The History of Creation of Conveyable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st conveyable lighting tower?
This depends principally on your definition of a lighting tower. A detailed 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 doubtless 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 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 1st machine of its kind filed in US patent 1934576 and is named as a transportable floodlighting unit for airports.
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 giant electrical lamp at every end of the auto. 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 harsh weather conditions.
More recently in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much nearer resemblance to present day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a conveyable lighting tower composed of 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 doesn’t 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 gusty winds.
This is quite a serious development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent mostly forms the foundation 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 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 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 two masts the light tower also allows for illumination over virtually every side of the machine. This isn’t like prior light towers which sometimes offer illumination on just one side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been manufactured by lighting tower makers. Though 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 allows the user to adjust the direction of each lamp from the ground. The TCP Hylite also has a flexible frame 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 utilising extremely economical lamps to reduce fuel consumption seriously, which is especially timely seeing as global warming is starting to become a more and more prevalent concern.
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