Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1889 — The Eiffel Tower of American Conception. [ARTICLE]

The Eiffel Tower of American Conception.

Washington Post. I There are really very few great, engineering schemes of the present day that cannot be traced more or less l directly to American ingenuity and originality. The Eiffel Tower, which has been the most conspicuous adjunct of the Paris Exposition, was not original with Mr. Eiffel, either in conception or design. In the Scientific American of Jan. 21, 1874, Mr. David Reeves published an article suggesting a tower I somewhat similiar to that which now overlooks Paris. In that same year plans were furnished by Clark, Reeves & Company, of Phoenixville for such a tower to be erected at I the Centennial Exposition. The * tower was to be 1,000 feet high, 150 I feet in diameter at the base, and 30 I feet at the top. M. Eiffel Improved upon the architectural beauty of the design, but he has always acknowleged that its conception was wholly American inventive genius.