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4200 hours of manual work and two days of excitement: world record Eiffel Tower made of matches
Photo: Richard Plaud / REUTERS
A model of the Eiffel Tower has been officially declared the world's tallest matchstick building, a day after it was rejected by the Guinness Book of World Records. The 7.19 meter high tower was disqualified on Wednesday because it was allegedly made of the wrong type of matchsticks. On Thursday, the Guinness organization revoked its ruling. The original decision was too strict.
The week was an “emotional rollercoaster,” said master model builder and new world record holder Richard Plaud to the BBC.
The time before that was certainly not always easy. According to the BBC, Plaud needed a total of 4,200 hours of manual work for his building. To do this, he glued 706,900 matches with 23 kilograms of glue. The construction period spanned a total of eight years.
At first, he would have cut off the red sulfur tips from standard matches by hand, says Plaud. A slow and laborious process if it has to be done several hundred thousand times. So he asked the manufacturer for help and received wood without firing heads.
After the tower was completed on December 27 last year, Plaud contacted Guinness to confirm his record. However, he was later informed that his attempt was rejected because only "commercially available" matches qualified for a record.
Mark Mckinley of Guinness World Records said the organization was pleased to have approved the record: "We're pleased to admit that we were a little too strict about the type of match required, and Richard's attempt is truly officially amazing .”
It is not known what the previous world record holder, Toufic Daher from Lebanon, thinks of the decision. His matchstick Eiffel Tower, completed in 2009, was 6.53 meters high. Richard Plaud, meanwhile, hopes to be able to exhibit his tower at the Olympic Games in Paris in July.
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