Les savants de la tour Eiffel are the 72 names inscribed on each of the four faces of the Eiffel Tower, on the frieze of the first floor at a height of 57 meters. The names are placed between the tower’s girders, shown in capital letters and gilded in relief, each 60 centimeters high. Only the last name appears in the inscription. According to the historical account, these names were chosen to honor France from 1789 to 1889, in connection with the Eiffel Tower’s construction for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, which marked the centenary of the French Revolution. The engraved names were all scientists working in applied science and are described as a scientific pantheon. The number 72 is said to have been chosen by chance, and all selected names were limited by the spacing of the beams, which explains why no name exceeds eight letters. The inscriptions were covered with paint at the beginning of the 20th century and restored between 1986 and 1987 by the Société d'exploitation de la tour Eiffel. No women were included among the 72 names inscribed in 1889.
Nearby Objects
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Eiffel Tower 10 m away -
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Champ de Mars 350 m away -
Musée du quai Branly 350 m away -
Jardins du Trocadéro 500 m away
The Names on the Eiffel Tower
Les savants de la tour Eiffel were scientists, engineers, and industrialists whose names Gustave Eiffel inscribed on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. They were selected because they honored France from 1789 to 1889, the period commemorated by the tower's construction for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, which marked the centenary of the French Revolution. In 2019, the association Femmes et sciences published a list of 40 scientists whose names may be added to the Eiffel Tower in early 2020.
The 72 Names on the First Floor Frieze
The frieze on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower is located at a height of 57 meters. It carries 72 names on each of the tower's four faces. Each name is placed in the space between two girders. The inscriptions are in capital letters, gilded, and formed in relief, with each name measuring 60 centimeters high. Only the last name appears on the Eiffel Tower inscriptions.
The 72 Names on the Eiffel Tower
The 72 names engraved on the Eiffel Tower form a Scientific Pantheon of applied scientists. According to Histoire, Gustave Eiffel declared in a conference at the Societe centrale du travail professionnel that the number 72 was chosen by chance, as Georges Barral later reported in his book Le Pantheon scientifique de la tour Eiffel. Barral also noted that the tower was originally called the Tour de 300 metres. The engraved names were selected with practical limits in mind: each name had to fit within beam spacing, so none could exceed eight letters. Some names were excluded because their wording was too long or too complicated, including Jean-Baptiste Boussingault and Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, while others were considered too vague, such as Claude Bernard.
Histoire states that the scientists chosen were all active in applied science, and that several had made discoveries or inventions relevant to the 19th century. The names were placed on the tower in 1889, but none of the 72 were women. Histoire notes that Sophie Germain was not inscribed, even though engineers used her work on elasticity theory in designing the tower. Alphonse Rebiere regretted her omission in 1887, and many authors in the 20th century repeated that regret. Histoire also records a tourist asking about the location of Marie Curie's name, and notes that no women appeared in the golden frieze of scientists on the first floor.
The names were covered with paint at the beginning of the 20th century and restored between 1986 and 1987 by the Societe d'exploitation de la tour Eiffel. Histoire also mentions an exhibition, Les Savants de la tour Eiffel, which opened at the Henri-Poincare Institute library on October 12, 2007, with support from the Societe mathematique de France, and ran until February 3, 2008.
Hypatie Committee and the Eiffel Tower Project
In 2018, Histoire created the Comit Hypatie with the De fis Sorbonne student association and researchers from three faculties of Sorbonne University. The committee was named after Hypatia, the mathematician and philosopher from Alexandria. Its aim was to inscribe 40 eminent women scientists' names on the Eiffel Tower's second floor. Histoire announced the Hypatie for the Eiffel Tower project on January 6, 2019, during a partial solar eclipse in the Cassini room at the Paris Observatory. The City of Paris showed interest in the project, and Anne Hidalgo proposed creating a commission of experts to study its feasibility.
Selection and placement of the scientists' names
The names known as the Savantes de la tour Eiffel were selected by a commission mandated by the City of Paris, Femmes et sciences, and the Societe d'exploitation de la tour Eiffel. To prepare the project, Femmes et sciences was mandated to consult Sorbonne University and major research organizations including CNRS, Inserm, and INRIA. The project aimed to highlight women's roles, restore parity, and make science more attractive to young girls. Chief architect Pierre-Antoine Gatier recommended inscribing 72 women scientists' names, equal in number to men, above the men's frieze. This placement was chosen for both aesthetic and symbolic reasons.