Guinness Book of Records
The First Jedi Knight Is Russian: Extendable Star Wars Lightsaber Officially Recognized
Alex Burkan’s sword doesn’t look quite like the film just yet, but according to the Guinness judges, it’s close enough.
© ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection / Picture Alliance
It’s the dream of countless Star Wars fans: a real lightsaber, just like the Jedi Knights use. There is no shortage of replicas, but only one sword now enjoys official recognition.
Alex Burkan is the first Jedi Knight with an officially recognized weapon. The Russian runs the Youtube channel “Alex Lab” and has been working on a working version of the world-famous Jedi blade for almost a decade. The Guinness Book of Records has now reviewed his work and awarded it the title of “the world’s first retractable lightsaber”.
However, Burkan’s sword does not work with a laser, as shown in Star Wars. His version uses a so-called electrolyser. This produces hydrogen and oxygen and compresses the gases to the desired pressure. This creates a plasma blade in Burkan’s lightsaber, which is around one meter long and heats up to 2800 degrees Celsius.
Now and then the sword explodes in his hand
The biggest challenge for him, as he explains in his video, was shrinking the necessary components to a manageable size and accommodating everything in the sword hilt. The result is impressive, even if minor problems make operation difficult.
The compact design allows a maximum of 30 seconds of plasma fun, and when you move it you can see immediately that it is not a stable flame, similar to the lasers in the movie swords. It is also somewhat annoying that the electrolyser occasionally explodes in the hand due to a backfire. No wonder, then, that the work for the Russian Jedi Knight (or Padawan?) is not yet complete and he continues to tinker with it.
Theoretically there is even a “better” lightsaber, because the Canadians around the Youtube channel “Hacksmith Industries” have already managed to build a model with a stable flame that looks exactly like the movie laser. But: Its operation requires a full backpack full of propane gas and oxygen, so a compact weapon for sporty Jedis is not the speech can be.
Next up: The Hydrogen Iron Man!
Alex Burkan is happy with his sword. “Of course it feels great to get into the Guinness Book with a self-made invention,” he said during the award ceremony. But apparently the promised optimization of the weapon will have to wait a little longer – because he is currently working on an Iron Man suit with a hydrogen drive (here in the video).
Source:Guinness World Records