lanterns arrived there too. Carol helped the others destroy them, and then they (Carol, Indigo-1, Hal, and Sinestro) traveled to Odym, home of the Blue Lantern Corps. Larfleeze the Orange Lantern's constructs were attacking. They were about to aid the Blues when his constructs evaporated becasue Larfleeze was under attack by Black Lanterns.
Carol's group, now joined by Saint Walker of the Blue Lanterns, teleported to Okaara to aide Larfleeze and, as it turned out, find Atrocitus of the Red Lantern Corps as well. Carol joined the others in destroying the Black Lanterns there.
The leaders of all seven Corps brought together, they traveled to Ryut in Space Sector 666 to meet Ganthet and Sayd to plan their next move. That done, they traveled to Earth, where the final battle would take place, and came to the rescue of a group of Earth heroes, including Wonder Woman.
They destroyed the rouge Guardian of the Universe, Scar, and attacked the Black Lantern central power battery. That was when Nekron (the being behind Blackest Night) turned the Earth heroes into Black Lanterns, even though they were still alive.
They fought and came up with the plan to deputize some of Earth's heroes to help in the fight, one to each Corps leader. Carol chose Wonder Woman as her partner.
That was when The Spectre, who had been turned into a Black Lantern, attacked. Carol and Diana fought along with the others against him, but he was too powerful, even for all of them combined. Hal got the idea of letting Parallax free and letting it possess him again so he'd have enough power to fight and beat Spectre. Hal and Spectre fought, and when it was over, Carol was able to pull back Hal and get him free of Parallax again.
After that, The Entity manifested, there was a huge fight, and the heroes won the day.
In the aftermath, once the deputations were withdrawn, Queen Mera was dying becasue her heart wasn't beating any more thanks to her having been a Red Lantern. Carol used her and Arthur's love to restart her heart and save her life.
The New Guardians
(In Green Lantern #53-58 June-Dec 2010)
Following the events of Blackest Night, Carol and Hal went to get drinks and eat at the bar at Ferris Air in Coast City. They talked a while, but it seemed to Carol they were just talking in circles, not getting to anything real, so she told Hal that they never did have much luck talking with a table between them and suggested they take their conversation airborne. So they both suited up, got in the cockpits, put on their flight helmets (which had their call-signs on them, "Sapphire" and "Highball"), and took off in a couple of planes from the nearby hangers.
Carol asked Hal what he wanted, why he'd come out with her when he was still seeing Cowgirl. Hal was just about to answer when Sinestro came flaying right at them and blew up their planes by flying into them, head-on, at high speed. Luckily, both Carol and Hal had been wearing their power rings and were able to shield themselves and power up to meet the threat.
They battled with him, but he insisted he came in peace. It turned out Sinestro wasn't looking for a fight, he'd basically just been being a jerk when he destroyed their aircraft. He'd actually come to ask for their assistance.
Apparently, after Nekron and his Blackest Night had been beaten back, The Entity left in it's wake a white lantern power battery. So the three of them traveled to where it was, in Silver City, New Mexico. They all took turns trying to lift it, no no avail. Then they tried all lifting it together; it didn't work, but The Entity did tell them "Help Me Live" and showed them a vision of the seven Emotional Embodiment Entities - The Predator, Adara, Proselyte, Ion, The Butcher, Parallax, and Ophidian - telling them that they were in danger and needed to be saved.
It then teleported them to New York City and told them to seek help from Atrocitus. They found him in the subways, calling for a blood prophecy, and Carol had to stop Hal from starting a fight with him. That's when Lobo showed up, ostensibly trying to collect a bounty on Atrocitus. Carol mostly stayed out of the fight, though at one point she did attempt to encase Lobo in a sapphire crystal to bring out whatever love he may have had in his heart. He apparently didn't have much to work with though, becasue it didn't work and he broke free.
Carol, Hal, Sinestro, and Atrocitus finally manages to drive Lobo away, and Hal reluctantly agrees to work with Atrocitus becasue he wants to stop the seven entities so much. He thinks they're all bad news, mostly becasue of his horrific experience with Parallax. Carol disagrees though, saying what if the entities are like the different Corps, some good and some bad?
From there, the group splits up. Carol goes after the Predator, Hal after Ophidian, and Sinestro and Atrocitus go after The Butcher.
Carol tracks The Predator to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she gets a message through her ring from Queen Aga'po of the Zamarons that she needs to find her quarry soon, becasue the Star Sapphire Corps central battery is losing power. Unbeknownst to Carol, Aga'po has been giving the battery her own power, her own immortal life-force and beauty, to keep it going since the Black Lanterns destroyed the previous power source the battery used. Aga'po is planning to use The Predator as the new power source, but cautions Carol that The Predator is dangerous and violent. Carol, whose been possessed by The Predator in the past when her heart was broken by Hal once upon a time and she had lost faith in love, doubts what Aga'po says about the Predator being violent by nature is true, but none the less continues her mission to find it.
What she finds though, is Larfleeze in a casino making trouble becasue of an all you can eat buffet he's spotted. That's when The Predator makes it's appearance, having possessed a man named Abraham Pointe. Abraham was a shy loner type who had a crush on a kind and pretty woman named Lisa who worked at that casino. He'd been coming to that casino and taking her picture for a long time, but had never believed in himself enough to think that someone as good and amazing as her would return his feelings.
The Predator, attracted to his despair and wanting to heal it, possessed him and brought him to Lisa, but basically charged in like a bull in china shop while doing it. Carol fought the possessed man, trying to get him to stop, believing that The Predator was being driven by the man it had possessed, and not the other way around. The Predator was just too powerful though, but not really interested in fighting her back that much. That's when Hal came on the scene and started to fight The Predator.
Becoming Queen of the Star Sapphires
Carol used the detraction to talk to Lisa and discover that she had no idea who Abraham was, that they'd never met. That's when Carol figured out what was going on. She talked to the possessed man, calmed him down, told him that we all want to be loved and that it was okay to feel that way, then she kissed him and The Predator left him.
Having achieved her objective, the Zamarons teleported Carol, The Predator, Hal, Abraham, and Larfleeze to Zamaron.
On Zamaron, Aga'po and the other Zamarons wanted to put The Predator into their central power battery to stop it's power from fading away, and to keep The Predator contained so it wouldn't be a danger to others. Carol argued that The Predator shouldn't be locked away, that it seeks out hosts that don't know what love is in order to heal them. That the damage done is the fault of those hosts who take a rocky path towards discovering their path towards love, and not due to any violent intent on the part of The Predator. After all, a heart that does not believe in love is a lonely one, prone to acting out it's sorrows, frustrations, and pain.
Further, she says that they don't even need The Predator to power their battery, that none of the other Corps use anything save belief to power their batteries (though it's worth noting that, in the case of the Red Lanterns, that is not actually true, becasue they use the blood of the guilty for that purpose). Queen Aga'po takes Carol's words to heart, and pronounces that Control is right. She goes to the central battery and gives it the remainder of her life and her power in an act of faith in the power of love. With her last words, she names Carol as her successor as queen. With Aga'po's gift, the power battery blazes with new life and power and the Star Sapphire Corps are saved. (A statue is later built on Zamaron in Aga'po's honor.)
Carol then decides to stay on Zamaron to rebuild the Star Sapphire Corps and carry out her duties as the new queen. Hal argues with her that they need to continue hunting for the remaining entities on Earth, to protect them from the danger the white lantern warned of, saying that she can't seriously want to leave her life on Earth for being the queen of Zamaron. Carol says that, on the contrary, that's exactly what she's going to do. That if The Predator comes under threat, she and the Star Sapphire Corps will be there to defend it from harm.
Hal asks when she's going to return, and Carol says that she'll tell him the same thing he told her so many times "I'll be back when the job is done." At that, they part ways, and Hal goes back to Earth.
Brightest Day
(in Brightest Day #13 and #17-#18 Jan-Mar 2011)
On Hawkworld, high above the clouds of Nth City, Hawkgirl's mother, Khea Taramka (a.k.a. Queen Shrike) captured her and Hawkman and used them as part of a portal that would take her to Zamaron. When she arrived with her army of manhawks, Carol and The Predator were there waiting to confront them.
She fought her way through the manhawks to free Hawkgirl and Hawkman. While they had been battling her minions though, Khea had been attempting to make the Star Sapphire's central battery her own. They attacked her to try to stop her, but while Khea and her daughter were fighting, The Predator sensed Khea's black heart and was drawn to her, to bring her it's light and try to heal her. It possessed her, and Khea attacked them with The Predator's power.
Carol told them that the only way to release The Predator from inside Khea would be to get her to feel love. Just after she told them that though, Khea imprisoned her within a sapphire crystal. She was only freed when Hawkgirl and Hawkman killed Khea and freed The Predator that way.
The battle over, Carol told them both that the love they had for one another was what had given them the power to kill Khea. She then teleported them back to Earth.
War of the Green Lanterns
(In Green Lantern #63-64 and 67 May-Aug 2011)
Hal, Indigo-1, Atrocitus, Saint Walker, and Larfleeze were gathered in space to discuss their next move against Krona when Carol was thrown through a teleportation portal into their midst, Krona's voice in her wake telling them that he now had all seven entities.
The New Guardians vs. Lyssa Drak
It's unknown weather Carol was thrown there by Krona for some reason, or if Carol escaped and came to warn them that Krona had captured the Predator and Krona simply used her escape portal to brag of his victory. In either case, the result was the same.
Moments later, Sinestro showed up to round out their team again. The seven of them tracked Krona's energy signature to Ryut, Atrocitus's dead home-world. They followed the trail into some caverns, where they found seven obelisks with seven glowing symbols one them, one for each Corps, ranging from red on one side to violet on the other. In the center of the obelisks was the Book of the Black. The book opened, and dark energy chains came out, striking them all in their eyes, showing them visions.
The chains released them and from the book appeared Lyssa Drak, the story vampire and a former member of the Sinestro Corps. She had changed allegiances to Krona, since Sinestro had abandoned her during Blackest Night, Lyssa attacked them with more chains, and they were all but helpless. All of them, save Hal, whom Sinestro was able to knock free just in time, were drawn into the book.
Inside the book, Carol and the others experienced alternate versions of what their lives might have been. In Carol's case, she lived an illusory life where she and Hal were together and in love.
Hal, with Kyle Rayner's help, eventually was able to free them all, and Carol got her Sapphire ring back. Hal was stripped of his ring by the Guardians of the Universe, and Carol followed him back home to Earth.
Flashpoint
(In Flashpoint: Hal Jordan #1-3 Aug-Oct 2011)
Trying to torment Barry Allen (The Flash), Professor Zoom (The Reverse Flash) went back in time and changed history so that he never became The Flash in the first place, and this resulted in a changed history for the entire world - the world of Flashpoint.
In this world, Carol still grew up being childhood friends with Hal Jordan, and the both of them still dreamed of being pilots when they grew up. They still both witnessed Hal's father die in a crash. But in this world, Hal never became Green Lantern. Instead, he and Carol grew up together and both followed their dreams to become pilots.
Carol 'Sapphire' Ferris in the pilot's seat defending America's coastline during the war
Carol 'Sapphire' Ferris in the pilot's seat defending America's coastline during the war
That dream turned into something of a nightmare though, when the war between Atlantis, the Amazons, and the human race came to America.
Ferris Aircraft was drafted to provide coastal defense, and both Carol and Hal began flying defense patrols along the coast as private contractors for the air force.
They were first attacked by Shark (an agent of Atlantis) and then had to defend against an assault by the Amazons who flew invisible jets and dropped a mythological monster on their base. Together, Carol and Hal successfully repelled both attacks.
Hal soon after volunteered for a mission against the Amazon's capital city in England. He was to fly a nuclear bomb, named the Green Arrow, to their capital and drop it.
Carol joined the mission and flew with him and a squadron of other jets, including one flown by Blackhawk. The Amazons had an energy shield, and they were attacked on many fronts.
They received new orders for Hal to bomb the shield. Carol flew in with him to give him cover. Hal's plane was damaged, his electrical system stopped working.
