The Mysterious Illness That Befell Eiffel Tower Construction Workers | NOVA | PBS
em26G7x6WJ4 • 2025-03-18
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Kind: captions
Language: en
after months of preparation the tower's
construction can finally
begin but being so close to the river
means the soil is soaked with
water how to build the foundation for
the world's tallest
building on such potentially unstable
Terrain in the middle of the Paris
winter the work
begins soon around 500 workers gather to
dig the foundation of the tow north and
west pillars the nearest to the
sen piece by piece just like in Bordeaux
large watertight metal boxes are
assembled which will form the
pressurized Chambers or kaison to allow
construction of the foundation to be
protected from
flooding then the project encounters a
serious
problem when the pressurized air
Chambers come into use workers develop
an unknown illness they report tingling
Sensations bleeding difficulty breathing
and partial
paralysis no one understands the cause
of this ailment nor the importance of
making decompression stops when coming
back to the
surface today the illness is known as
the bz or kaisen
disease inside the kaisen much like
underwater divers workers breathe air at
a high
[Music]
pressure but if they return to the
surface too quickly and the pressure
drops rapidly as a result nitrogen
bubbles can form in their blood causing
decompression
sickness nobody understands what is
happening even the government is
concerned about the potential Danger
in April 1887 the minister of Commerce
and Industry decides to go down himself
into the foundations and he comes back
up
alive it was a demonstration that the G
was not so harmful and it was not a
problem which could delay the
construction of the
[Music]
tower despite the discomfort work
resumes until the peers are in place
soon solid masonry rises from the
foundations to support the metal
structures at the bottom of the
tower now they can begin the iron work
[Music]
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file updated 2026-02-13 13:01:38 UTC
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