The 72 names on the Eiffel Tower

The location of the names on the tower

On the Eiffel Tower, seventy-two names of French male scientists, engineers, and mathematicians are engraved in recognition of their contributions.Gustave Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the protests against the tower. The engravings are found on the sides of the tower under the first balcony, in letters about 60 cm high, and originally painted in gold. The engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century and restored in 1986–1987 by Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, the company contracted by the city of Paris to operate the Tower. The repainting of 2010–2011 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 the top of the tower on a plaque, where a laboratory was also built.

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

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

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. In 1913 John Augustine Zahm suggested that Germain was excluded because she was a woman.

14 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; Joseph Valentin Boussinesq, who was early in his career at the time; and mathematician Evariste Galois.

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