The Lowly Coat Hanger

You probably never gave a coat hanger much thought. I know I didn’t until my character was hanging her clothes in an armoire in chapter 7.  That’s when the question came up. What did they use to hang their clothes in 1904?

Most of us use clothes hangers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They lovingly support our clothing investment, some of our most prized possessions. But have you ever stopped to wonder where the idea originally came from? Who invented this humble little device? What year was it invented?

 

Some historians believe that Thomas Jefferson, our third President, invented the predecessor to the coat hanger. However, it seems likely that the earliest version, one with a hook and shoulder shape was developed later, after the invention of the coat hook by O.A. North on Connecticut in 1869.

 

It didn't take long for others to jump into the game and a variety of patents were filed with the US patents office. The one pictured below looks like it would have been use with a coat hook.

In 1903 at the Timberlake Wire and Novelty Company in Jackson Mississippi, Albert J. Parkhouse, an employee, decided that the coat hanger needed improving. He took a simple piece of wire and shaped two ovals and twisted them together, then finished it with a bent hook at the top so it could be hung over a bar. It was revolutionary. More clothes to be stored together in one place.
 

 More design ideas came along in the ensuing decades. The more rigid variation of the design (depicted below) incorporated wood and further wire support struts to add strength and durability.

 

 In 1932, Schuyler C. Hulett mounted cardboard tubes on the wire sections which supported the clothing in order to prevent excess wrinkling.

In 1965, Gerhard Wieckmann filed a patent for a revolutionary new hanger that still had a wire hook, however used a new design wooden frame. This wooden frame was developed to minimize the creases in clothing caused by wire hangers. This version of the hanger cost a little more, but would have a much greater lifespan. Then in 1967, J.H Batts filed a patent for a molded plastic hanger, the kind I like to well. The advantage was not only lower production costs but increased the durability. 

Golly, the things we take for granted. So there it is. Yes. Della could have had a hanger to hang up her clothes in 1904.