The History of Invention of Portable Lighting Tower
Who invented the first portable 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 large 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 reveals 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 Portable floodlighting unit for airfields.
The patent describes a chassis with four 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 adverse 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 portable lighting tower composed of a base frame ( which has an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with 2 electrical 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 ensure stability in strong winds.
This is kind of a significant development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent largely forms the basis of most modern day lighting towers which contain similar elements such as a base that stores the engine and generator along 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 framework with four wheels to hold the generator and engine and two folding telescopic masts at opposite corners of the framework 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 virtually every side of the machine. This is unlike prior light towers which often offer illumination on only 1 side of the machine.
Since 1980 substantial progress has been manufactured by lighting tower manufacturers. Though the overall design has varied tiny from those seen in the 1980s many enhancements 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 permits almost any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has additionally damaged new ground by using extremely cheap 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 the good wife season 1 episode 15 or the office season 6 episode 17/18 meantime.
Tags: lighting, lighting tower