The History of Invention of Cartable Lighting Tower
Who invented the first cartable lighting tower?
This depends principally 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 probably been used since the Stone Age.
In more recent 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 might be the first 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 4 wheels at each corner ( permitting the machine to be towed ), a generator powered by an engine and one large electrical lamp at every end of the auto. The machine is meant 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 due to inclement 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 cartable lighting tower consisting 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 simply transported. The design also includes jack legs that are now common place on all lighting towers to ensure stability in high winds.
This is kind of a big development in the history of the lighting tower as this patent largely forms the basis of most present day lighting towers which contain similar elements such as a base that stores the engine and generator together 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 framework with 4 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 revolved 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 generally offer illumination on only one side of the machine.
Since 1980 considerable progress has been manufactured by lighting tower makers. Though the final design has sundry little from those seen in the 1980s many improvements 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 permits the user to adjust the direction of each lamp from the ground. The TCP Hylite also has a flexible framework design which allows virtually any generator to be used to power the light heads.
The TCP Ecolite lighting tower has additionally broken new ground by using extremely cheap lamps to reduce fuel consumption dramatically, which is very timely seeing as global warming is beginning to become a more and more plentiful concern.
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Tags: lighting, lighting tower