The History of Invention of Conveyable Lighting Tower
Who invented the first portable lighting tower?
This depends principally on your definition of a lighting tower. An extensive definition may include something as straightforward as a candle or primitive torch placed on a tall mast to cast light over a big 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 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 first machine of its kind filed in US patent 1934576 and is named as a transportable floodlighting unit for airports.
The patent describes a chassis with four wheels at each corner ( permitting the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one large 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 airfields on occasions when the main landing areas are out of use because of harsh 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 conveyable lighting tower composed from 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 does not permit towing but instead is light 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 reasonably a serious development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent principally forms the basis of most modern day lighting towers which contain similar elements such as a base that stores the engine and generator along 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 an answer to provide more intensive illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a frame with four wheels to hold the generator and engine and 2 folding telescopic masts at opposite corners of the framework that each hold a cluster of electric lamps. The design also allows for the masts to be revolved enabling finer control of the area of illumination. By offering two masts the light tower also allows for illumination over nearly all sides of the machine. This is not like prior light towers which generally offer illumination on only 1 side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been made by lighting tower makers. Although the final design has sundry small from those seen in the 1980s many enhancements have been made to make lighting towers simpler to use and more ecologically friendly.
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 allows just about any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has additionally broken new ground by exploiting highly economical lamps to reduce fuel consumption significantly, which is very timely seeing as global warming is beginning to become a more and more plentiful concern.
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