They settled on the plan that they would fly their planes into the shield and bail out together before they hit. Only Hal's ejection system wasn't working, and he didn't tell Carol that, so he died in the explosion while Carol lived. The shield was taken down though.
Back at base, Carol was given Hal's effects, which included a journal where he confessed that he'd always loved her but had been afraid to say so, and a wedding ring he'd been planning to give her.
Barry Allen eventually recovered his memory of the timeline where he was The Flash and was able to rewrite history again, bringing about the world of DC's New 52.
Post-Flashpoint, Carol and Hal's story would remain essentially the same as it was pre-New 52 and pick up where it left off before the Flashpoint event, although many other characters within the DC Universe would undergo quite radical alterations.
Sinestro
(In the New 52's Green Lantern #1, 3, 5-7, and 12 Nov 2011-Oct 2012)
After the events of the War of the Green Lanterns, Hal was grounded on Earth. Carol hung up her own ring for a while too, to unwind from everything that had happened, to help Hal, and to have her life on Earth back.
Hal was going stir crazy though, and getting into trouble. He'd been cut from the air force for going A.W.O.L. for so long, and Carol had to bail him out of jail when he tried to play hero and messed it up. He asked her to get him back in the sky again, with a job at Ferris Air, but she had to turn him down becasue, with his track record, she couldn't insure any plane he was flying. She told him she would hire him, just not as a pilot. He changed the subject and asked her out to dinner.
Carol assumed it was a date, it was a fancy restaurant and everything, but it turns out he asked her to co-sign his car loan. She threw her drink in his face and walked out on him. He chased after her but really said all the wrong things (seriously, if he'd been any more dense, it would have been quite a trick) and she drove off and left him there stranded without a ride home
When she got home, she got a phone call from Tom Kalmaku, who told her turn turn on the TV. The news showed Hal as a Green Lantern again, working with Sinestro, also a Green Lantern (it happened at the end of War of the Green Lanterns). She could barely believe what she was seeing.
Hal left Earth with Sinestro, and didn't come back for more than a day. When he did return, Sinestro dumped him in an alley, again without a ring. He sought out Carol at Ferris Air. She asked him what the hell was going on, him working with Sinestro, and he kissed her and asked for a chance to explain himself.
He told her he'd been through something bad with Sinestro and the only thing that had got him through was thinking of her. He told he that he knew they'd never work out but that he wanted to try anyway. He asked for a second chance. Carol pointed out that, technically, it would be his tenth, but, none-the-less, she said yes, and they kissed.
A little while later, they went on a date to the Coast City Aeronautical Museum, and it went pretty well. They ended up back in bed at her place, and Hal was being attentive and romantic. It was great. Then a Green Lantern ring flew into the room and Sinestro showed up.
He told Hal he needed his help again - high stakes, fate of the universe in the balance, etc... Hal turned him down flat, twice. Sinestro didn't take no for an answer, and attacked Carol, wrapping her in a green energy construct and holding a green energy construct gun to her head, threatening to kill her if Hal didn't do what he asked. Hal decked him. They fought. The Indigo Tribe showed up and tried to capture both Hal and Sinestro. Carol put on her ring, and went to help Hal, but by the time she got there, the Indigo Tribe had teleported Hal and Sinestro off-world.
Shortly after this, Amanda Waller tried to recruit her for her new Justice League of America team. She turned her down and lied, telling her she didn't have her power ring anymore.
Rise of the Third Army
(In the New 52's Green Lantern: New Guardians #0, 13-16 and annual #1 Dec 2012-Mar 2013)
Carol went to Ferris Air after hours, meaning to check on Hal's power battery to see if he'd come back for it. There, she ran into Tom Kalmaku who was working late. Carol had Tom pick the lock on Hal's locker. Inside, they found his power battery untouched, as well as quite a few pictures of her, both with and without Hal in them, and, lastly, but perhaps most significantly, they found a wedding ring that Hal had been keeping there, which let Carol know he'd been planning to propose to her (or at least he was strongly considering it).
It was at this point that they saw a green figure flying towards them. Carol, naturally, thought it was Hal coming back to her, but it turned out to be Kyle Rayner instead. he'd come looking for Hal, seeking his help after what the other Guardians of the Universe did to Ganthet (his mentor).
Tom called them over to the TV then, and there they saw Hal and Sinestro battle Black Hand in a graveyard. Carol told Kyle to get to the cemetery as fast as he could, that she'd be following along right after him as soon as she could go get her ring.
When they got there, they found a bunch of the dead that Black Hand had risen from their graves attacking a contingent of the police. She and Kyle destroyed some and drover the rest back, telling the police that they would go in and handle the situation. They went in and found a crater where Kyle said he could sense that a yellow power battery had blown up there. Carol questioned him on why he could sense that, and he told her that, since he'd worn rings from six different corps at once (during the events of New Guardians #1-12), he'd been able to tap into some of the other colors of the emotional spectrum. Next they were beset bay a huge army of the the risen dead.
Things weren't looking that great when Kyle tapped into hope and will (blue and green) both at once to generate a large light flare that destroyed all their attackers. Carol told him that Hal had always said he was something special. Kyle asked his ring to locate Hal, and his ring told him that Hal was dead.
Carol refused to accept it, even when Kyle told her that Hal's ring had already found his replacement. She told him that she shared a heart tether with him and that it was still in tact, so he couldn't be dead.
Kyle was doubtful, Carol used her power to show Kyle a vision of his future drawn from his heart. It showed that he would have to combine the light of the seven corps himself. She said he would have to, if they were going to save the man she loved.
From there, Carol recruited Atrocitus to train Kyle in how to tap the red power of rage. Kyle could tap will (green) of course, and, thanks to his experience during War of the Green lanterns, he could tap hope (blue) reliably too, but not so the others.
Atrocitus took Kyle to Alex Dewitt's grave (his dead girlfriend who'd been murdered), hoping to tap into his rage that way. It wasn't working, Kyle just felt very sad, and Carol had a hard time letting Atrocitus keep beating him. Atrocitus finally confronted Carol, but she told him that of all the lanterns in the universe, she was the one he should be most afraid of becasue love was at the root of his rage. Atrocitus was actually quelled by this, but insisted on taking Kyle elsewhere to complete his training where Carol wouldn't interfere.
When Kyle came back, he'd learned what he needed from Atrocitus, and Carol had rebuilt Alex's grave from when Atrocitus had demolished it before.
From there, they parted ways for a time. Kyle went for training with Indigo-1, and Carol returned to Zamaron to report to them what she was doing with Kyle. The Zamarons' new queen made a show of discouraging her from helping Kyle at first, ordering her to return to her own space sector as all other Star Sapphire corpswomen were recently ordered by them to do (in actuality, this was a ruse on the part of the Zamarons to gain the Guardians of the Universe's trust so that they would be in a better position to stop their plans to rid the universe of free will through their third army; the Guardians were listening, so they had to put on a show for Carol). Carol defined them, telling them that she was on a mission to save a lost love, and wasn't that what the Star Sapphire Corps was all about? The Zamarons accepted her reasons and let her go on her way (the watching Guardians thought they did so so that they could use Carol to track Kyle).
Carol caught up with Kyle later, just as he was finishing his training with Arkillo, the last of the fear lanterns. From there, they left to go to Okaara to visit Larfleeze so Kyle could learn to wield avarice (orange). Larfleeze wouldn't help at first, but Carol convinced him, after she read his heart and saw that the thing he wanted most was to be reunited with his family. She promised to use her power to find them, if he helped Kyle, and he actually agreed.
The training was a success, but no sooner was it complete than the Third Army attacked. Sayd (who had promised to serve as Larfleeze's guardian to win his cooperation during Blackest Night) was able to hold them off though while they made their escape.
From there, they returned to Zamaron so that Kyle could learn to wield love too, the last emotional power he had yet to learn (and, for him, the most difficult one). While there, the Zamarons explained their ruse regarding the Guardians of the Universe and why they had acted as they had towards her before. They further assigned Carol the task of contacting Lady Styx, ruler of the Tenebrian Dominion, and seeking her help in the coming battle with the Guardians of the Universe and their Third Army.
Carol left on her mission, with Arkillo and Saint Walker as her partners. They managed to get themselves smuggled into the Dominion, but the place was pretty much nuts. Carol did manage to get a fairly brief audience with Lady Styx, but the infamous ruler turned her down and refused to help. She and her teammates were hunted by the local authorities and only just made it out by being very daring.
Carol made it back just in time to join in with Kyle and the Zamarons' battle with Ganthet, who had come to Zamaron to deal with Kyle. Ganthet was being powered by energy he and the other Guardians of the Universe were siphoning off of Volthoom the First Lantern, so he was much more powerful than one of his race usually would be (otherwise he would have stood no chance whatsoever against the forces arrayed against him). Carol and her team joined in the battle against Ganthet, but Ganthet was only finally driven off by Kyle when he finally learned to tap into the sapphire light of love, becoming a while lantern.
Wrath of the First Lantern
(In the New 52's Green Lantern: New Guardians #18-19 and Green Lantern #20-21 Apr-Aug 2013)
Carol, Kyle, Arkillo, and Saint Walker went to Oa to fight against the 3rd Amy, but instead found Volthoom (the first lantern) free. He trapped them all in alternate versions of their lives that were seemingly positive at first but all designed to end in tragedy so that he could feed on their emotions (his favorite emotion to feed on being despair).
In Carol's alternate life, she never took over her father's business, never gave up her dream to become a pilot. Her father died disappointed in her, Ferris air was bought by a company called Leviathan, and she ended up joining the air force, leading a squadron of fighter planes. Hal Jordan was one of the pilots under her command. It turned out that Leviathan (the company that also designed the defense systems on the aircraft carrier she was on) was a front for Atlantians, and they attacked. The Leviathan systems went off line and they were all but defenseless.
Carol took her plane up, intending to ram it into the Atlantian command ship to disable their control over the carrier's defense systems. She intended to bail out before it hit, but (notably reminiscent of how Hal died in the world of Flashpoint, Carol's ejection system jammed). However, as she was about to die, she felt love for her unit, for the people she was fighting for, and that let her transcend Volthoom's alternate reality and access her power as a Star Sapphire. She remembered who she really was and began to use her power to fight against the Atlantians. Volthoom saw this, and, his emotional meal spoiled by Carol's triumph, and Carol attacking him with he squadron backing her up, he ended the alternate world he crated.
Carol broke free of Volthoom and sped all out across the ocean to rescue Kyle, who wasn't faring nearly so well against Volthoom's attack on him. He'd sunk into despair. Volthoom was gone by the time she got there, but Kyle was in a bad way. She helped him to his feet and talked to him to snap him out of his despair. She told him he needed to use his ring to contact the other New Guardians to warn them about Volthoom. They couldn't reach anyone except Sinestro, who was now a Green Lantern.
They teleported to where he was, the remains of Korugar, Sinestro's home-world, which Volthoom had destroyed to 'teach him a lesson'. Kyle was caught up in sensing so much death, when Sinestro attacked them, thinking Kyle was in league with Volthoom becasue he wore a white ring. Carol defended Kyle, blocking Sinestro's attack. Sinestro got though, but Carol rallied and they fought until two Green Lanterns, B'dg and Simon Baz, showed up and they finally managed to connive Sinestro that Kyle wasn't in league with their enemy.
Sinestro all but begged Kyle to use his power to resurrect Korugar. Kyle tried, but couldn't. Sinestro stole his ring, and Carol saved Kyle from suffocating in space until the ring, rejecting Sinestro, returned to Kyle. Carol, Kyle, Baz, and B'dg faced off against Sinestro, ready for a fight, but he left, intent of finding Volthoom and getting revenge, now that he no longer held out any hope of returning Korugar to life again.
From there, Carol, Kyle, Baz, and Saint Walker gathered and led an army of Star Sapphires, Green Lanterns, and Blue Lanterns against Volthoom. As the battle ranged, Hal came on the scene as a Black Lantern, leading an army of Black Lanterns to fight Volthoom. In the end, Hal summoned Nekron to kill Volthoom, Hal was returned to life, and he and Carol were reunited.
