L'Entreprise Eiffel

Bertrand Lemoine

Histoire, économie & société, 1995, vol. 14, issue 2, 273-285

Abstract: [eng] Abstract Gustave Eiffel, the « iron wizard », is an exemplary case of entrepreneurial success. A graduate of the French Ecole Centrale, he was responsible for the engineering work on the Bordeaux bridge. Setting up his own firm, initially in partnership with Seyrig, he scored outstanding successes in foreign markets — the Maria Pia bridge over the Douro, the Budapest railway station — , while staking out early on strong positions in Indochina. Stealing a march on the larger, leading firms of the time, he secured on the home front contracts for schemes of major importance — the Garabit viaduct, the Nice Grand Equatorial observation cupola, the Eiffel Tower — , a helpful factor in this respect being the support he could enlist among his connections in masonic circles. Implicated in the Panama scandal, he retired from business involvements, and his final years were devoted to work on meteorology, wireless telegraphy and aerodynamics. [fre] Résumé Gustave Eiffel, « le magicien du fer » constitue un cas exemplaire de réussite entrepreneuriale. Centralien, il mène à bien, comme ingénieur, les travaux du pont de Bordeaux. Etabli à son compte, d'abord associé avec Seyrig, il obtient à l'étranger de retentissants succès — pont Maria Pia sur le Douro, gare de Budapest — , tout en s'implantant précocement en Indochine. Damant le pion aux plus grosses entreprises de l'époque, il réalise en métropole de très importants ouvrages — viaduc de Garabit, coupole du Grand Equatorial de Nice, Tour Eiffel — , grâce entre autres à ses appuis franc-maçons. Impliqué dans le scandale de Panama, il se retire des affaires et consacre ses dernières années à la météorologie, à la radiotélégraphie et à l'aérodynamique.

Date: 1995
Note: DOI:10.3406/hes.1995.1773
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