In a story that nearly turned out to have a sad ending, the Guinness Book of World Records has awarded recognition to a 23.6-foot-tall model of the Eiffel Tower made entirely of wooden matchsticks and glue. When first submitted, the towering exhibit was turned down on a tiny technicality.
French engineer Richard Plaud, who had dreamed of a Guinness Record since childhood, spent 4,200 hours constructing the tower, carefully scaling it up from a 4-foot metal replica and working it out to be about two feet taller than the previous record. TravelGumbo understands that most of you probably didn't know that 'giant matchstick Eiffel Tower' was a category; we didn't either.
54,000 kitchen matches into the project, Plaud got tired of having to scrape and cut off the red tips of the matches one by one, and hit on the idea of getting the match manufacturer to sell him matchsticks that hadn't yet been dipped in the flammable material. He bought 760,000 matchsticks, weighing about 132 pounds.
At a rate of about 10 hours a week, Plaud completed the model and notified Guinness, only to be told his project couldn't be considered because he had used materials—the unadorned matchsticks—that weren't commercially available. The completion date for the model, by the way, was last December 27, the 100th anniversary of Eiffel's death.
Plaud appealed, and on February 7, Guinness told him that his case was being re-examined, but that a decision "could take some time," hinting at weeks. But a day later, he was notified the decision had been reversed. Guinness admitted their ruling had been harsh, and that they would correct "some inconsistencies within our rules."
Meanwhile, as of Monday, the actual Tower is closed; the staff is on strike.
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