Carol and Hal returned to Earth together, and Hal seemed to want to pick up where they'd left off when Sinestro had come to call at the start of the whole thing, but Carol, as it turned out, Carol just felt like she couldn't go through with it again. That she couldn't try to make it work with him again when it always seemed to go wrong again and again, and hurt her every time. She told him that she wanted to be with him, but felt she couldn't keep loving him unless it was at a distance. They broke up and went their separate ways, Carol deciding she wanted to follow her heart and become a Star Sapphire again. She told him maybe they would meet again out there among the stars.
The Quest Begins
(In the New 52's Green Lantern: New Guardians #21-23)
On Earth, Hal having left, Carol stayed put for a while to keep up with her duties as the owner of Ferris Air. She also helped Kyle Rayner back up his things and put them into storage in prior to his going off into space with the Guardians of the Universe (the ones who had been guarding Volthoom for so very long). Kyle left, and she went back to her company.
Some days later, the Guardians tapped into her ring and teleported her across the universe becasue Kyle needed her help again. He'd been captured by a new threat called Relic. Relic had placed him in a dream world where he was tricking him into telling him everything her knew about all seven corps. She was able to focus her power through Exeter's energy channeling apparatus and break though Relic's shield, and enter into Kyle's dreamworld. Because of the trust they'd developed between them, she was able to convince Kyle that what he was experiencing was a trick and that he had to snap out of what Relic was doing to him and fight free. It worked, and kyle was able to make his escape.
Relic left after that though and did not attempt to recapture Kyle or retaliate against Carol, Exeter, or the Guardians. He left to attack the Blue Lantern's new home-world, Elpis, though, so she, Kyle, and the Guardians followed along behind him to try to stop him. They all tried to stop him. Carol attacked Relic head on in fact, but he was able to withstand it becasue he felt love for everything, all of creation. Carol and the others didn't give up though, and kept pressing their attack.
In the end though, they couldn't stop him. Relic murdered all the Blue Lanterns and destroyed their battery. Kyle teleported them away to Oa, where they assumed Relic would strike next.
Lights Out
(In the New 52's Green Lantern #24, Green Lantern Corps #24, and Green Lantern: New Guardians #24, Red Lanterns #24, Green Lantern Annual #2, and Green Lantern #25 Dec 2013-Jan 2014)
Carol and company arrive on Oa. They explain to Hal (who's been made leader of the Green Lantern Corps recently) that Relic is on his way. There's not much time to talk about it though before he shows up. They try to reason with him, but it doesn't work, there's a battle, the Green Lantern central battery is blown up, and then so is Oa itself. They leave before it happens, and Carol tells Hal not to blame himself for what happened.
Hal wants to lead his lanterns in another battle against Relic, but Carol talks him out of it, telling him he can't win and he needs to be responsible becasue his corps is counting on him. Then The Predator, Adara, Proselyte, Ion, Ophidian, and The Entity show up and possess Kyle, who takes off for parts unknown.
Carol and Hal chase after him. Carol tries to reach Kyle the same way she did before when he was trapped in a dream world by Relic, but The Predator stops her, saying that it loves her, but what their doing with Kyle is too important to stop.
They aren't able to stop the possessed Kyle and he gets away from them. From there, they go to Ysmault to recruit the Red Lanterns to their cause. They manage to convince them, but don't know where to look for Kyle or Relic. Carol reluctantly confesses that she can find Kyle. Hal understands the implication of that, that if she can do that, then... she must love him (that's part of the way it works for a Star Sapphire). He accuses her of lying to him before about why she broke up with him, that it wasn't becasue of him, it was becasue she had feelings for someone else - Kyle. Carol avoids the conversation by telling him that now isn't the time, that they have to stop Relic. It's the truth of course, so Hal lets it go for the moment and Carol lets loose a heart tether and takes them all to where Kyle is.
They find him and Relic at The Source Wall. There's a battle, Relic is trapped in the wall, and Kyle apparently is trapped on the other side of the wall, inside The Source itself. Carol tried to save him of course, but this time she couldn't - Relic stopped her. Carol and the others think that means he's died, sacrificed himself.
On Mogo, where the Green Lanterns have regrouped with their new power battery (that Mogo made), Hal tells his people about this plan he's got for the Green Lanterns to start policing the other Corps to get rid of their rings. He doesn't explicitly say Star Sapphires will be targeted too, but he does strongly elude to that being a distinct possibility. Carol confronts him about it and basically tells him he's being an arrogant jerk, that the Green Lanterns have messed up and done way too much harm to take the moral high ground. She tells him she's going to report to the Star Sapphire Corps what he's doing and that love will be ready to stand it's ground against him if he decides to make himself their enemy.
She leaves for Zamaron to make her report.
Yesterday's Gone
(In the New 52's Green Lantern: New Guardians #25-26)
On Zamaron she told the Zamarons that she didn't really think Hal would follow through on the letter of his threat, at least not yet, but that they needed to be vigilant in case things with the Green Lanterns got out of hand (again). She also advocated reexamining the way the Star Sapphire Corps operated, to see if they could do better. Before she could really discuss that with them though, she got a call from the Guardians of the Universe who'd been traveling around with Kyle before his death. They told her that she needed to come meet them to 'address a matter of concern regarding lantern Rayner'.
She took off into space right away to go meet them, leaving her discussion with the Zamarons for another time. She was expecting it to be a funeral or something. When she got to the meeting place (a planet named Exuras) though, she found Kyle alive and well. She called him a jerk for not contacting her himself to tell her he was alive. They had a few words, but she ended up hugging him and telling him how happy she was he wasn't dead.
Apparently, she was the only one, besides the Guardians, whom he'd decided to tell he was alive so far. He didn't want it getting back to Hal for some reason (becasue he had 'things to figure out').
After that, she asked why they were on Exuras, and she found out that it was becasue the planet was a paradise that it's people had made into a paradise in only a few years time (before that, they were pretty much an average, not particularity remarkable planet). They even had this amazing technology in the air that protected them from harm and maintained their society. The Guardians wanted to know if this paradise world was a genuine thing, or if there was some dark secret underneath it all. If it was genuine, then they wanted to replicate the success throughout the universe so there would be no need for a Green Lantern Corps.
Carol, Kayle, and a Guardian named Zalla found out that what was going on was that the people of Exuras were manipulating their own timeline, stealing positive outcomes (or 'happy endings') from other timelines. This was obviously not what they were hoping to find - even less so, when one of those other timelines figured out what their 'neighbors' had been doing to them and chose that moment to come through the portal to attack.
Carol and Kyle fought to prevent killing, and ended up stopping the threat, but when it was over, Kyle basically threatened the people of Exuras that if they didn't clean up their act, make reparations, and then destroy their timeline manipulation devise, then he would come back and the consequences wouldn't be pleasant.
In space afterwards, Carol confronted him about it, telling him that laying down edicts like that wasn't what she'd come to expect from him. She asked him if he really thought that what he'd said was the right way to have gone about it. He told her that he couldn't think of a better solution, and flew off, ending the conversation.
Powers & Abilities (2006-present)
As Carol Ferris
Pilot: She's wanted to be a pilot since she was a young girl and has been flying planes ever since she could get a license. She grew up around them and is just about as skilled an aviator as anyone can be.
Business Woman: She's run her family's business, Ferris Aircraft, successfully ever since her father fell sick and left the company to her. Prior to that, she helped her father run the business and learned the trade.
Leadership: She learned to be a leader running Ferris Aircraft for many years, and recently she was named queen of the Star Sapphires by a dying queen Aga'po. Since then, she's often acted as the leader of the Star Sapphire Corps.
Aviation Expertise: While not a trained engineer or designer, she grew up in the business and knows a lot about the technical aspects of aircraft design and manufacture.
As a Star Sapphire
Flight and Space Travel: She can surround herself in an energy field and fly within a planet's atmosphere or through outer space. In space, she can generate an interstellar space warp to travel between solar systems at great speed.
Energy Blasts, Shields, and Constructs: She can fire energy beams with destructive power, generate energy shields for defense, and create energy constructs that can take the form of anything she can imagine. The power of these is proportional to her ability to tap into and believe in the love within her heart.
Sapphire Crystals: She can surround others in a prison of sapphire crystal to show them what they love most, as well as bring out the love that may be buried in their hearts.
Heart Tethers: A heart tether can bring her to someone she loves or guide her to where love is threatened out among the stars.
Teleportation: She is able to teleport herself and others on an interstellar scale, provided she can harness enough love to power it. (Example: She once teleported Hawkgirl and Hawkman from Zamaron back to Earth.)
Healing: She can use the power of love to heal even normally fatal wounds (as she did once for Queen Mera). Conceivably, she could also even bring someone back from the dead (as fer fellow Star Sapphire Corpswoman, Miri Riam, did once).
Heart Prophecies: She can use her power to look into someone's heart and show them a vision of their future.
Emotional Control: Carol, having had more experience with the power of the Star Sapphire than almost anyone save, perhaps, for the Zamarons, has a comparatively high ability to harness love's power and not be carried away or overwhelmed by it as some others may be.
Other Star Sapphire Corps Abilities: Other members of the Star Sapphire Corps have demonstrated a few other abilities, or variations on Carol's established abilities, that Carol herself hasn't yet used. In theory however, she should have the ability to do them as well.
Storyline (1959 - 1987)
The Secret Life of Star Sapphire!
(In Showcase #22-24 and Green Lantern #1-7, 10-13, and 15-16 Sept 1959-Oct 1962)
Carol's father left her in charge of the family company, Ferris Aircraft, while he and his wife took a two year trip around the world. Prior to that, she'd been dating one of their test pilots, Hal Jordan. After, however, she decided, because she was his boss now, she should keep things professional between them and refused to date him any longer.
Around this time, Green Lantern showed up (who was, of course, secretly Hal), and since Carol wouldn't date him as himself any longer, Hal, as Green Lantern, went to a party Carol would be at and proceeded to ask her to dance. He later took her out to a balcony to be alone, where they were about to kiss, when Hal left to stop a missile.
What followed was a halting sort of romance between Carol and Green Lantern, all the while Hal, as himself, was still trying to get Carol to like him as him and not Green Lantern. Carol still liked Hal of course, but still wouldn't date him. At one point, Carol had a dream that Hal and Green Lantern were the same person, and she confronted him about it, but he tricked her into thinking it wasn't true.
This fake love triangle went on until Carol decided to ask Green Lantern to marry her. She had a hard time pinning him down, because Carol had confided her plan to Hal (who'd told her it was a terrible idea and that she should merry him instead). When Carol proposed though, Green Lantern basically ran away.
After that, Carol wasn't so fond of Green Lantern anymore and actually found herself agreeing to date Hal again, even though he was still her employee. Hal often ran off on her, claiming that he had to work (an excuse to go off and be Green Lantern), which Carol, as his boss, couldn't exactly fault, but as his girlfriend grew increasingly annoyed by.
The trouble was, in dating Hal, the positions were sort of reversed. Hal wanted to marry her, but Carol couldn't make herself want to say yes because she still had feelings for Green Lantern. (It should be noted that, though it may seem a bit odd to today's sensibilities, being so singularly focused on marriage in the way Carol and Hal were was more the norm during the late 50s to early 60s than would be usual today.)
One day, when Carol was enjoying herself piloting her airplane, Lady Carol, having been receiving piloting lessons from her boyfriend Hal, her plane was somehow mysteriously forced down to land in the desert. She hit her head in the rough landing, and when she woke moments later, she was confronted by three women in armor and skirts who called her 'your highness' and told her she was their queen. They said they were from the planet Zamaron, which meant the land of lovely women, and that they'd come to Earth to find her.
They explained to her that they were from a world that was tremendously scientifically advanced, populated only by women, and that everyone who lived there was immortal - all save one, their queen. They further explained that, by tradition, their queen was always mortal and always had to look the same, and that Carol looked exactly right to be a match and that they'd been looking all over the galaxy to find her.
They told her that they had to leave Earth right away so that she could be crowned Queen Star Sapphire on Zamaron. Carol protested that she couldn't leave Earth, couldn't be their queen, because she was in love with Green Lantern.
