Radio helped save the Eiffel Tower.
Its original land-use permit lasted 20 years. Wireless telegraphy gave Paris a reason to keep the tower.
Gustave Eiffel built his tower for the 1889 Paris Exposition with a 20-year permit to use the land. When the permit ended, the tower could have been dismantled.
In 1898, Eugène Ducretet sent a wireless Morse code message from the tower to the Panthéon, about four kilometres away. The tower’s value as a tall radio antenna helped secure its future.