The History of Invention of Conveyable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st portable lighting tower?
This depends principally on your definition of a lighting tower. A broad definition could include something as easy as a candle or primitive torch placed on a tall mast to cast light over a large area, such a device has probably been in use since the Stone Age.
In more recent history it’s un-clear as to when the modern lighting tower was invented. Researching patent applications reveals that machines not dissimilar to today’s lighting towers were being designed in the 1930s.
A patent from 1932 shows what could be the 1st machine of its kind filed in US patent 1934576 and is named as a Portable floodlighting unit for airfields.
The patent describes a frame with 4 wheels at each corner ( allowing the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one massive electrical lamp at every end of the car. The machine is meant to be used to provide on-demand lighting of alternative landing sites at airports on occasions when the main landing areas are out of use because of inclement weather conditions.
More recently in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much nearer resemblance to present day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a cartable lighting tower consisting of a base frame ( which has an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with 2 electric lamps at the higher end. The unit doesn’t permit towing but instead is lightweight and compact enough to be easily transported. The design also includes jack legs that are now common place on all lighting towers to guarantee stability in gusty winds.
This is kind of a significant development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent largely forms the foundation of most modern day lighting towers which contain similar elements like a base that stores the engine and generator together with an extending hydraulic mast that supports the luminaries.
The following patent was filed later on in the same year of 1980 but was for an answer to provide more intensive illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a frame with 4 wheels to hold the generator and engine and 2 folding telescopic masts at opposite corners of the chassis that each hold a cluster of electric lamps. The design also permits for the masts to be revolved enabling finer control over the area of illumination. By offering 2 masts the light tower also allows for illumination over just about all sides of the machine. This is unlike previous light towers which generally offer illumination on only 1 side of the machine.
Since 1980 substantial progress has been manufactured by lighting tower manufacturers. Although the overall design has sundry small from those seen in the 1980s many enhancements have been made to make lighting towers better to use and more green.
The Hylite lighting tower from Taylor Construction Plant includes Adjustabeam technology which allows the user to adjust the direction of each lamp from the ground. The TCP Hylite also has a flexible frame design which permits almost any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has additionally broken new ground by exploiting extremely economical lamps to reduce fuel consumption dramatically, which is very timely seeing as global warming is becoming a more and more plentiful concern.
There’s a lot of information on this topic online, so you can get more of it if you want, and you can watch criminal minds season 5 episode 16 or icarly season 3 episode 12 meantime.
Tags: lighting, lighting tower