The History of Creation of Portable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st conveyable lighting tower?
This depends mostly on your definition of a lighting tower. A detailed definition may include something as straightforward as a candle or primitive torch placed on a tall mast to cast light over a large area, such a device has likely been in use since the Stone Age.
In more up to date history it’s un-clear as to when the modern lighting tower was invented. Researching patent applications indicates that machines not dissimilar to today’s lighting towers were being designed in the 1930s.
A patent from 1932 shows what could be the first 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 four wheels at each corner ( permitting the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one massive electrical lamp at every end of the vehicle. The machine is designed 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 adverse weather conditions.
More lately in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much nearer resemblance to current day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a portable lighting tower composed from a base frame ( which contains an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with two electric lamps at the higher end. The unit doesn’t permit towing but instead is lightweight and compact enough to be simply transported. The design also includes jack legs that are now common place on all lighting towers to guarantee stability in high winds.
This is reasonably a serious development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent mostly forms the basis of most current day lighting towers which contain similar elements such as a base that stores the engine and generator with an extending hydraulic mast that supports the luminaries.
The next patent was filed later on in the same year of 1980 but was for a solution to provide more in depth 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 rotated enabling finer control over the area of illumination. By offering 2 masts the light tower also allows for illumination over just about every side of the machine. This is unlike prior light towers which sometimes offer illumination on just one side of the machine.
Since 1980 substantial progress has been manufactured by lighting tower makers. Although the overall design has varied little from those seen in the 1980s many improvements 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 permits the user to adjust the direction of each lamp from the ground. The TCP Hylite also has a flexible framework design which permits virtually any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower in addition has damaged new ground by exploiting extremely economical lamps to reduce fuel consumption significantly, which is especially timely seeing as global warming is starting to become a more and more plentiful concern.
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