Eiffel Tower Matchstick Model
In the News
A man spent 8 years constructing his matchstick model attempting a world record only to be told by Guinness that they were the wrong type of matches! I’d be gutted. Also wasn’t he practicing good safety by not having the ignitable sulphur tips? I mean the whole thing could catch fire with them on. Something to do with being “commercially available” and I think he ordered specific ones from a supplier.
My grandad used to make all sorts with matches, jewelry boxes, windmills ect.. they where really good, I don't have the patience for that kind of thing, wrong matches lol oh dear
I feel for him, he should have got some sort of separate recognition for the sticks he used if they were model making sticks.
Think I would have read the rules first but hey I have every admiration for creative dexterous folk.It's amazing.
You beat me to it J, i was going to post this tonight 
He was supposed to use standard matches with the heads and not commercial ones as he did without heads
The requirements were that the heads remained on but he needed to scratch the inflamable sulphur off each match , imagine how long that would have taken him
But they are reviewing his attempt and he may receive the record yet
Heres my slant on it
Its enough to make you go on strike !
This Frenchman spent 8 years building a replica of the Eiffel tower with 706,900 matches ,at a height of 7.19 meters
Starting in 2015 he completed the work on December 27, the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who designed and built the original tower
Confident he had a world record he contacted the Guiness Book of Records , only to be told he used the wrong type of matches !!
He had initially used shop bought matches but got tired of cutting the heads off them, a condition of the record
So he got a commercial firm to supply him headless matches which he used
Unfortunately his entry was refused on a technicality ,he needed to have used shop bought matches with the heads intact but the red tops scratched off
So he failed to 'match ' the previous record for the Eiffel tower that was only 21ft held by Lebanese craftsman Toufic Daher, who created this in 2009
Ironically even if he takes up smoking to calm his nerves he can't even use the matches from his tower as they are duds
. Yes how painstaking that must be to scratch off each tip. I hope he does receive some sort of recognition. It’s still quite an achievement.
I find it a little strange that people actively go after these weird world records. Although, he probably got a lot more coverage from not getting the record than he would have if Guinness had recognised his model. Most world records get little or no media coverage, as the vast majority of them are viewed as little more than a curiosity or pointless.
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