The History of Invention of Portable Lighting Tower
Who invented the first portable lighting tower?
This depends principally on your definition of a lighting tower. An extensive definition could 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 used since the Stone Age.
In more recent history it’s un-clear as to when the modern lighting tower was invented. Researching patent applications suggests 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 every corner ( allowing the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one large electrical lamp at every end of the auto. The machine is intended 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 closer similarity to current day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a conveyable 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 does not 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 quite a big development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent principally forms the root of most current 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 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 framework that each hold a cluster of electrical lamps. The design also allows for the masts to be rotated enabling finer control over the area of illumination. By offering two masts the light tower also allows for illumination over virtually every side of the machine. This is not like previous light towers which often offer illumination on only 1 side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been manufactured by lighting tower manufacturers. Though the final 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 allows the user to adjust the direction of each lamp from the ground. The TCP Hylite also has a flexible frame design which permits virtually any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower in addition has broken new ground by using highly cheap lamps to reduce fuel consumption dramatically, which is very timely seeing as global warming is becoming a more and more plentiful concern.
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