The History of Creation of Portable Lighting Tower
Who invented the first cartable lighting tower?
This depends mostly on your definition of a lighting tower. An extensive 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 current 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 airports.
The patent describes a framework with four wheels at every corner ( permitting the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one giant electrical lamp at each end of the vehicle. 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 lately in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much closer similarity to present day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a conveyable 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 light and compact enough to be easily transported. The design also includes jack legs that are now common place on all lighting towers to ensure stability in high winds.
This is kind of a significant development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent mostly forms the basis of most modern day lighting towers which contain similar elements such as a base that stores the engine and generator together 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 extensive illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a framework with four wheels to hold the generator and engine and two 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 of the area of illumination. By offering 2 masts the light tower also allows for illumination over virtually all sides 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 manufacturers. Although the final design has varied small from those seen in the 1980s many improvements 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 framework design which allows just about any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has also 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.
There’s a lot of information on this topic online, so you can get more of it if you want, and you can watch csi: miami season 8 episode 16 or the mentalist season 2 episode 15 meantime.
Tags: lighting, lighting tower