Whilst best-known for the tower bearing his name, there is much more to Gustave Eiffel and this talk by Alan Hill covers his early life, work as a railway engineer and his ill-fated involvement with Ferdinand de Lesseps on the Panama Canal. This all preceded his work on the Eiffel Tower which would be his last and most famous engineering project. Afterwards he changed direction to become a pioneering practical scientist.

Photo: Gustave Eiffel in 1888 by the French photographer, journalist and novelist, Félix Nadar.