The History of Invention of Portable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st portable lighting tower?
This depends largely on your definition of a lighting tower. An extensive definition may 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 likely 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 transportable floodlighting unit for airfields.
The patent describes a framework with four wheels at each corner ( allowing the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one massive 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 more close resemblance to current day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a conveyable lighting tower consisting of a base frame ( which has an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with 2 electric lamps at the upper end. The unit does not 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 reasonably a serious development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent mostly forms the root of most present 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 an answer 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 electrical 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 just about all sides of the machine. This is unlike previous light towers which sometimes offer illumination on only one side of the machine.
Since 1980 substantial progress has been made by lighting tower manufacturers. Although the overall design has sundry little 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 framework design which allows almost any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has also broken new ground by exploiting extremely cheap lamps to reduce fuel consumption seriously, which is very 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 modern family season 1 episode 16 or caprica season 1 episode 6 meantime.