EncyclopediaEiffel, Alexandre Gustave
Eiffel, Alexandre Gustave (ī'ful, Fr. äleksäN'dru güstäv' āfel') [key], 1832–1923, French engineer. A noted constructor of bridges and viaducts, he also designed the Eiffel Tower and the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty (see Liberty, Statue of. He was initially charged with corruption in the 1888 scandal of Ferdinand de Lesseps's failed Panama Canal project, but was cleared of all wrongdoing by a French appeals court in 1893. Nonetheless, he withdrew from commercial life and spent the rest of his years studying aerodynamics.
See his The Resistance of the Air (1913, tr. 1913).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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