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On the Eiffel Tower, 72 names of French men (scientists, engineers, and mathematicians) are engraved in recognition of their contributions.^[1] Gustave Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the protests against the tower, and chose names of those who had distinguished themselves since 1789.^[2] The engravings are found on the sides of the tower under the first balcony, in letters about 60 cm (24 in) tall, and were originally painted in gold. The engraving was painted over at the beginning of the 20th century and restored in 1986–87 by Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, the company that the city of Paris contracts to operate the Tower. The repainting of 2010–11 restored the letters to their original gold colour. There are also names of the engineers who helped build the Tower and design its architecture on a plaque on the top of the Tower, where a laboratory was built as well.^{[citation needed]}

List

Location

The list is split in four parts (one for each side of the tower). The sides have been named after the parts of Paris that each side faces:

The North-East side (also known as La Bourdonnais side)

Petiet, Daguerre, Wurtz, Le Verrier, Perdonnet, Delambre, Malus, Breguet, Polonceau, Dumas, Clapeyron, Borda, Fourier, Bichat, Sauvage, Pelouze, Carnot, Lamé

The South-East side (also known as the Military School side)

Cauchy, Belgrand, Regnault, Fresnel, De Prony, Vicat, Ebelmen, Coulomb, Poinsot, Foucault, Delaunay, Morin, Haüy, Combes, Thénard, Arago, Poisson, Monge

The South-West side (also known as the Grenelle side)

Jamin, Gay-Lussac, Fizeau, Schneider, Le Chatelier, Berthier, Barral, De Dion, Goüin, Jousselin, Broca, Becquerel, Coriolis, Cail, Triger, Giffard, Perrier, Sturm

The North West side (also known as the Trocadéro side)

Seguin, Lalande, Tresca, Poncelet, Bresse, Lagrange, Belanger, Cuvier, Laplace, Dulong, Chasles, Lavoisier, Ampère, Chevreul, Flachat, Navier, Legendre, Chaptal

Names

In the table below are all the names on the four sides.

