Eiffel Tower
Scale: 1:300
Length: 40 cm
Width: 40 cm
Height: 106 cm
Degree of difficulty: 3 (difficult)
Number of sheets: 19
The Eiffel Tower was built in Paris from 1887 to 1889. The reasons for the construction were the World Fair in 1889 and the 100-year Jubilee of the French Revolution. According to an agreement between Gustave Eiffel, the City of Paris and the French State, the tower should only stand for twenty years. For the opening of the tower a special edition of the newspaper "Le Figaro" was printed, and for this reason a small printing-house was installed in the tower.n At the beginning the tower was very controversial: it was one of the first constructions made completely out of steel, and many people considered it to be unsafe. They were afraid that the tower could fall over. The sight of the tower also disturbed many people; the French author Guy de Maupassant described the tower as a "heap of metal screwed together". This description gives a hint about the building material for the tower: 6,300 tons of iron (distributed among 18,000 various iron parts) and 2.5 million rivets. The steel construction has an overall weight of about 7,500 tons. From 1889 to 1916 the tower was 300.5 metres high, but from 1916 the tower was also used as an aerial mast, which raised the height to about 320 m. On the tower there are three platforms at heights of 57 m, 115 m, and 274 m. Today the tower has a weather station, which was already established in 1889, a post office, a restaurant and four lifts.n In the meantime the Eiffel Tower has become the landmark of Paris and is one of the most popular tourist attractions: every year it has over 6 million visitors. In addition, the Eiffel Tower was also visited by an animal: an elephant had escaped from "Circus Bouglione" and managed to climb up to the first platform. In April 2002 a cyclist made a new record: with his mountain bike he reached the second platform up the steps in just 19 minutes. The record for climbing the tower on foot is 8 minutes and 29 seconds, and is held by a French triathlon champion.
The builder was Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), a French engineer. He didn"t only construct the tower named after him, but also halls for the Paris World Fair in 1889. He also participated in several projects all over the world: the construction of numerous bridges, the dome of the observatory in Nice, the building of the steel scaffolding for the New York Statue of Liberty and projects for the Panama Canal. After the failure of the projects for the Panama Canal, Eiffel concentrated mainly on research in the field of meteorology. He probably used the weather station in the Eiffel Tower for his work. He had already set up a small apartment on the top of the tower with an office, a laboratory and a living-room.n On all four sides of the tower on the steel frame between the round arches and the first platform there is an inscription with a total of 72 names of scientists from all over the world. It is considered to be a gesture of Eiffel in order to acknowledge science. At the turn of the century the inscription was painted over when the tower was painted, and in 1986/87 freed again during renovation work.
The model can be assembled in a simple or detailed manner. Black areas in the lattice structure can be cut out as you wish.