The Zamarons told her that even the lowest Zamaron was superior to any man, that men were weaklings, even Green Lantern who was a champion on her world. Carol asked how they could prove something like that, and they said that she would prove it herself. They gave her the Star Sapphire costume that their queen would wear for hunting and exploration, and gave her the Star Sapphire gem to give her some of the powers she would have if she were to become their queen.
She could fly through the air, and the Zamarons told her that was just the start of what she could do. They said they'd set things up so that, when Carol went into Coast City, Green Lantern would seek her out and try to imprison her but that she must defy him. That, in that way, she would see what they said was true, that men were inferior and that her destiny lay with them.
Unable to help herself for some reason, she felt compelled to do as they asked and head into the city. When she encountered Hal as Green Lantern, she couldn't help but challenge him to a battle, telling him that she was going to break into the museum of ancient glass if he didn't stop her. She passed him by and went to the museum where she took a mirror, though, unbeknownst to Hal, it was a mirror the Zamarons had teleported into place there, so she wasn't actually even stealing anything, just pretending to.
Hal shoots at her with an energy beam, Carol dodged it and fired back with an energy beam of her own, knocking him into a building and knocking him out cold. In her head though, she was trying to stop herself from doing what she was doing, but she didn't seem to be in control of her actions, it was like she was two people at once.
His ring saved him from the impact and he would later wake up to find his attacker gone. Carol's mission satisfied, she'd headed back to the desert to meet the Zamarons again. Back on their space ship, the Zamarons told her that it proved they were right, that men were inferior. Carol asked them to give Green Lantern one more chance to defeat her though, and reluctantly the Zamarons let her have her way.
As Carol left, her thoughts were telling her that she had to defeat Green Lantern, no matter what. The Zamarons sent a telepathic signal to him, telling him where she would be, and, having been showed up once, Hal was eager to have a second battle with her. He waited in ambush and trapped her in a green energy cage, but Carol simply teleported herself free. They fought a duel of energy beams and shields. It seemed they were fairly evenly matched, when Hal detected that there was a transmission being sent to her and surrounded her in an energy field that cut off the transmission. Free of the Zamarons' influence, Carols stopped fighting him and passed out.
Hal dropped the force-field, and the Zamarons teleported her back to their ship. They told her that because she lost, she wasn't worthy to be their queen after all. They took away her memory of their encounter and left. Hal found her and took her back home. He also found a Star Sapphire gem in the desert and took it to the police, not knowing what to make of it.
Star Sapphire Unmasks Green Lantern
(In Green Lantern #17, 20-26 Dec 1962-Jan 1964)
After her experiences with the Zamarons, Carol went about her life as if it had never happened because the Zamarons had erased her memory of those events. She invited Hal over to her place for dinner, but, after she'd made the dinner for him, he made a very bad excuse and left without eating it (so he could go off and be Green Lantern, of course).
Sometime later, there was a mysterious vanishing epidemic in the Coast City area, where in people would get pale and sick and then, poof, disappear into thin air. People were coming down with it left and right, and Carol volunteered at one of the hospitals to help take care of the sick and fading because there weren't enough healthcare workers to go around.
It turned out to be a plot by aliens, and Carol ended up being kidnapped by them too. Green Lantern, with help from the Flash, saved her and everyone else from them and got them back to Coast City. After that, she started to think that maybe she should give it another try with him, even though he'd run away after she'd proposed to him previously.
It was around this time that her parents came back from their around the world trip, and her father was so impressed by how she'd handled the company in his absence that he decided to retire and turn over ownership of Ferris Aircraft fully to her.
She and Green Lantern started dating again - going out to dinner, having a picnic, attending a charity bazaar, etc... She remained friendly with Hal, but had given up on dating him.
At one point though, Carol felt a strong compulsion draw her to seek out the Star Sapphire gem again. She found it, and was once again transformed into Star Sapphire. The Zamarons had left it on Earth because they wanted Carol to have it as a gift, so her life would be better (by their standards, at least). Only if someone called her by her real name, Carol Ferris, would she return to herself.
As Star Sapphire, she set out to beat Green Lantern at his own game, catching criminals, and doing it better than he could - thinking that if she beat him, he'd have to admit defeat and marry her (the goal was her own, the way of thinking was Zamaron). There was a group of robbers called the Copter Gang, who used helicopters and subterfuge to rob banks. They'd never been caught before, and the Coast City police had asked Green Lantern for help. Carol used her Star Sapphire powers to distort Green Lantern's perception of time so he wouldn't show up in time and she'd have time to stop the Copter Gang herself before he could get there.
She made short work of them, turning their bullets into snowflakes, one of the helicopters into a magic carpet, and using her mind over matter powers to capture the other two copters using other similarly inventive means. Green Lantern showed up and demanded to know what she was up to, accusing her of only stopping them to steal their loot for her own.
Carol said that wasn't it, and she'd prove it by taking the thieves into the cops with him. He went along, and, even as the chief of police was congratulating and thanking Carol for her help, Green Lantern protested that she was still wanted for the thefts she committed last time she'd appeared in Coast City. The chief explained that, upon investigation, nothing had actually been stolen, so she wasn't wanted for any crimes after all.
They flew off together when news of an attack by alien creatures on Ferris Aircraft came in. Green Lantern boasted that he would take care of it himself, and that she didn't even need to come along. Carol told him that she was coming along alright, and that when he inevitably failed, she would be there to save the day, and then he'd have to marry her.
Green Lantern tried to stop the creatures (which Carol had secretly created herself using her mind over matter power and the background cosmic radiation that was always present on Earth ñ and, since they were attacking a company she herself owned, and since she was controlling them completely and would stop them before they did any harm at all, again, there was no real crime being committed). She made them so they were living a few seconds ahead in the timeline, so Green Lantern's power seemed to just slide off of them. After a few failed attempts, Green Lantern looked like he might be catching on to the ahead of time element and so might be close to figuring out how to stop them, so Carol stepped in before he could and destroyed the creatures herself, telling him that he'd lost and she'd won and he had to marry her now.
He was close to agreeing, because she'd sapped his will power some, but he resisted one last time, challenging her that if she could remove his mask, only then would he marry her. She agreed, but couldn't do it because he was focusing all of his remaining will power on keeping it in place. Undaunted though, she left, but secretly followed him back to his power battery and took him unawares, unmasking him as Hal Jordan.
Hal, defeated, agreed to marry her. He said though, that it was only fair that he should remove her mask too, if they were going to get married. She let him, he saw that she was Carol, and he spoke her name in surprise, reverting her back to her normal self and causing her to faint and forget what she'd been doing as Star Sapphire.
Hal thought to himself though, that whether it was Hal and Carol, or Green Lantern and Star Sapphire, this meant that they were definitely destined to get married one day.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
_____________________________
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: Carol Ferris
Publisher: DC
First appearance: As Carol Ferris:
Showcase #22 (Sep.–Oct. 1959)
As Star Sapphire:
Green Lantern vol. 2 #16 (Oct. 1962)
Created by: John Broome (Writer)
Gil Kane (Artist)
First appearance cover:
Nikki
Its always great when you get to do some personal work as a photographer thats not just business related and you get to shoot some images just for fun. So last week i asked Nikki if she would like to take some photos and this is one of the portraits we did. Nikki has never had her photo taken before and this was her first real photo shoot she has ever done.You did awesome Nikki and were really great to work with. Thanks again for your time i appreciate that
The community around Lake Errock is known for its rural charm and beautiful natural surroundings. It's an unincorporated community in the Fraser Valley region of southwestern British Columbia, located southwest of Harrison Bay and accessible via BC Highway 7.
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Thank you for your visit and any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated!
~Sonja
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The Eiffel Tower, or La tour Eiffel in French, is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protests against the tower. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986 and1987 by the Societe Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
If cameras could talk...
I just got my first TLR camera--it's awesome! I plan doing alot of different, creative shots with it.
I really want to push the limits this year and by taking a photo a day (business or non-business related) will give me that opportunity. At first I was thinking a 365 project but that's uniform--I call it a "Maintain. Discover. Create. Project."
Stick with me and I hope to produce some awesome images. Please leave comments- it'll give me motivation to keep this silly thing going.
Cheers!
camera info Canon MRKII | 2000 ISO | 85mm f/2.8 | 1/30th
Lighting is with my new kewl secret German light which I have nicknamed "Valkyrie"
Quick video of me shooting this: www.flickr.com/photos/danielstark/4266405403/
From Wikipedia:
"The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an 1889 iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tallest building in Paris, it is the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named for its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair.
The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. Upon its completion, it surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France after the 2004 Millau Viaduct. The metal structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift, to the first and second levels. The walk to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by elevator. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower."
On the Eiffel Tower, seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and some other notable people are engraved in recognition of their contributions by Gustave Eiffel. The engravings are found on the sides of the tower under the first balcony. This 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.
The Names Are :
Marc Seguin - mechanic
Joseph Jerome Lefrancais de Lalande - astronomer
Henri Tresca - engineer and mechanic
Jean-Victor Poncelet Gernald - geometer
Jacques Antoine Charlse Bresse - cival and hydraulic engineer
Joseph Louis Lagrange - mathematician
Jean Baptiste Charles Joseph Belanger - mathematician
Georges Cuvier - naturalist
Pierre Simon Laplace - mathematician and astronomer
Pierre Louis Dulong - physicist and chemist
Michel Chasles - geometer
Antoine Lavoisier - chemist
Andre Marie Ampere - mathematician and physicist
Michel Eugene Chevreul - chemist
Jeugene Flachet - engineer
Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier - mathematician
Adrien Marie Legendre - geometer
Jean Antoine Chaptal - agronomist and chemist
Jules Celestin Jamin - physicist
Joseph Louis Gay Lussac - chemist
Hippolute Fizeau - physicist
Jacques Shneider - industrialist
Henri Louis Le Chatelier - chemist
Pierre Berthier - mineralogist
Jean Augustin Barral - agronomist, chemist, physicist
Albert de Dion - engineer
Ernest Gouin - engineer and industrialist
Alexandre Louis Jousselin - engineer
Paul Pierre Broca - physician and anthropologist
Antoine Henri Becquerel - physicist
Gaspard Gustave Coriolis - engineer and scientist
Jean Francois Cail - industrialist
Jacques Triger - engineer
Henri Giffard - engineer
Francois Perrier - geographer and mathematician
Jacques Charles Francois Sturm - mathematician
Augustin Louis Cauchy - mathematician
Eugene Belgrand - engineer
Henri Victor Regnault - chemist and physicist
Augustine Jean Fresnel - physicist
Gaspard de Prony - engineer
Louis Vicat - engineer
Jean Jacques Ebelmen - chemist
Charles Augustin de Coulomb - physicist
Louis Poinsot - mathematician
Leon Foucault - physicist
Charles Eugene Delaunay - astronomer
Jean Baptiste Morin - mathematician and physicist
Rene Just Hauy - minerlogist
Emile Combes - engineer and metallurgist
Louis Jacques Thenard - chemist
Dominique Francois Jean Arago - astronomer and physicist
Simeon Poisson - mathematician and physicist
Gaspard Monge - geometer
Jules Petiet - engineer
Louis Daguerre - artist and chemist
Charles Adolphe Wurtz - chemist
Urbain Le Verrier - astronmer
Albert Auguste Perdonnet - engineer
Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre - astronmer
Etienne Louis Malus - physicist
Abraham Louis Breguet - mechanic and inventor
Antoine Remi Polonceau - engineer
Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas - chemist
Emile Clapeyron - engineer
Jean Charles de Borda - mathematician
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier - mathematician
Maria Francois Xavier Bichat - anatomist and physiologist
Jean Pierre Sauvage - mechanic
Theophile Jules Pelouze - chemist
Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot - engineer
Gabriel Lame - geometer
Its one thing to enjoy the beauty of architecture but its nice to acknowledge the people behind it ^_^
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I apologise for what turned out to to be a misleading and inaccurate post.
On 16 October 2009, I got the email below from Stuart Young who was then Assistant Chief Executive in Haringey.
