History’s Hidden Architects: The Minds Behind the Monuments

in may 1884 a sketch was made for a tower in paris described as a great pylon consisting of four lattice girders coming together at the top that sounds functional like an electricity pylon not exactly the iconic landmark we know today exactly and the man who drew it isn't the man whose name is on it it's another one of those cases like we talked about last week with history's forgotten hands where the person with the foundational idea gets lost in the shadow of the person who builds the brand okay so who was he who actually dreamed up the eiffel tower his name was maurice coughlin he was the chief of eiffel's engineering department and honestly a

structural genius he was only 28 when he was put in charge he'd studied under this master of a new technique called graphic statics graphic statics what is that it was a revolutionary way to visualize and calculate the forces in a structure instead of just endless equations you could draw them it allowed coughlin to conceptualize something on a scale no one had ever attempted the previous tallest monument was cologne cathedral at a 150 meters coughlin was designing for 300 woah so he's the one who did the math that proved a thousand foot tower wouldn't just fall over he and his colleague emile nougier they produced something like 5,300 detailed drawings they calculated the wind loads the

material stress everything but when coughlin first showed that great pylon sketch to his boss gustave eiffel eiffel was skeptical he didn't like it he was impressed it could reach the height but he thought it lacked elegance he wanted and i quote other features such as the inclusion of a large arch so they brought in an architect stephen solvestre who added the decorative arches at the base and the little cupola at the top so solvestre added the jewelry but the bones the actual structure that was all coughlin all coughlin so here's the question i can't get past if coughlin did the engineering and saw vestry did the aesthetics why is it the eiffel tower why him

this is the turn this is where the pattern we always see clicks into place eiffel was the entrepreneur he was the public face and he saw the potential so he bought the patent rights for the design from coughlin and nougier wait he bought the idea from his own chief engineer he did in exchange he gave them each about 1% of the tower's construction costs 1% so they got paid but he got the credit he got the legacy wow he got the legacy and from that moment on it was his project he was the one who secured the government approval managed the construction and handled the public who by the way initially hated the tower they

called it a monstrosity so coachlin was the quiet genius in the back room and eiffel was the showman out front taking all the heat and eventually all the glory that's the shape of it and it's a shape we see over and over isn't it the technical founder and the visionary ceo the engineer and the marketer it's true it's the story of so many companies so many inventions one person has the core insight the breakthrough but they don't have the personality or the capital to make it real right and to be fair coleen seems to have been a very private person he published scientific papers but he never sought the spotlight people who knew him said

he was fully aware that without eiffel's relentless entrepreneurial drive a 300 meter tower would have been completely unachievable he needed eiffel but eiffel needed his design more i mean without coleen's calculations for windsway that tower would have been a death trap no question his analysis was exceptional for the time he designed the tower to have a natural sway of about ten to twelve seconds to avoid resonance with wind he was playing three-dimensional chess with physics after eiffel retired it was coleen who became the managing director of the entire company the genius was always there just quietly running the engine it's just so ironic the man who made one of the most visible objects on earth

remained almost completely invisible himself it makes you wonder doesn't it for every monument with a single name attached how many other names should really be carved into the stone right alongside it