The History of Invention of Conveyable Lighting Tower
Who invented the 1st portable lighting tower?
This depends principally on your definition of a lighting tower. A broad definition could 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 in use since the Stone Age.
In more up to date 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 framework with four wheels at each corner ( permitting the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one massive electrical lamp at every end of the vehicle. The machine is intended 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 adverse 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 cartable lighting tower composed from a base frame ( which contains 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 simply 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 significant development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent largely 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 subsequent patent was filed later on in the same year of 1980 but was for a solution to provide more in depth illumination. The US patent 4220981 describes a frame with four 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 permits for the masts to be rotated enabling finer control over 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 often offer illumination on only 1 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 easier 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 damaged new ground by using extremely cheap lamps to reduce fuel consumption significantly, 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 the middle season 1 episode 16 or kitchen nightmares season 3 episode 5 meantime.