"cjcampbell" wrote in
oups.com:


But back to light sabers. Larry Niven in his stories posited a
"variable sword." This is actually a wire only one molecule thick (and
therefore extremely sharp) coiled in the handle of a flashlight-like
device. The wire can be extended out any length up to about four feet.
It is held straight and rigid by a force field that affects only the
wire -- the same type of force field that enables spaceships to crash
into planets without harm to the occupants (although they may be buried
beneath tons of rock). If this was a glowing force field, it would look
just like a light saber. So you could say that Lucas was just copying
something that Larry Niven had already invented.


Larry Niven? Wasn't he in the Pink Panther? The Pink Panther didn't have a
light sabre!