The History of Invention of Portable Lighting Tower
Who invented the first conveyable lighting tower?
This depends mostly 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 big area, such a device has doubtless been used since the Stone Age.
In more current 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 might be the first machine of its kind filed in US patent 1934576 and is named as a movable floodlighting unit for airports.
The patent describes a chassis with four wheels at every corner ( permitting 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 airfields on occasions when the main landing areas are out of use because of inclement weather conditions.
More lately in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much more close 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 two electric lamps at the upper end. The unit does not 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 strong winds.
This is reasonably a big development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent principally forms the foundation of most modern day lighting towers which contain similar elements like a base that stores the engine and generator along with an extending hydraulic mast that supports the luminaries.
The subsequent patent was filed later on in the same year of 1980 but was for a solution to provide more intensive illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a chassis with 4 wheels to hold the generator and engine and two 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 every side of the machine. This is not like prior light towers which sometimes offer illumination on only 1 side of the machine.
Since 1980 substantial progress has been manufactured by lighting tower makers. Although the final design has sundry tiny from those seen in the 1980s many enhancements have been made to make lighting towers simpler 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 chassis design which permits almost any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower in addition has damaged new ground by utilising intensely cheap lamps to reduce fuel consumption significantly, which is particularly timely seeing as global warming is becoming a more and more plentiful concern.
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Tags: lighting, lighting tower