NOTE: MACHINE TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH


To the Reader

This digitized version reproduces the original in its entirety.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

The punctuation has not been altered except for a few minor 
corrections.

No. 6185 - Tuesday, February 15, 1887

Current issue: 10 centimes - Departments: 15 centimes

THE REMINDER

Mr. Ernest Lefèvre, Managing Director

THE EIFFEL TOWER

Manifesto against the construction

and Mr. Eiffel's response

PARIS

THE EIFFEL TOWER
Saint-Jacques Tower, the Louvre, the dome of Les Invalides, the 
Arc de Triomphe, all our monuments. 

What things in a tower! It's truly amusing. When one wants to
admire Notre-Dame, one goes to see it from the forecourt. How can 
the tower, from the Champ de Mars, possibly bother the curious 
observer standing on the Notre-Dame forecourt, who won't even see 
it? It's one of the most misguided ideas, moreover, to believe 
that a tall building dwarfs the surrounding structures. Look at 
whether the Opera House doesn't appear more dwarfed by the 
neighboring houses than it dwarfs them itself.

Go to the Place de l'Étoile, and, because the Arc de Triomphe is 
large, the houses on the square won't seem any smaller to you. On 
the contrary, the houses certainly look fifteen meters high, and 
it takes a leap of faith to believe that the Arc de Triomphe is 
forty-five meters tall.

Therefore, as for the tower's artistic effect, no one can judge it 
in advance, not even I, because the dimensions of the foundations 
astonish me even now that they are beginning to emerge from the 
ground. As for the harm it will cause to the other monuments of 
Paris, those are just words.

The question of its usefulness remains. Here, since we are leaving 
the artistic realm, I may be permitted to contrast the opinion of 
the artists with that of the public. I do not believe I am being 
vain in saying that no project has ever been more popular; I have 
daily proof that there is no one in Paris, however humble, who 
does not know of it and is not interested in it. Even abroad, when 
I happen to travel, I am astonished by the impact it has had.

As for the scientists, the only true judges of its usefulness, I 
can say that they are unanimous. Not only does the tower promise 
them interesting observations for astronomy, plant chemistry, 
meteorology, and physics, not only will it allow Paris to remain 
constantly connected to the rest of France in wartime, but it will 
also be, at the same time, a shining example of the progress
made in this century by the art of engineering. It is only in our 
time, in these last few years, that one could make sufficiently 
reliable calculations and work iron with enough precision to even 
consider such a gigantic undertaking. Is it nothing to the glory 
of Paris that this epitome of contemporary science be erected
within its walls?

The protester labels my tower an "odious column of bolted sheet 
metal." I could not see this tone of disdain without being 
irritated.

There are among the signatories men whom I admire and esteem.

There are others who are known for painting pretty little women 
wearing a flower on their bodice or for having wittily written a 
few vaudeville verses. Well, frankly, I believe that not all of 
France is in that. Mr. de Vogüé, in a recent article in the 
_Revue des Deux-Mondes_, after noting that in every European city 
he passed through, he heard singing: _Ugène, tu me fais de la 
peine_ and the _Bi du bout du banc_, wondered if we were becoming 
the _graeculi_ of the contemporary world. It seems to me that, 
even if its only reason for being was to show that we are not only 
the land of amusements, but also of engineers and builders called 
upon from all regions of the world to construct bridges, viaducts, 
train stations, and the great monuments of modern industry, the 
Eiffel Tower deserves to be treated with more consideration.