Gheorghe Pănculescu (1844–1924) was a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

engineer born in the Romanian town

Vălenii de Munte Vălenii de Munte () is a town in Prahova County, southern Romania (the historical region of Muntenia), with a population of 12,044 as of 2021. It lies In the Teleajen river valley, north of the county seat of Ploiești. The town's sister cities ...

, district of Prahova, who designed the railway line between the capital city

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

and

Predeal Predeal (; ) is a town in Brașov County, Muntenia, Romania. Predeal, a mountain resort town, is the highest town in Romania. It is located in the Prahova Valley, Muntenia at an elevation of over . The town administers three villages: Pârâu ...

(1878).

Life and work

Born in 1844 in

, Pănculescu went to study abroad and graduated from the Zurich Science and Technology University, and then joined the 'Société des Établissements Eiffel' engineering company founded by Gustave Eiffel, recommended by famous Romanian poet

Vasile Alecsandri Vasile Alecsandri (; 21 July 182122 August 1890) was a Romanian patriot, poet, dramatist, politician and diplomat. He was one of the key figures during the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia. He fought for the unification of the Roma ...

. In 1878, Pănculescu returned to Romania in order to design and build the railway line between Predeal and Bucharest, which he completed in less than a year, despite the five-year contract initially drafted; this is attributed to the truly innovative system for joining the metal girders together in the pre-assembly phase, away from the tracks' location which he devised. In 1879, Gustave Eiffel made a documented visit to Pănculescu's house in

, in what is today the

Nicolae Iorga Nicolae Iorga (17 January 1871 – 27 November 1940) was a historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, Albanologist, poet and playwright. Co-founder (in 1910) of the Democratic Nationalist Party (PND), he served as a member of Parliament ...

Memorial Museum, where he was shown the technology used by Pănculescu for the construction of his railway line. Eiffel himself documented Pănculescu's contribution in his work titled 'Communication sur les travaux de la tour de 300 m' written in 1887. The same technology was used by Eiffel in building the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...

. Gheorghe Pănculescu became the General Inspector of the CFR SA, the Romanian national train operator.

Recognition

The only significant research of this collaboration between Gheorghe Pănculescu and Gustave Eiffel has been done by Prof. Eugen Stănescu, adjunct director of the Museum of History and Archaeology in Prahova, Romania. Stănescu went to Paris and researched Eiffel's archives, where he came across the document 'Communication sur les travaux de la tour de 300 m' mentioned above, which gives credit to Pănculescu's innovation and its crucial role to the completion of the tower. On 15 September 2004, during an official ceremony, a local school from Vălenii de Munte dating back from 1774 received the name 'The Gheorghe Pănculescu School of Arts and Crafts' in recognition of the genius of the inventor born in their town.

Gallery

File:Poza1.JPG, Gheorghe Pănculescu School of Arts and Crafts Entrance File:Poza2.JPG, Gheorghe Pănculescu School of Arts and Crafts Side View File:Muzeul_memorial.jpg, Pănculescu's House where he met Gustave Eiffel, now the Nicolae Iorga Memorial Museum

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Panculescu, Gheorghe Romanian engineers 1844 births 1924 deaths People from Vălenii de Munte Romanian scientists Romanian inventors Căile Ferate Române people