I read it as meaning that my then Labour colleagues, "cabinet" councillors in the London Borough of Haringey, had overturned an officers' decision to block Social Media websites for the borough's staff.
So it looked as though our staff would again be treated as grown-ups and professionals. Because Mr Young referred to a report at the Cabinet Advisory Board * meeting 15 October 2009 which approved a six-month trial giving staff access to social media channels when this related to the Council's work.
My original post on this page reported what seemed a welcome if nervous return by Haringey to the twenty-first century.
But I was wrong. The report and the six-month trial both sank without trace. Haringey closed its eyes and snuggled back under its IT comfort blanket.
What's this about? The problem discovered
In September 2009 I was an elected councillor in the London Borough of Haringey. Towards the end of the schools' summer holiday, I was told about serious problems with a building project in a local school. Students were due to start back, so the problem was urgent.
With the permission of the headteacher, and accompanied by staff, I quickly took photos in the otherwise empty building. To make them rapidly available to Peter Lewis, then Director of Haringey Children's Services, I posted them in a private Flickr folder and emailed Mr Lewis an access password.
Shockingly, both Mr Lewis and his P.A. were blocked from viewing the photos. And at the time they did not know why.
A Software Block
I then discovered that a new software block was operating which stopped all Haringey staff from accessing not only Flickr but other social media websites.
On 2 October 2009 I emailed a "Member Enquiry" - a formal councillor's request - asking which websites were blocked, and for other information.
Scroll down to see the reply I got on 16 October 2009 from Stuart Young, Haringey Assistant Chief Executive. Mr Young sent me a second email on 23 October 2009, which is posted further down this page. As are my replies to Mr Young.
----- Original Message -----
From : Stuart Young, Assistant Chief Executive, People, Organisation & Development
To : Alan Stanton, Tottenham Hale ward councillor
Sent : Friday, October 16, 2009 10:58 AM
Subject : Blocked websites - Cost of business case for individual unblocking
Dear Councillor Stanton
I refer to your recent Member Enquiry regarding blocked websites and respond to your questions as follows:
The Council has an internet content filtering tool called “WebSense” that monitors over 36 million websites; hence it would not be feasible to provide you with a list of those sites that are blocked.
This tool has been configured to block web site categories (rather than specific sites) that are considered unacceptable by our Authority (as per the Council’s 'Internet Acceptable Usage Policy'.) The blocked web site categories are listed below for your reference:
● Adult material ● Peer to peer file sharing ●· Personal network storage ●· Drugs ●· Gambling ●· Games ●· Illegal ●· Hacking ●· MP3 and Download ●· Social networking and personal ●· Militancy and Extremist ●· Racism and hate ●· Tasteless ●· Violence ●· Weapons ●· Web chat
In October 2007, there was consultation between Human Resources, Legal Services and Information Technology Services where a more relaxed stance to the Policy was agreed. Since that date only minor cosmetic changes have been made to the document.
In terms of line Managers monitoring the internet usage of their own staff via WebSense, unfortunately this would not be feasible. The tool cannot be configured to only allow Managers to review the usage of their own staff only. Giving administrative access to managers would allow them to report on the internet usage of all staff and Members, not just their own subordinates. In addition, administration of the tool is complex and would require implementation of an expensive Council Wide training programme. Therefore, where management have concerns over the potential misuse of the Council’s internet facility, referrals are made to HR, Internal Audit and IT Security management for investigation and to produce the reports.
Due to the vast number of websites monitored by WebSense (mentioned above) it is not practical to consult with staff regarding any possible consequence of singular sites being banned under the approved blocked categories. However, if a site is blocked and there is a valid business reason for the site to be opened, an officer only needs to complete a Harinet online change request form (which is free of charge) and takes approximately 5 minutes to complete and submit. Since the beginning of September 2009 there have been no requests made for access to social media sites.
A review of the policy is currently underway specifically focussing on business change and the use of social media and social networking channels. A report on this subject matter is due to be submitted by the Assistant Chief Executive – People, Organisation and Development to the Cabinet Advisory Board on the 15th October 2009. The report is seeking approval for a 6-month trial giving all staff access to social media channels for business related networking via the Council’s network. Such policy changes are the subject of consultation with Haringey trades unions.
I hope the above answers the questions raised.
Yours sincerely
Stuart Young
Assistant Chief Executive
People & Organisational Development
______________________________________________
§ * Haringey had a so-called Cabinet Advisory Board - usually referred to as CAB. This is the real Council cabinet meeting which makes decisions prior to the formal meeting. So things can be kept from the prying eyes of residents who pay for this pantomime.
§ Click here to read further details. And for the helpful comments and suggested website links from Hugh Flouch, James Grinter, Liz Ixer, Danny McL, and Kake Pugh.
Iphone shot - Hipstamatic - Photoshop CS5 - Large is so much better!
The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The third level observatory's upper platform is at 279.11 m the highest accessible to public in the European Union and the highest in Europe as long as the platform of the Ostankino Tower, at 360 m, remains closed as a result of the fire of August 2000. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.
The tower stands 320 metres (1,050 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, because of the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift (elevator), to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by lift - stairs exist but they are not usually open for public use. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city.
History
Origin
First drawing of the Eiffel Tower by Maurice Koechlin
The design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers who worked for the Compagnie des Establissments Eiffel after discussion about a suitable centrepiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair which would celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. In May 1884 Koechlin, working at his home, made an outline drawing of their scheme, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals". Initially Eiffel himself showed little enthusiasm, but he did sanction further study of the project, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to the first level and other embellishments. This enhanced version gained Eiffel's support, and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885 Eiffel read a paper on the project to the Société des Ingiénieurs Civils: after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying that the tower would symbolise "not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude."
Little happened until the beginning of 1886, when Jules Grévy was re-elected as President and Édouard Lockroy was appointed as Minister for Trade. A budget for the Exposition was passed and on 1 May Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition which was being held for a centerpiece for the exposition, which effectively made the choice of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion: all entries had to include a study for a 300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. On 12 May a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals and on 12 June it presented its decision, which was that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or insufficiently worked out. After some debate about the exact site for the tower, a contract was finally signed on 8 January 1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, and granted him one and a half million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated cost of six and a half million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the following twenty years. Eiffel later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.
The "Artists Protest"
Caricature of Gustave Eiffel comparing the Eiffel tower to the Pyramids.
The projected tower had been a subject of some controversy, attracting criticism both from those who did not believe that it was feasible and also from those who objected on artistic grounds. Their objections were an expression of a longstanding debate about relationship between architecture and engineering. This came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: A "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the French arts establishment, including Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet: a petition was sent to Charles Alphand, the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, and was published by Le Temps.
"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"
Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian Pyramids : "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way ? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris ?" These criticisms were also masterfully dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, ironically saying "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell that …this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and going on to point out that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before and was already under construction. Indeed, Garnier had been a member of the Tower Commission that had assessed the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the Tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"
Some of the protestors were to change their minds when the tower was built: others remained unconvinced. Guy de Maupassant[20] supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure. Today, the Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.
Construction
Foundations of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower under construction between 1887 and 1889
Work on the foundations started in January 1887. Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg but the other two, being closer to the river Seine were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft)[21] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block built of limestone each with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork. Each shoe was anchored into the stonework by a pair of bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. The foundations were complete by 30 June and the erection of the ironwork began. The very visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed:
The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 0.1 mm (0.04 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from the factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all there were 18,038 pieces of puddle iron using two and a half million rivets.
At first the legs were constructed as cantilevers but about halfway to the first level construction was paused in order to construct a substantial timber scaffold. This caused a renewal of the concerns about the structural soundness of the project, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel has gone mad: he has been confined in an Asylum" appeared in the popular press. At this stage a small "creeper" crane was installed in each leg, designed to move up the tower as construction progressed and making use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in each leg. The critical stage of joining the four legs at the first level was complete by March 1888. Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost precision, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments in order to precisely align the legs: hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, each capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and in addition the legs had been intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold.
No more than three hundred workers were employed on site, and because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died during construction.
Inauguration and the 1889 Exposition
The 1889 Exposition Universelle for which the Eiffel Tower was built
The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 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 tricolore, to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired from the lower level. There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and the fitting out of the facilities for visitors, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the Exposition on 6 May, and even then the lifts had not been completed.
The tower was an immediate success with the public, and lengthy queues formed to make the ascent. Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays, and by the end of the exhibition there had been nearly two million visitors.
Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. In the opening weeks of the First World War the powerful radio transmitters using the tower were used to jam German communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.
Subsequent events
10 September 1889 Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message— To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.
19 October 1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont in his Dirigible No.6 won a 10,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St Cloud to the Eiffel tower and back in less than half an hour.
1910 Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are today known as cosmic rays.[28]
4 February 1912 Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower with his home-made parachute.
1914 A radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications during the lead-up to the First Battle of the Marne.
1925 The con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but related occasions.
1930 The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.
1925 to 1934 Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.
1940–1944 Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika[citation needed], but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. Some say Hitler was later persuaded to keep the tower intact so it could later be used for communications. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris.
3 January 1956 A fire damaged the top of the tower.
1957 The present radio antenna was added to the top.
1980s A restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue and Josephine Street in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, later as the Red Room and now as the Cricket Club (owned by the New Orleans Culinary Institute). The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000 pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a 40-foot (12 m) cargo container.
31 March 1984 Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through the arches of the tower.
1987 A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the Paris police upon reaching the ground.
27 October 1991 Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures of bungee jumping (not allowed) from the second floor of the Tower. Facing the Champ de Mars, Thierry Devaux was using an electric winch between each figure to go back up. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth bungee jump.
New Year's Eve 1999 The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris's Millennium Celebration. On this occasion, flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower, and fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. Since then, the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris's night sky, and the 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance every hour on the hour.
28 November 2002 The tower received its 200,000,000th guest.
2004 The Eiffel Tower began hosting an ice skating rink on the first floor each winter.
Design of the tower
Material
The Eiffel Tower from below
The puddle iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes, while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125-metre-square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.
Wind considerations
At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, however, as experienced bridge builders, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be […] will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.[37]
Researchers have found that Eiffel used empirical and graphical methods accounting for the effects of wind rather than a specific mathematical formula. Careful examination of the tower shows a basically exponential shape; actually two different exponentials, the lower section overdesigned to ensure resistance to wind forces. Several mathematical explanations have been proposed over the years for the success of the design; the most recent is described as a nonlinear integral equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point. As a demonstration of the tower's effectiveness in wind resistance, it sways only 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.
Accommodation
When built, the first level contained two restaurants: an "Anglo-American Bar", and a 250 seat theatre. A 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) promenade ran around the outside.
On the second level, the French newspaper Le Figaro had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, Le Figaro de la Tour, was produced. There was also a pâtisserie.
On the third level were laboratories for various experiments and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests. This is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike models of Gustave and some guests.
Engraved names
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Maintenance
Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tonnes of paint every seven years to protect it from rust. The height of the Eiffel Tower varies by 15 cm due to temperature.
Aesthetic considerations
In order to enhance the impression of height, three separate colours of paint are used on the tower, with the darkest on the bottom and the lightest at the top. On occasion the colour of the paint is changed; the tower is currently painted a shade of bronze. On the first floor there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session of painting.
The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grillwork arches, added in Stephen Sauvestre's sketches, which served to reassure visitors that the structure was safe, and to frame views of other nearby architecture.
One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 storeys, only a very few of the taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.
Popularity
More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889, including 6,719,200 in 2006. The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Passenger lifts
Ground to the second level
The original lifts (elevators) to the first and second floors were provided by two companies. Both companies had to overcome many technical obstacles as neither company (or indeed any company) had experience with installing lifts climbing to such heights with large loads. The slanting tracks with changing angles further complicated the problems. The East and West lifts were supplied by the French company Roux Combaluzier Lepape, using hydraulically powered chains and rollers. The North and South lifts were provided by the American company Otis using car designs similar to the original installation but using an improved hydraulic and cable scheme. The French lifts had a very poor performance and were replaced with the current installations in 1897 (West Pillar) and 1899 (East Pillar) by Fives-Lille using an improved hydraulic and rope scheme. Both of the original installations operated broadly on the principle of the Fives-Lille lifts.
