The History of Invention of Portable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st cartable lighting tower?
This depends mostly on your definition of a lighting tower. An extensive definition may include something as easy as a candle or primitive torch placed on a tall mast to cast light over an enormous area, such a device has doubtless 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 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 movable floodlighting unit for airports.
The patent describes a chassis with four wheels at each corner ( allowing the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one massive electrical lamp at each end of the auto. 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 because of inclement weather conditions.
More lately in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much more close similarity to modern day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a cartable lighting tower composed 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 does not 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 guarantee stability in high winds.
This is kind of a serious development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent mostly forms the root 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 intensive 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 electric lamps. The design also permits for the masts to be revolved enabling finer control over the area of illumination. By offering two masts the light tower also allows for illumination over virtually all sides of the machine. This is not like prior light towers which generally offer illumination on only one side of the machine.
Since 1980 substantial progress has been made by lighting tower manufacturers. Though the final design has sundry small from those seen in the 1980s many enhancements 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 allows the user to adjust the direction of each lamp from the ground. The TCP Hylite also has a flexible framework design which permits almost any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has also damaged new ground by exploiting highly economical 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 mercy season 1 episode 15 or the office season 6 episode 17/18 meantime.