The History of Creation of Conveyable 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 probably 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 transportable floodlighting unit for airfields.
The patent describes a frame with four wheels at each corner ( allowing the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one giant electrical lamp at every 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 due to adverse weather conditions.
More lately in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much closer resemblance to modern day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a cartable lighting tower composed from a base frame ( which has an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with two electrical 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 ensure stability in high winds.
This is kind of a big 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 like a base that stores the engine and generator together 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 in depth illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a chassis with four wheels to hold the generator and engine and two 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 just about all sides of the machine. This is not like prior light towers which often offer illumination on only 1 side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been made by lighting tower makers. Although the final design has sundry 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 permits the user to adjust the direction of each lamp from the ground. The TCP Hylite also has a flexible framework design which permits virtually 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 starting to become a more and more prevalent 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 psych season 4 episode 15 or spartacus: blood and sand season 1 episode 7 meantime.
Tags: lighting, lighting tower