The History of Invention of Conveyable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st portable lighting tower?
This depends largely 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 a large 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 suggests that machines not dissimilar to today’s lighting towers were being designed in the 1930s.
A patent from 1932 shows what might be the first machine of its kind filed in US patent 1934576 and is named as a movable floodlighting unit for airfields.
The patent describes a frame with 4 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 vehicle. 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 closer resemblance to current day lighting towers.
The US patent 4181929 describes a portable 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 higher end. The unit doesn’t permit towing but instead is light and compact enough to be simply transported. The design also includes jack legs that are now common place on all lighting towers to ensure stability in gusty winds.
This is reasonably a big development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent principally forms the foundation of most current 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 subsequent 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 frame 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 revolved 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 not like prior light towers which generally offer illumination on just one side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been made by lighting tower makers. Although the overall design has varied tiny from those seen in the 1980s many improvements 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 allows just about any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has additionally broken new ground by utilising intensely cheap lamps to reduce fuel consumption dramatically, which is especially timely seeing as global warming is becoming a more and more common concern.
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