The History of Creation of Conveyable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st conveyable lighting tower?
This depends principally on your definition of a lighting tower. A detailed definition might include something as straightforward as a candle or primitive torch placed on a tall mast to cast light over an enormous area, such a device has probably 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 first machine of its kind filed in US patent 1934576 and is named as a Portable floodlighting unit for airfields.
The patent describes a frame with four wheels at each corner ( permitting the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one giant electrical lamp at each end of the vehicle. The machine is designed 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 due to harsh weather conditions.
More lately in 1980 a US patent 4181929 was filed for a Portable illuminating tower that illustrates a much nearer similarity to current day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a conveyable lighting tower composed of a base frame ( which contains an engine and generator ) and a vertical, extending, hydraulic mast with 2 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 big development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent principally forms the root of most modern day lighting towers which contain similar elements like a base that stores the engine and generator 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 extensive illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a framework with 4 wheels to hold the generator and engine and 2 folding telescopic masts at opposite corners of the frame 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 2 masts the light tower also allows for illumination over nearly all sides of the machine. This is not like previous light towers which sometimes offer illumination on only one side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been made by lighting tower manufacturers. Though the final design has sundry small from those seen in the 1980s many improvements have been made to make lighting towers easier to use and more environmentally 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 frame design which allows almost any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has additionally damaged new ground by utilising intensely cost-effective lamps to reduce fuel consumption dramatically, which is very 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 blue mountain state season 1 episode 9 or big love season 4 episode 9 meantime.
Tags: lighting, lighting tower