Buffalo Bill, Edison, and the Iron Lady: Paris, 1889

In 1886, the French government faced a delightful problem. The centenary of the Revolution was approaching, and Paris — host of four world’s fairs already — needed to outdo itself entirely. A competition was launched for a centrepiece that would announce France’s industrial genius to every nation on Earth. The winning design had to be, the committee decreed, an original masterpiece of metal. More than a hundred proposals arrived: a giant sprinkler, a colossal lighthouse, one remarkable entry suggesting a full-scale replica of a guillotine. What they chose was a latticed iron tower, 300 metres tall, designed by an engineer named Gustave Eiffel. The rest, as they say, is the Paris skyline. The Exposition Universelle opened its gates on 6 May 1889 and ran until the last day of October. Thirty-two million visitors passed through — nearly the entire population of France. Admission cost forty centimes, roughly the price of a cheap café meal. The grounds stretched across the Champ de Mars,…