Alec Eiffel a tribute to the famous French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The song's video features the band playing in a wind-tunnel, a reference to the "pioneer of aerodynamics," with physics formulas in the background. The British magazine "Melody Maker" later commented on Francis' songwriting technique and the song itself: "According to Charles, the song started with Eiffel, then he started to [sic] singing the words Eiffel, rifle, trifle, and suddenly 'everything fell into place'. It's not certain whether lines like 'little Eiffel stands in the archway, even though it doesn't make no sense' are
Gustave Eiffel engineer to help him to realise the Statue of Liberty. Some work had already been carried out by Eugène Viollet-Le-Duc, but he had died in 1879. Eiffel was selected because of his experience with wind stresses. Eiffel devised a structure consisting of a four-legged pylon to support the copper sheeting which made up the body of the statue. The entire statue was erected at the Eiffel works in Paris before being dismantled and shipped to the United States. In 1886 Eiffel also designed the dome for the Astronomical Observatory in Nice. This was the most important building in a complex