The Fives-Lille lifts from ground level to the first and second levels are operated by cables and pulleys driven by massive water-powered pistons. The hydraulic scheme was somewhat unusual for the time in that it included three large counterweights of 200 tonnes each sitting on top of hydraulic rams which doubled up as accumulators for the water. As the lifts ascend the inclined arc of the pillars, the angle of ascent changes. The two lift cabs are kept more or less level and indeed are level at the landings. The cab floors do take on a slight angle at times between landings.
The principle behind the lifts is similar to the operation of a block and tackle but in reverse. Two large hydraulic rams (over 1 metre diameter) with a 16 metre travel are mounted horizontally in the base of the pillar which pushes a carriage (the French word for it translates as chariot and this term will be used henceforth to distinguish it from the lift carriage) with 16 large triple sheaves mounted on it. There are 14 similar sheaves mounted statically. Six wire ropes are rove back and forth between the sheaves such that each rope passes between the 2 sets of sheaves 7 times. The ropes then leave the final sheaves on the chariot and pass up through a series of guiding sheaves to above the second floor and then through a pair of triple sheaves back down to the lift carriage again passing guiding sheaves.
This arrangement means that the lift carriage, complete with its cars and passengers, travels 8 times the distance that the rams move the chariot, the 128 metres from the ground to the second floor. The force exerted by the rams also has to be 8 times the total weight of the lift carriage, cars and passengers, plus extra to account for various losses such as friction. The hydraulic fluid was water, normally stored in three accumulators, complete with counterbalance weights. To make the lift ascend, water was pumped using an electrically driven pump from the accumulators to the two rams. Since the counterbalance weights provided much of the pressure required, the pump only had to provide the extra effort. For the descent, it was only necessary to allow the water to flow back to the accumulators using a control valve. The lifts were operated by an operator perched precariously underneath the lift cars. His position (with a dummy operator) can still be seen on the lifts today.
The Fives-Lille lifts were completely upgraded in 1986 to meet modern safety requirements and to make the lifts easier to operate. A new computer-controlled system was installed which completely automated the operation. One of the three counterbalances was taken out of use, and the cars were replaced with a more modern and lighter structure. Most importantly, the main driving force was removed from the original water pump such that the water hydraulic system provided only a counterbalancing function. The main driving force was transferred to a 320 kW electrically driven oil hydraulic pump which drives a pair of hydraulic motors on the chariot itself, thus providing the motive power. The new lift cars complete with their carriage and a full 92 passenger load weigh 22 tonnes.
Owing to elasticity in the ropes and the time taken to get the cars level with the landings, each lift in normal service takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each floor. The average journey time between floors is just 1 minute.
The original Otis lifts in the North and South pillars in their turn proved to be inferior to the new (in 1899) French lifts and were scrapped from the South pillar in 1900 and from the North pillar in 1913 after failed attempts to repower them with an electric motor. The North and South pillars were to remain without lifts until 1965 when increasing visitor numbers persuaded the operators to install a relatively standard and modern cable hoisted system in the north pillar using a cable-hauled counterbalance weight, but hoisted by a block and tackle system to reduce its travel to one third of the lift travel. The counterbalance is clearly visible within the structure of the North pillar. This latter lift was upgraded in 1995 with new cars and computer controls.
The South pillar acquired a completely new fairly standard electrically driven lift in 1983 to serve the Jules Verne restaurant. This was also supplied by Otis. A further four-ton service lift was added to the South pillar in 1989 by Otis to relieve the main lifts when moving relatively small loads or even just maintenance personnel.
The East and West hydraulic (water) lift works are on display and, at least in theory, are open to the public in a small museum located in base of the East and West tower, which is somewhat hidden from public view. Because the massive mechanism requires frequent lubrication and attention, public access is often restricted. However, when open, the wait times are much less than the other, more popular, attractions. The rope mechanism of the North tower is visible to visitors as they exit from the lift.
Second to the third level
The original spiral stairs to the third floor which were only 80 centimetres wide. Note also the small service lift in the background.
The original lifts from the second to the third floor were also of a water-powered hydraulic design supplied by Léon Edoux. Instead of using a separate counterbalance, the two lift cars counterbalanced each other. A pair of 81-metre-long hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. A lift car was mounted on top of the rams. Ropes ran from the top of this car up to a sheave on the third level and back down to a second car. The result of this arrangement was that each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway walking between the cars along a narrow gangway with a very impressive and relatively unobstructed downward view. The ten-ton cars held 65 passengers each or up to four tons.
One interesting feature of the original installation was that the hoisting rope ran through guides to retain it on windy days to prevent it flapping and becoming damaged. The guides were mechanically moved out of the way of the ascending car by the movement of the car itself. In spite of some antifreeze being added to the water that operated this system, it nevertheless had to close to the public from November to March each year.
The original lifts complete with their hydraulic mechanism were completely scrapped in 1982 after 97 years of service. They were replaced with two pairs of relatively standard rope hoisted cars which were able to operate all the year round. The cars operate in pairs with one providing the counterbalance for the other. Neither car can move unless both sets of doors are closed and both operators have given a start command. The commands from the cars to the hoisting mechanism are by radio obviating the necessity of a control cable. The replacement installation also has the advantage that the ascent can be made without changing cars and has reduced the ascent time from 8 minutes (including change) to 1 minute and 40 seconds. This installation also has guides for the hoisting ropes but they are electrically operated. The guide once it has moved out of the way as the car ascends automatically reverses when the car has passed to prevent the mechanism becoming snagged on the car on the downward journey in the event it has failed to completely clear the car. Unfortunately these lifts do not have the capacity to move as many people as the three public lower lifts and long lines to ascend to the third level are common. Most of the intermediate level structure present on the tower today was installed when the lifts were replaced and allows maintenance workers to take the lift halfway.
The replacement of these lifts allowed the restructuring of the criss-cross beams in upper part of the tower and further allowed the installation of two emergency staircases. These replaced the dangerous winding stairs that were installed when the tower was constructed.
Restaurants
The tower has two restaurants: Le 58 tour Eiffel, on the first floor 311 ft (95 m) above sea level; and the Le Jules Verne, a gastronomical restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. In January 2007, the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse was brought in to run Jules Verne.
Attempted relocation
According to interviews given in the early 1980s, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with French President Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company which operated the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored to its original location.
Economics
The American TV show Pricing the Priceless speculates that in 2011 the tower would cost about $480,000,000 to build, that the land under the tower is worth $350,000,000, and that the scrap value of the tower is worth $3,500,000. The TV show estimates the tower makes a profit of about $29,000,000 per year, though it is unlikely that the Eiffel Tower is managed so as to maximize profit.
It costs $5,300,000 to repaint the tower, which is done once every seven years. The electric bill is $400,000 per year for 7.5 million kilowatt-hours.
The Tokyo Tower in Japan is a very similar structure of very similar size. It was finished in 1958 at a final cost of ¥2.8 billion ($8.4 million in 1958).
Source Wikipedia
Eiffel Tower Strairs
We walked to the second floor.
Iphone shot - Hipstamatic - Photoshop CS5 - Large is so much better!
The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The third level observatory's upper platform is at 279.11 m the highest accessible to public in the European Union and the highest in Europe as long as the platform of the Ostankino Tower, at 360 m, remains closed as a result of the fire of August 2000. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.
The tower stands 320 metres (1,050 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, because of the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift (elevator), to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by lift - stairs exist but they are not usually open for public use. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city.
History
Origin
First drawing of the Eiffel Tower by Maurice Koechlin
The design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers who worked for the Compagnie des Establissments Eiffel after discussion about a suitable centrepiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair which would celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. In May 1884 Koechlin, working at his home, made an outline drawing of their scheme, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals". Initially Eiffel himself showed little enthusiasm, but he did sanction further study of the project, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to the first level and other embellishments. This enhanced version gained Eiffel's support, and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885 Eiffel read a paper on the project to the Société des Ingiénieurs Civils: after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying that the tower would symbolise "not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude."
Little happened until the beginning of 1886, when Jules Grévy was re-elected as President and Édouard Lockroy was appointed as Minister for Trade. A budget for the Exposition was passed and on 1 May Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition which was being held for a centerpiece for the exposition, which effectively made the choice of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion: all entries had to include a study for a 300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. On 12 May a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals and on 12 June it presented its decision, which was that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or insufficiently worked out. After some debate about the exact site for the tower, a contract was finally signed on 8 January 1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, and granted him one and a half million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated cost of six and a half million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the following twenty years. Eiffel later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.
The "Artists Protest"
Caricature of Gustave Eiffel comparing the Eiffel tower to the Pyramids.
The projected tower had been a subject of some controversy, attracting criticism both from those who did not believe that it was feasible and also from those who objected on artistic grounds. Their objections were an expression of a longstanding debate about relationship between architecture and engineering. This came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: A "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the French arts establishment, including Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet: a petition was sent to Charles Alphand, the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, and was published by Le Temps.
"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"
Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian Pyramids : "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way ? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris ?" These criticisms were also masterfully dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, ironically saying "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell that …this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and going on to point out that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before and was already under construction. Indeed, Garnier had been a member of the Tower Commission that had assessed the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the Tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"
Some of the protestors were to change their minds when the tower was built: others remained unconvinced. Guy de Maupassant[20] supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure. Today, the Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.
Construction
Foundations of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower under construction between 1887 and 1889
Work on the foundations started in January 1887. Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg but the other two, being closer to the river Seine were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft)[21] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block built of limestone each with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork. Each shoe was anchored into the stonework by a pair of bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. The foundations were complete by 30 June and the erection of the ironwork began. The very visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed:
The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 0.1 mm (0.04 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from the factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all there were 18,038 pieces of puddle iron using two and a half million rivets.
At first the legs were constructed as cantilevers but about halfway to the first level construction was paused in order to construct a substantial timber scaffold. This caused a renewal of the concerns about the structural soundness of the project, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel has gone mad: he has been confined in an Asylum" appeared in the popular press. At this stage a small "creeper" crane was installed in each leg, designed to move up the tower as construction progressed and making use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in each leg. The critical stage of joining the four legs at the first level was complete by March 1888. Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost precision, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments in order to precisely align the legs: hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, each capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and in addition the legs had been intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold.
No more than three hundred workers were employed on site, and because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died during construction.
Inauguration and the 1889 Exposition
The 1889 Exposition Universelle for which the Eiffel Tower was built
The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 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 tricolore, to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired from the lower level. There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and the fitting out of the facilities for visitors, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the Exposition on 6 May, and even then the lifts had not been completed.
The tower was an immediate success with the public, and lengthy queues formed to make the ascent. Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays, and by the end of the exhibition there had been nearly two million visitors.
Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. In the opening weeks of the First World War the powerful radio transmitters using the tower were used to jam German communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.
Subsequent events
10 September 1889 Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message— To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.
19 October 1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont in his Dirigible No.6 won a 10,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St Cloud to the Eiffel tower and back in less than half an hour.
1910 Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are today known as cosmic rays.[28]
4 February 1912 Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower with his home-made parachute.
1914 A radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications during the lead-up to the First Battle of the Marne.
1925 The con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but related occasions.
1930 The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.
1925 to 1934 Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.
1940–1944 Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika[citation needed], but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. Some say Hitler was later persuaded to keep the tower intact so it could later be used for communications. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris.
3 January 1956 A fire damaged the top of the tower.
1957 The present radio antenna was added to the top.
1980s A restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue and Josephine Street in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, later as the Red Room and now as the Cricket Club (owned by the New Orleans Culinary Institute). The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000 pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a 40-foot (12 m) cargo container.
31 March 1984 Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through the arches of the tower.
1987 A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the Paris police upon reaching the ground.
27 October 1991 Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures of bungee jumping (not allowed) from the second floor of the Tower. Facing the Champ de Mars, Thierry Devaux was using an electric winch between each figure to go back up. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth bungee jump.
