The History of Creation of Conveyable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st cartable lighting tower?
This depends mostly on your definition of a lighting tower. An extensive definition could 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 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 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 framework with 4 wheels at every corner ( permitting the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one large electrical lamp at every end of the auto. The machine is meant 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 because of harsh weather conditions.
More recently in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much closer similarity to modern day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a cartable lighting tower composed of a base frame ( which has an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with two electric lamps at the higher end. The unit doesn’t 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 guarantee stability in strong winds.
This is kind of a serious development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent principally forms the foundation of most modern day lighting towers which contain similar elements such as a base that stores the engine and generator 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 extensive illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a framework with four wheels to hold the generator and engine and 2 folding telescopic masts at opposite corners of the chassis that each hold a cluster of electric lamps. The design also allows for the masts to be rotated enabling finer control of the area of illumination. By offering 2 masts the light tower also allows for illumination over virtually every side of the machine. This is not like prior light towers which sometimes offer illumination on only one side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been made by lighting tower makers. Though the final design has varied small from those seen in the 1980s many enhancements have been made to make lighting towers simpler to use and more green.
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 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 cost-effective lamps to reduce fuel consumption dramatically, which is particularly timely seeing as global warming is becoming a more and more common 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 criminal minds season 5 episode 16 or the office season 6 episode 17/18 meantime.
Tags: lighting, lighting tower