Gheorghe Panculescu, the Romanian engineer whose idea inspired the construction of the Eiffel Tower

Although a little known fact in Romania and even less acknowledged by the French, there are sources claiming that Gustave Eiffel borrowed an idea from Romanian engineer Gheorghe Panculescu that helped him finish the tower in a short 2 years and 4 months.

The French engineer came to know Pănculescu through the recommendation of Romanian poet Vasile Alecsandri. He even gave him a job in his firm, where Pănculescu made himself noticed as one of the best specialists, with solid knowledge of the resistance of materials and calculations.

At the time of employment, Pănculescu was a fresh graduate of the Polytechnic in Zurich. But when he came back to Romania and was commissioned to build the Ploiest-Predeal rail road, he devised a construction technique that drew Eiffel’s attention. The method entailed mounting the rails to the sleepers outside of the railway area and it allowed the completion of the project in under a year (although the allotted time was 5 years).

Eiffel came to Romania, to Vălenii de Munte, where Pănculescu was working, and told his Romanian friend about his idea to build a tower that would be out of the ordinary, for the Universal Exposition in 1889.

Pănculescu allegedly showed Eiffel his technique by using two horse carriages after which, the two men discussed options for adapting it to the tower. The result is the Eiffel Tower as we know it today.

The proof for the hypothesis that a Romanian was behind the construction of the Eiffel Tower is a paper called “Communication sur les travaux de la tour de 300m”, written by Eiffel, in which he allegedly mentions the Pănculescu and confesses to the tower’s having been built with a technique invented by the latter.

Another story says that even the steel used to erect the tower was made in Romania. Allegedly, France didn’t have siderurgy at the time, and that is why the materials for the tower had to be imported.

Sources:

“Cum a devenit Turnul Eiffel o poveste ’Fabricat 100% în România’”, Digi 24, April 12th 2014, Available at: http://www.digi24.ro/Stiri/Digi24/Timp +liber/Stil+de+viata/Cum+a+devenit+Turnul+Eiffel+o+poveste+Fabricat+100+in+Romania, Accessed: 09.10.2015.

“România și turnul Eiffel”, Marius Motora, November 9th 2012, Available at: https://mariusmotora.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/romania-si-turnul-eiffel/, Accessed: 09.10.2015.

Ghinda, Florin, “Turnul Eiffel este construit din oțel ‘made in Romania?’”, România Pozitivă, November 27th 2009, Available at: http://www.romaniapozitiva.ro/romania-internationala/turnul-eiffel-este-construit-din-otel-made-in-romania, Accessed: 09.10.2015.

Popa, Cristinel C., “Turnul Eiffel a fost ‘construit’ de un român. Inginerul Gheorghe Pănculescu, cunoscut în lume, anonim în România”, Jurnalul, January 28th 2015, Available at: jurnalul.ro/special-jurnalul/reportaje/turnul-eiffel-construit-roman-gheorghe-panculescu-684133.html, Accessed: 09.10.2015.