The History of Creation of Portable Lighting Tower
Who invented the first conveyable lighting tower?
This depends mostly on your definition of a lighting tower. A detailed definition could include something as straightforward as a candle or primitive torch placed on a tall mast to cast light over a big 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 movable floodlighting unit for airports.
The patent describes a frame with four wheels at each corner ( permitting the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one large electrical lamp at every end of the vehicle. The machine is intended 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 due to harsh weather conditions.
More lately 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 portable lighting tower consisting of a base frame ( which contains an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with 2 electrical lamps at the upper 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 guarantee stability in high winds.
This is quite a serious development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent principally forms the root of most modern day lighting towers which contain similar elements like a base that stores the engine and generator 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 intensive illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a frame with 4 wheels to hold the generator and engine and two folding telescopic masts at opposite corners of the frame that each hold a cluster of electric lamps. The design also allows for the masts to be rotated enabling finer control over the area of illumination. By offering 2 masts the light tower also allows for illumination over virtually all sides of the machine. This isn’t like previous light towers which generally offer illumination on just one 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 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 allows virtually any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower in addition has damaged new ground by exploiting extremely economical lamps to reduce fuel consumption dramatically, which is particularly timely seeing as global warming is beginning 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 the new adventures of old christine season 5 episode 15 or community season 1 episode 17 meantime.