New Year's Eve 1999 The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris's Millennium Celebration. On this occasion, flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower, and fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. Since then, the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris's night sky, and the 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance every hour on the hour.
28 November 2002 The tower received its 200,000,000th guest.
2004 The Eiffel Tower began hosting an ice skating rink on the first floor each winter.
Design of the tower
Material
The Eiffel Tower from below
The puddle iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes, while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125-metre-square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.
Wind considerations
At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, however, as experienced bridge builders, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be […] will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.[37]
Researchers have found that Eiffel used empirical and graphical methods accounting for the effects of wind rather than a specific mathematical formula. Careful examination of the tower shows a basically exponential shape; actually two different exponentials, the lower section overdesigned to ensure resistance to wind forces. Several mathematical explanations have been proposed over the years for the success of the design; the most recent is described as a nonlinear integral equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point. As a demonstration of the tower's effectiveness in wind resistance, it sways only 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.
Accommodation
When built, the first level contained two restaurants: an "Anglo-American Bar", and a 250 seat theatre. A 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) promenade ran around the outside.
On the second level, the French newspaper Le Figaro had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, Le Figaro de la Tour, was produced. There was also a pâtisserie.
On the third level were laboratories for various experiments and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests. This is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike models of Gustave and some guests.
Engraved names
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Maintenance
Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tonnes of paint every seven years to protect it from rust. The height of the Eiffel Tower varies by 15 cm due to temperature.
Aesthetic considerations
In order to enhance the impression of height, three separate colours of paint are used on the tower, with the darkest on the bottom and the lightest at the top. On occasion the colour of the paint is changed; the tower is currently painted a shade of bronze. On the first floor there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session of painting.
The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grillwork arches, added in Stephen Sauvestre's sketches, which served to reassure visitors that the structure was safe, and to frame views of other nearby architecture.
One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 storeys, only a very few of the taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.
Popularity
More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889, including 6,719,200 in 2006. The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Passenger lifts
Ground to the second level
The original lifts (elevators) to the first and second floors were provided by two companies. Both companies had to overcome many technical obstacles as neither company (or indeed any company) had experience with installing lifts climbing to such heights with large loads. The slanting tracks with changing angles further complicated the problems. The East and West lifts were supplied by the French company Roux Combaluzier Lepape, using hydraulically powered chains and rollers. The North and South lifts were provided by the American company Otis using car designs similar to the original installation but using an improved hydraulic and cable scheme. The French lifts had a very poor performance and were replaced with the current installations in 1897 (West Pillar) and 1899 (East Pillar) by Fives-Lille using an improved hydraulic and rope scheme. Both of the original installations operated broadly on the principle of the Fives-Lille lifts.
The Fives-Lille lifts from ground level to the first and second levels are operated by cables and pulleys driven by massive water-powered pistons. The hydraulic scheme was somewhat unusual for the time in that it included three large counterweights of 200 tonnes each sitting on top of hydraulic rams which doubled up as accumulators for the water. As the lifts ascend the inclined arc of the pillars, the angle of ascent changes. The two lift cabs are kept more or less level and indeed are level at the landings. The cab floors do take on a slight angle at times between landings.
The principle behind the lifts is similar to the operation of a block and tackle but in reverse. Two large hydraulic rams (over 1 metre diameter) with a 16 metre travel are mounted horizontally in the base of the pillar which pushes a carriage (the French word for it translates as chariot and this term will be used henceforth to distinguish it from the lift carriage) with 16 large triple sheaves mounted on it. There are 14 similar sheaves mounted statically. Six wire ropes are rove back and forth between the sheaves such that each rope passes between the 2 sets of sheaves 7 times. The ropes then leave the final sheaves on the chariot and pass up through a series of guiding sheaves to above the second floor and then through a pair of triple sheaves back down to the lift carriage again passing guiding sheaves.
This arrangement means that the lift carriage, complete with its cars and passengers, travels 8 times the distance that the rams move the chariot, the 128 metres from the ground to the second floor. The force exerted by the rams also has to be 8 times the total weight of the lift carriage, cars and passengers, plus extra to account for various losses such as friction. The hydraulic fluid was water, normally stored in three accumulators, complete with counterbalance weights. To make the lift ascend, water was pumped using an electrically driven pump from the accumulators to the two rams. Since the counterbalance weights provided much of the pressure required, the pump only had to provide the extra effort. For the descent, it was only necessary to allow the water to flow back to the accumulators using a control valve. The lifts were operated by an operator perched precariously underneath the lift cars. His position (with a dummy operator) can still be seen on the lifts today.
The Fives-Lille lifts were completely upgraded in 1986 to meet modern safety requirements and to make the lifts easier to operate. A new computer-controlled system was installed which completely automated the operation. One of the three counterbalances was taken out of use, and the cars were replaced with a more modern and lighter structure. Most importantly, the main driving force was removed from the original water pump such that the water hydraulic system provided only a counterbalancing function. The main driving force was transferred to a 320 kW electrically driven oil hydraulic pump which drives a pair of hydraulic motors on the chariot itself, thus providing the motive power. The new lift cars complete with their carriage and a full 92 passenger load weigh 22 tonnes.
Owing to elasticity in the ropes and the time taken to get the cars level with the landings, each lift in normal service takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each floor. The average journey time between floors is just 1 minute.
The original Otis lifts in the North and South pillars in their turn proved to be inferior to the new (in 1899) French lifts and were scrapped from the South pillar in 1900 and from the North pillar in 1913 after failed attempts to repower them with an electric motor. The North and South pillars were to remain without lifts until 1965 when increasing visitor numbers persuaded the operators to install a relatively standard and modern cable hoisted system in the north pillar using a cable-hauled counterbalance weight, but hoisted by a block and tackle system to reduce its travel to one third of the lift travel. The counterbalance is clearly visible within the structure of the North pillar. This latter lift was upgraded in 1995 with new cars and computer controls.
The South pillar acquired a completely new fairly standard electrically driven lift in 1983 to serve the Jules Verne restaurant. This was also supplied by Otis. A further four-ton service lift was added to the South pillar in 1989 by Otis to relieve the main lifts when moving relatively small loads or even just maintenance personnel.
The East and West hydraulic (water) lift works are on display and, at least in theory, are open to the public in a small museum located in base of the East and West tower, which is somewhat hidden from public view. Because the massive mechanism requires frequent lubrication and attention, public access is often restricted. However, when open, the wait times are much less than the other, more popular, attractions. The rope mechanism of the North tower is visible to visitors as they exit from the lift.
Second to the third level
The original spiral stairs to the third floor which were only 80 centimetres wide. Note also the small service lift in the background.
The original lifts from the second to the third floor were also of a water-powered hydraulic design supplied by Léon Edoux. Instead of using a separate counterbalance, the two lift cars counterbalanced each other. A pair of 81-metre-long hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. A lift car was mounted on top of the rams. Ropes ran from the top of this car up to a sheave on the third level and back down to a second car. The result of this arrangement was that each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway walking between the cars along a narrow gangway with a very impressive and relatively unobstructed downward view. The ten-ton cars held 65 passengers each or up to four tons.
One interesting feature of the original installation was that the hoisting rope ran through guides to retain it on windy days to prevent it flapping and becoming damaged. The guides were mechanically moved out of the way of the ascending car by the movement of the car itself. In spite of some antifreeze being added to the water that operated this system, it nevertheless had to close to the public from November to March each year.
The original lifts complete with their hydraulic mechanism were completely scrapped in 1982 after 97 years of service. They were replaced with two pairs of relatively standard rope hoisted cars which were able to operate all the year round. The cars operate in pairs with one providing the counterbalance for the other. Neither car can move unless both sets of doors are closed and both operators have given a start command. The commands from the cars to the hoisting mechanism are by radio obviating the necessity of a control cable. The replacement installation also has the advantage that the ascent can be made without changing cars and has reduced the ascent time from 8 minutes (including change) to 1 minute and 40 seconds. This installation also has guides for the hoisting ropes but they are electrically operated. The guide once it has moved out of the way as the car ascends automatically reverses when the car has passed to prevent the mechanism becoming snagged on the car on the downward journey in the event it has failed to completely clear the car. Unfortunately these lifts do not have the capacity to move as many people as the three public lower lifts and long lines to ascend to the third level are common. Most of the intermediate level structure present on the tower today was installed when the lifts were replaced and allows maintenance workers to take the lift halfway.
The replacement of these lifts allowed the restructuring of the criss-cross beams in upper part of the tower and further allowed the installation of two emergency staircases. These replaced the dangerous winding stairs that were installed when the tower was constructed.
Restaurants
The tower has two restaurants: Le 58 tour Eiffel, on the first floor 311 ft (95 m) above sea level; and the Le Jules Verne, a gastronomical restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. In January 2007, the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse was brought in to run Jules Verne.
Attempted relocation
According to interviews given in the early 1980s, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with French President Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company which operated the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored to its original location.
Economics
The American TV show Pricing the Priceless speculates that in 2011 the tower would cost about $480,000,000 to build, that the land under the tower is worth $350,000,000, and that the scrap value of the tower is worth $3,500,000. The TV show estimates the tower makes a profit of about $29,000,000 per year, though it is unlikely that the Eiffel Tower is managed so as to maximize profit.
It costs $5,300,000 to repaint the tower, which is done once every seven years. The electric bill is $400,000 per year for 7.5 million kilowatt-hours.
The Tokyo Tower in Japan is a very similar structure of very similar size. It was finished in 1958 at a final cost of ¥2.8 billion ($8.4 million in 1958).
Source Wikipedia
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The Eminent B2B marketplace – Bizbilla portrays the business Keys of Middle East which includes oil and gas industries of Bahrain, Iran, Oman, Yemen, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, Defence Industry of Israel, Aluminium Industry of Bahrain and chemical products of Jordan
Businessmen can view the B2B products, sell offers, buying needs, buyers directory, suppliers directory, tradeshows, super deals, featured premium suppliers, business classifieds, B2B classifieds, news, press release, articles and blogs of Bahrain B2B marketplace, Iran B2B marketplace, Iraq B2B marketplace, Israel B2B marketplace, Jordan B2B marketplace, Kuwait B2B marketplace, Lebanon B2B marketplace, Oman B2B marketplace, Qatar B2B marketplace, Saudi Arabia B2B marketplace, Syria B2B marketplace, Turkey B2B marketplace, United Arab Emirates B2B marketplace and Yemen B2B marketplace in Bizbilla which is the largest Middle Eastern B2B business directory.
You will get a responsive and user friendly business website with complete Content Management System (CMS) options when you sign up with the leading B2B portal. You can view the global database that has complete information of company directory, ministry and departments, visa details, airport details, bank details, trade associations and much more.
The biggest Middle East B2B marketplace – Bizbilla allows you to list your business and post your products, services, sell offers and buying needs for free. You can write and post news, press releases, articles and blogs about your business, products and services for free. It has business promotion options that promote the details you have posted in Bizbilla. Participate in the forum discussions to know about different aspects of business. You can ask business related queries and get relevant answers in Bizbilla.
Business classifieds basic, verified and pro, B2B classifieds basic and verified, upgrade verified and premium membership, booking banners in the main page, country page and city page and booking bulk banners in city home page are the salient features of the eminent Middle East B2B portal – Bizbilla. As a business person in the Middle East, you can post Business and B2B classifieds in the respective city of your country to be viewed by Middle Eastern and worldwide business persons.
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Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, [tuʁ ɛfɛl], nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) 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. The tower is the tallest building in Paris[10] and the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair.
The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. Upon its completion, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, due to the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, is now taller than the Chrysler Building. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift, to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by elevator. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city.
History
Eiffel Tower under construction in July 1888
Eiffel Tower Construction view: girders at the first storey
Panoramic view during ascension of the Eiffel Tower by the Lumière brothers, 1898
25 August 1944: American soldiers watch as the Tricolor flies from the Eiffel Tower again.
Franz Reichelt's preparations and fall from the Eiffel Tower.
