Guinness World Records Recognizes The First Real Lightsaber, See The Video
Burkan’s Star Wars-inspired lightsaber technology is made from white-hot elemental plasma, with a 3.28-foot blade that reaches 5,072 Fahrenheit.
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The first time the world was introduced to a lightsaber was in 1977’s Star Wars. “This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight,” Obi-Wan explained to a young Luke Skywalker. “Not as clumsy or random as a blaster, an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.” From that moment folks have been trying to recreate the fictional energy sword featured throughout the popular franchise. In the movies, a typical lightsaber is depicted as a luminescent plasma blade about three feet in length, emitted from a metal casing that is around 10.5 inches long. It is the signature weapon of the Jedi Order and the dark side’s Sith Lords. The Jedi wield predominantly blue, green, and yellow lightsabers while the Sith only use red-bladed versions of the weapon to distinguish themselves from their light-side counterparts.
Over the years replicas have been a popular piece of Star Wars merchandise. They range from inexpensive plastic children’s toys to Master Replicas’ Force FX series. There are also deluxe replicas that use LED-lighted tubes and sound effects to create a close audio-visual representation of what appears on screen. But now, Russian YouTuber Alex Burkan has brought that movie magic to life with the world’s first real lightsaber recognized by Guinness World Records.
See what goes into creating a real-life lightsaber in Alex Burkan’s video below:
Burkan’s Star Wars–inspired lightsaber technology is made from white-hot elemental plasma, with a 3.28-foot blade that reaches 5,072 Fahrenheit. According to Guinness, it can run for up to 30 seconds at a time and can even cut through steel. And the invention is environmentally conscious too, mostly crafted from discarded old parts.
Speaking to Guinness World Records, Burkan said he’s been a great Star Wars fan for his entire life. And the lightsaber was one of the gadgets he wanted the most. Explaining his invention process, the YouTuber said he’s been researching and working with hydrogen generation equipment since 2013. This inspired him to try to create his own lightsaber. But the process was not easy.
After gathering all the things he needed from scrap yards and online sales, Burkan moved on to designing and building high-pressure equipment which could be adapted for the project. The primary component of his lightsaber is an electrolyzer. It’s a device that can generate large amounts of hydrogen and oxygen while compressing the gas to any pressure.
After lots of experiments and tests, he was able to adapt the hydrogen and oxygen burner to form the shape and length required for the Star Wars weapon. After that, he created a compact powerful hydrogen and oxygen burner that could fit into the handle. But the best part about hit invention, Burkan says, is that it gives one a true feeling of holding a real lightsaber.
While the young inventor is still planning on fine-tuning his lightsaber, he is really happy that Guinness recognized all his work. “It’s a great feeling to get into Guinness World Records with something that you just made with your own hands,” he said in the press release. Looking to the future, Alex Burkan plans to create something even more epic.
