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 detailed definition may include something as simple 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 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 Portable floodlighting unit for airfields.
The patent describes a chassis with 4 wheels at every corner ( allowing 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 intended 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 adverse 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 of a base frame ( which contains an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with two electrical lamps at the higher end. The unit doesn’t 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 ensure stability in high winds.
This is reasonably a big development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent principally forms the basis of most current 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 an answer to provide more extensive 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 framework that each hold a cluster of electrical lamps. The design also permits for the masts to be revolved enabling finer control over the area of illumination. By offering 2 masts the light tower also allows for illumination over just about all sides of the machine. This is not like previous light towers which sometimes offer illumination on only 1 side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been manufactured by lighting tower makers. Though the overall design has sundry small from those seen in the 1980s many enhancements have been made to make lighting towers easier to use and more environmentally 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 chassis design which permits virtually any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has also damaged new ground by using intensely cost-effective lamps to reduce fuel consumption dramatically, which is particularly timely seeing as global warming is beginning to become a more and more prevalent concern.
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