Lightning strikes the Eiffel Tower on 3 June 1902, at 9:20 pm
Adolf Hitler with the Eiffel Tower in the background
The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin. Eiffel was assisted in the design by engineers Émile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin and architect Stephen Sauvestre.[11] The risk of accident was great as, unlike modern skyscrapers, the tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. However, because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died. The tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889, and opened on 6 May.
The tower was much criticised by the public when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore. Newspapers of the day were filled with angry letters from the arts community of Paris. One is quoted extensively in William Watson's US Government Printing Office publication of 1892 Paris Universal Exposition: Civil Engineering, Public Works, and Architecture: "And during twenty years we shall see, stretching over the entire city, still thrilling with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see stretching out like a black blot the odious shadow of the odious column built up of riveted iron plates."[12] Signers of this letter included Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Charles Gounod, Charles Garnier, Jean-Léon Gérôme, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and Alexandre Dumas.
Novelist Guy de Maupassant—who claimed to hate the tower[13]—supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure. Today, the Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.
One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 stories, only a very few of the taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.
Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. The military used it to dispatch Parisian taxis to the front line during the First Battle of the Marne.
Timeline of events
10 September 1889
Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message—
To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.
1910
Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower, discovering at the top more than was expected, and thereby detecting what are today known as cosmic rays.[14]
4 February 1912
Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower with his home-made parachute.
1914
A radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications during the lead-up to the First Battle of the Marne.
1925
The con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but related occasions.[15]
1930
The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.
1925 to 1934
Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.
1940–1944
[citation needed] Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika, but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. Some say Hitler was later persuaded to keep the tower intact so it could later be used for communications. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris.
3 January 1956
A fire damaged the top of the tower.
1957
The present radio antenna was added to the top.
1980s
A restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue and Joesphine Street in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, later as the Red Room and now as the Cricket Club (owned by the New Orleans Culinary Institute). The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000 pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a 40-foot (12 m) cargo container.
31 March 1984
Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through the arches of the tower.[16]
1987
A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the Paris police upon reaching the ground.[17]
27 October 1991
Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures of bungee jump (not allowed) from the second floor of the Tower. Facing the Champ de Mars, Thierry Devaux was using an electric winch between each figure to go back up. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth bungee jump.[18]
New Year's Eve 1999
The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris' Millennium Celebration. On this occasion, flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower, and fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. Since then, the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris' night sky, and the 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance every hour on the hour.[19]
28 November 2002
The tower received its 200,000,000th guest.[20][21]
2004
The Eiffel Tower began hosting an ice skating rink on the first floor each winter.[22]
Engraved names
Main article: The 72 names on the Eiffel Tower
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Design of the tower
Material
The pig iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125 metre square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.
The third floor of the Eiffel Tower, at night, seen from Trocadéro
Wind considerations
At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, however, as experienced bridge builders, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be [...] will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.[23]
Researchers have found that Eiffel used empirical and graphical methods accounting for the effects of wind rather than a specific mathematical formula. Careful examination of the tower shows a basically exponential shape; actually two different exponentials, the lower section overdesigned to ensure resistance to wind forces. Several mathematical explanations have been proposed over the years for the success of the design; the most recent is described as a nonlinear integral equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point.[24][25] As a demonstration of the tower's effectiveness in wind resistance, it sways only 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.[24][25][26]
Maintenance
Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tonnes of paint every seven years to protect it from rust.
Aesthetic considerations
In order to maintain a uniform appearance to an observer on the ground, three separate colours of paint are used on the tower, with the darkest on the bottom and the lightest at the top. On occasion the colour of the paint is changed; the tower is currently painted a shade of bronze.[27] On the first floor there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session of painting.
The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grillwork arches, added in Stephen Sauvestre's sketches, which served to reassure visitors that the structure was safe, and to frame views of other nearby architecture.[28][29][30]
Tourism
Popularity
More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889,[31] including 6,719,200 in 2006.[26] The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world.[32]
Passenger Elevators
View of Eiffel Tower from the Montparnasse Tower.
Ground to the second level
The original elevators to the first and second floors were provided by two companies. Both companies had to overcome many technical obstacles as neither company (or indeed any company) had experience with installing elevators climbing to such heights with large loads. The slanting tracks with changing angles further complicated the problems. The East and West elevators were supplied by the French company Roux Combaluzier Lepape, using hydraulically powered chains and rollers. Contemporary engravings of the elevators cars show that the passengers were seated at this time but it is not clear whether this was conceptual. It would be unnecessary to seat passengers for a journey of a couple of minutes. The North and South elevators were provided by the American company Otis using car designs similar to the original installation but using an improved hydraulic and cable scheme. The French elevators had a very poor performance and were replaced with the current installations in 1897 (West Pillar) and 1899 (East Pillar) by Fives-Lille using an improved hydraulic and rope scheme. Both of the original installations operated broadly on the principle of the Fives-Lille lifts.[33][34]
The Fives-Lille elevators from ground level to the first and second levels are operated by cables and pulleys driven by massive water-powered pistons. The hydraulic scheme was somewhat unusual for the time in that it included three large counterweights of 200 tonnes each sitting on top of hydraulic rams which doubled up as accumulators for the water. As the elevators ascend the inclined arc of the pillars, the angle of ascent changes. The two elevator cabs are kept more or less level and indeed are level at the landings. The cab floors do take on a slight angle at times between landings.
The Eiffel Tower illuminated in blue to celebrate the French presidency of the EU (July 2008)
The principle behind the elevators is similar to the operation of a block and tackle but in reverse. Two large hydraulic rams (over 1 metre diameter) with a 16 metre travel are mounted horizontally in the base of the pillar which pushes a carriage (the French word for it translates as chariot and this term will be used henceforth to distinguish it from the elevator carriage) with 16 large triple sheaves mounted on it. There are 14 similar sheaves mounted statically. Six wire ropes are rove back and forth between the sheaves such that each rope passes between the 2 sets of sheaves 7 times. The ropes then leave the final sheaves on the chariot and passes up through a series of guiding sheaves to above the second floor and then via a pair of triple sheaves back down to the lift carriage again passing guiding sheaves.
This arrangement means that the elevator carriage, complete with its cars and passengers, travels 8 times the distance that the rams move the chariot, the 128 metres from the ground to the second floor. The force exerted by the rams also has to be 8 times the total weight of the lift carriage, cars and passengers, plus extra to account for various losses such as friction. The hydraulic fluid was water, normally stored in three accumulators, complete with counterbalance weights. To make the elevator ascend, water was pumped using an electrically driven pump from the accumulators to the two rams. Since the counterbalance weights provided much of the pressure required, the pump only had to provide the extra effort. For the descent, it was only necessary to allow the water to flow back to the accumulators using a control valve. The lifts were operated by an operator perched precariously underneath the lift cars. His position (with a dummy operator) can still be seen on the lifts today.
The Fives-Lille elevators were completely upgraded in 1986 to meet modern safety requirements and to make the elevators easier to operate. A new computer controlled system was installed which completely automated the operation. One of the three counterbalances was taken out of use, and the cars were replaced with a more modern and lighter structure. Most importantly, the main driving force was removed from the original water pump such that the water hydraulic system provided only a counterbalancing function. The main driving force was transferred to a 320 kW electrically driven oil hydraulic pump which drives a pair of hydraulic motors on the chariot itself, thus providing the motive power. The new lift cars complete with their carriage and a full 92 passenger load weigh 22 tonnes.
Due to elasticity in the ropes and the time taken to get the cars level with the landings, each elevator in normal service takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each floor. The average journey time between floors is just 1 minute.
The original Otis elevators in the North and South pillars in their turn proved to be inferior to the new (in 1899) French elevators and were scrapped from the South pillar in 1900 and from the North pillar in 1913 after failed attempts to re-power them with an electric motor. The North and South pillars were to remain without elevators until 1965 when increasing visitor numbers persuaded the operators to install a relatively standard and modern cable hoisted system in the north pillar using a cable-hauled counterbalance weight, but hoisted by a block and tackle system to reduce its travel to one third of the elevator travel. The counterbalance is clearly visible within the structure of the North pillar. This latter elevator was upgraded in 1995 with new cars and computer controls.
The South pillar acquired a completely new fairly standard electrically driven elevator in 1983 to serve the Jules Verne restaurant. This was also supplied by Otis. A further four-ton service elevator was added to the South pillar in 1989 by Otis to relieve the main elevators when moving relatively small loads or even just maintenance personnel.
The East and West hydraulic (water) elevator works are on display and, at least in theory, are open to the public in a small museum located in base of the East and West tower, which is somewhat hidden from public view. Because the massive mechanism requires frequent lubrication and attention, public access is often restricted. However, when open, the wait times are much less than the other, more popular, attractions. The rope mechanism of the North tower is visible to visitors as they exit from the elevator .
Second to the third level
The original spiral stairs to the third floor which were only 80 centimetres wide. Note also the small service elevator in the background.
The original elevators from the second to the third floor were also of a water-powered hydraulic design supplied by Léon Edoux. Instead of using a separate counterbalance, the two elevator cars counterbalanced each other. A pair of 81 metre long hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level reaching nearly half way up to the third level. An elevator car was mounted on top of the rams. Ropes ran from the top of this car up to a sheave on the third level and back down to a second car. The result of this arrangement was that each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change elevators halfway walking between the cars along a narrow gangway with a very impressive and relatively unobstructed downward view. The ten-ton cars held 65 passengers each or up to four tons.
One interesting feature of the original installation was that the hoisting rope ran through guides to retain it on windy days to prevent it flapping and becoming damaged. The guides were mechanically moved out of the way of the ascending car by the movement of the car itself. In spite of some antifreeze being added to the water that operated this system, it nevertheless had to close to the public from November to March each year.
The original Hydraulic pump for the Edoux lifts
The original elevators complete with their hydraulic mechanism were completely scrapped in 1982 after 97 years of service. They were replaced with two pairs of relatively standard rope hoisted cars which were able to operate all the year round. The cars operate in pairs with one providing the counterbalance for the other. Neither car can move unless both sets of doors are closed and both operators have given a start command. The commands from the cars to the hoisting mechanism are by radio obviating the necessity of a control cable. The replacement installation also has the advantage that the ascent can be made without changing cars and has reduced the ascent time from 8 minutes (including change) to 1 minute and 40 seconds. This installation also has guides for the hoisting ropes but they are electrically operated. The guide once it has moved out of the way as the car ascends automatically reverses when the car has passed to prevent the mechanism becoming snagged on the car on the downward journey in the event it has failed to completely clear the car. Unfortunately these elevators do not have the capacity to move as many people as the three public lower elevators and long lines to ascend to the third level are common. Most of the intermediate level structure present on the tower today was installed when the elevators were replaced and allows maintenance workers to take the elevator half way.
The replacement of these elevators allowed the restructuring of the criss-cross beams in upper part of the tower and further allowed the installation of two emergency staircases. These replaced the dangerous winding stairs that were installed when the tower was constructed.
Restaurants
The tower has two restaurants: Le 58 tour Eiffel, on the first floor 311 ft (95 m) above sea level; and the Le Jules Verne, an expensive gastronomical restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. In January 2007, the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse was brought in to run Jules Verne.[35]
Attempted relocation
According to interviews given in the early 1980s, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with French President Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company which operated the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored to its original location.[36]
Reproductions
Replica at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, Nevada, United States
Main article: List of Eiffel Tower replicas
As one of the most iconic images in the world, the Eiffel Tower has been the inspiration for the creation of over 30 duplicates and similar towers around the world.
Communications
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the tower has been used for radio transmission. Until the 1950s, an occasionally modified set of antenna wires ran from the summit to anchors on the Avenue de Suffren and Champ de Mars. They were connected to long-wave transmitters in small bunkers; in 1909, a permanent underground radio centre was built near the south pillar and still exists today. On 20 November 1913, the Paris Observatory, using the Eiffel Tower as an antenna, exchanged sustained wireless signals with the United States Naval Observatory which used an antenna in Arlington, Virginia. The object of the transmissions was to measure the difference in longitude between Paris and Washington, D.C.[37] Today, both radio and television stations broadcast their signals from the top of the Eiffel.
Source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower
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