The History of Creation of Conveyable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st cartable lighting tower?
This depends principally on your definition of a lighting tower. A broad definition might include something as simple as a candle or primitive torch placed on a tall mast to cast light over a big area, such a device has likely been used 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 1st machine of its kind filed in US patent 1934576 and is named as a Portable floodlighting unit for airports.
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 each 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 inclement weather conditions.
More lately in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much closer similarity to current day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a cartable lighting tower consisting of a base frame ( which contains an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with two electrical lamps at the upper end. The unit doesn’t 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 gusty winds.
This is quite a big development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent largely forms the foundation 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 next patent was filed later on in the same year of 1980 but was for a solution to provide more intensive illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a chassis with four 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 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 nearly every side of the machine. This is unlike prior light towers which generally offer illumination on only one side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been manufactured by lighting tower manufacturers. Although 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 permits the user to adjust the direction of each lamp from the ground. The TCP Hylite also has a flexible chassis design which allows just about any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower in addition has broken new ground by exploiting highly cost-effective lamps to reduce fuel consumption seriously, which is especially timely seeing as global warming is beginning to become a more and more common concern.
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Tags: lighting, lighting tower