The History of Invention of Cartable Lighting Tower
Who invented the first portable lighting tower?
This depends mostly on your definition of a lighting tower. A broad definition might 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 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 might be the 1st machine of its kind filed in US patent 1934576 and is named as a transportable floodlighting unit for airports.
The patent describes a frame with four wheels at every corner ( permitting the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one massive 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 airfields 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 nearer similarity to current day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a portable lighting tower consisting of a base frame ( which has an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with 2 electrical lamps at the upper 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 ensure stability in strong winds.
This is reasonably a significant 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 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 a solution to provide more intensive illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a chassis with 4 wheels to hold the generator and engine and 2 folding telescopic masts at opposite corners of the frame that each hold a cluster of electrical lamps. The design also allows for the masts to be rotated 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 unlike previous light towers which generally offer illumination on just one side of the machine.
Since 1980 substantial progress has been made by lighting tower manufacturers. Although the final design has sundry tiny from those seen in the 1980s many improvements have been made to make lighting towers better to use and more environmentally friendly.
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 frame design which permits just about any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has additionally broken new ground by utilising intensely economical lamps to reduce fuel consumption seriously, which is very timely seeing as global warming is beginning to become a more and more plentiful concern.
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