Name appearing	Full name	Occupation	Location
SEGUIN	Marc Seguin	engineer	NW01
LALANDE	Jérôme Lalande	astronomer	NW02
TRESCA	Henri Tresca	engineer and mechanic	NW03
PONCELET	Jean-Victor Poncelet	geometer	NW04
BRESSE	Jacques Antoine Charles Bresse	civil engineer and hydraulic engineer	NW05
LAGRANGE	Joseph-Louis Lagrange	mathematician	NW06
BELANGER	Jean-Baptiste-Charles-Joseph Bélanger	mathematician and hydraulic engineer	NW07
CUVIER	Georges Cuvier	naturalist	NW08
LAPLACE	Pierre-Simon Laplace	mathematician and astronomer	NW09
DULONG	Pierre Louis Dulong	physicist and chemist	NW10
CHASLES	Michel Chasles	geometer	NW11
LAVOISIER	Antoine Lavoisier	chemist	NW12
AMPERE	André-Marie Ampère	mathematician and physicist	NW13
CHEVREUL	Michel Eugène Chevreul	chemist	NW14
FLACHAT	Eugène Flachat	civil engineer	NW15
NAVIER	Claude-Louis Marie Henri Navier	mathematician	NW16
LEGENDRE	Adrien-Marie Legendre	mathematician	NW17
CHAPTAL	Jean-Antoine Chaptal	agronomist and chemist	NW18
JAMIN	Jules Jamin	physicist	SW01
GAY-LUSSAC	Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac	chemist	SW02
FIZEAU	Hippolyte Fizeau	physicist	SW03
SCHNEIDER	Eugène Schneider	industrialist	SW04
LE CHATELIER	Louis Le Chatelier	engineer	SW05
BERTHIER	Pierre Berthier	mineralogist	SW06
BARRAL	Jean-Augustin Barral	agronomist, chemist, physicist	SW07
DE DION	Henri de Dion^[a]	engineer	SW08
GOUIN	Ernest Goüin	engineer and industrialist	SW09
JOUSSELIN	Louis Didier Jousselin	engineer	SW10
BROCA	Paul Broca	physician and anthropologist	SW11
BECQUEREL	Antoine César Becquerel	physicist	SW12
CORIOLIS	Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis	engineer and scientist	SW13
CAIL	Jean-François Cail	industrialist	SW14
TRIGER	Jacques Triger	engineer	SW15
GIFFARD	Henri Giffard	engineer	SW16
PERRIER	François Perrier	geographer and mathematician	SW17
STURM	Jacques Charles François Sturm	mathematician	SW18
CAUCHY	Augustin-Louis Cauchy	mathematician	SE01
BELGRAND	Eugène Belgrand	engineer	SE02
REGNAULT	Henri Victor Regnault	chemist and physicist	SE03
FRESNEL	Augustin-Jean Fresnel	civil engineer and physicist	SE04
DE PRONY	Gaspard de Prony	engineer	SE05
VICAT	Louis Vicat	engineer	SE06
EBELMEN	Jacques-Joseph Ebelmen	chemist	SE07
COULOMB	Charles-Augustin de Coulomb	physicist	SE08
POINSOT	Louis Poinsot	mathematician	SE09
FOUCAULT	Léon Foucault	physicist	SE10
DELAUNAY	Charles-Eugène Delaunay	astronomer	SE11
MORIN	Arthur Morin	mathematician and physicist	SE12
HAUY	René Just Haüy	mineralogist	SE13
COMBES	Charles Combes	engineer and metallurgist	SE14
THENARD	Louis Jacques Thénard	chemist	SE15
ARAGO	François Arago	astronomer and physicist	SE16
POISSON	Siméon Denis Poisson	mathematician and physicist	SE17
MONGE	Gaspard Monge	geometer	SE18
PETIET	Jules Petiet	engineer	NE01
DAGUERRE	Louis Daguerre	artist and chemist	NE02
WURTZ	Charles-Adolphe Wurtz	chemist	NE03
LE VERRIER	Urbain Le Verrier	astronomer	NE04
PERDONNET	Albert Auguste Perdonnet	engineer	NE05
DELAMBRE	Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre	astronomer	NE06
MALUS	Étienne-Louis Malus	physicist	NE07
BREGUET	Louis Breguet	physicist and inventor	NE08
POLONCEAU	Camille Polonceau	engineer	NE09
DUMAS	Jean-Baptiste Dumas	chemist	NE10
CLAPEYRON	Émile Clapeyron	engineer and physicist	NE11
BORDA	Jean-Charles de Borda	mathematician	NE12
FOURIER	Joseph Fourier	mathematician	NE13
BICHAT	Marie François Xavier Bichat	anatomist and physiologist	NE14
SAUVAGE	François Clément Sauvage	engineer and geologist	NE15
PELOUZE	Théophile-Jules Pelouze	chemist	NE16
CARNOT	Lazare Carnot^[b]	mathematician	NE17
LAME	Gabriel Lamé	mathematician	NE18

Criticism

Women

The list contains no women. The list has been criticized for excluding the name of Sophie Germain, a noted French mathematician whose work on the theory of elasticity was used in the construction of the tower itself.^[3] In 1913, John Augustine Zahm suggested that Germain was excluded because she was a woman.^[4]

Hydraulic engineers and scholars

Fourteen hydraulic engineers and scholars are listed on the Eiffel Tower. Eiffel acknowledged most of the leading scientists in the field. Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy is missing; some of his work did not come into wide use until the 20th century. Also missing are Antoine Chézy, who was less famous;^{[citation needed]} Joseph Valentin Boussinesq, who was early in his career at the time;^[5] and mathematician Évariste Galois. Other famous French mathematicians are missing from the list: Joseph Liouville and Charles Hermite.

Notes

^ not to be confused with Jules-Albert de Dion, automobile pioneer
^ not to be confused with Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, his son

References

^ "The 72 Scientists". La Tour Eiffel. Archived from the original on 15 February 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2008.
^ Harriss, Joseph (1975). The Tallest Tower: Eiffel And The Belle Epoque. Houghton Mifflin. pp. 100–101. ISBN 0395204402.
^ Gray, Mary (1978). "Sophie Germain (1776–1831)". In Grinstein, Louise S.; Campbell, Paul (eds.). Women of Mathematics: A Bibliographic Sourcebook. Greenwood. pp. 47–55. ISBN 978-0-313-24849-8.
^ Mozen, H. J. (pseud.) (1913). Women in Science: With an Introductory Chapter on Women's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind. D. Appleton. pp. 154–157.
^ Chanson, Hubert (13 April 2009). "Hydraulic Engineering Legends Listed on the Eiffel Tower". In Rogers, Jerry R. (ed.). Great Rivers History: Proceedings and Invited Papers for the EWRI Congress and Great Rivers History Symposium. American Society of Civil Engineers. pp. 1–7. doi:10.1061/41032(344)1. ISBN 978-0-7844-1032-5.