Clothes hanger

A clothes hanger, or coat hanger, is a device in the shape of:

• Human shoulders designed to facilitate the hanging of a coat, jacket, sweater, shirt, blouse or dress in a manner that prevents wrinkles, with a lower bar for the hanging of trousers or skirts.
• Clamp for the hanging of trousers, skirts, or kilts. Both types can be combined in a single hanger.

There are three basic types of clothes hangers. The first is the wire hanger, which has a simple loop of wire in a flattened triangle shape that continues into a hook at the top. The second is the wooden hanger, which consists of a flat piece of wood cut into a boomerang-like shape with the edges sanded down to prevent damage to the clothing, and a hook, usually of metal, protruding from the point. Some wooden hangers have a rounded bar from tip to tip, forming a flattened triangle. This bar is designed to hang the trousers belonging to the jacket. The third kind and most used in today's world are also plastic coat hangers, which mostly mimic the shape of either a wire or wooden hanger. Plastic coat hangers are also produced in smaller sizes to accommodate the shapes of children's clothes.

Some hangers have clips along the bottom for suspending skirts. Dedicated skirt and trousers hangers may not use the triangular shape at all, instead using just a rod with clips. Specialized pant hanger racks may accommodate many pairs of trousers. Foldable clothes hangers (http://www.dym.nl) that are designed to be inserted through the collar area for ease of use and the reduction of stretching are an old, yet potentially useful variation on traditional clothes hangers. They have been patented over 200 times in the U.S. alone, as in U.S. Patent 0586456, awarded in 1897 to George E. Rideout.

History

Some historians believe President Thomas Jefferson invented the wooden clothes hanger. However, today's most used hanger, the wire hanger, was inspired by a coat hook that was invented in 1869 by O. A. North of New Britain, Connecticut. An employee of the Timberlake Wire and Novelty Company, Albert J. Parkhouse of Jackson, Michigan has also been credited with the invention.

In 1906 Meyer May, a men's clothier of Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first retailer to display his wares on his wishbone-inspired hangers. Some of these original hangers can be seen at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Meyer May House in Grand Rapids.

In 1932 Schuyler C. Hulett patented an improved design, which used cardboard tubes mounted on the upper and lower parts of the wire to prevent wrinkles, and in 1935 Elmer D. Rogers added a tube on the lower bar, which is still used.

Materials

Hangers can be made in wood, wire, plastic, rarely from rubber substance and other materials. Some are padded with fine materials, such as satin, for expensive clothes, lingerie and fancy dresses. The soft, plush padding is intended to protect garments from shoulder dents that wire hangers may make.

In culture

A wire clothes hanger was also a featured prop in a central scene in the 1981 movie Mommie Dearest, in which Joan Crawford, played by Faye Dunaway, enters the room of her daughter, Christina, at night while the girl sleeps, to admire the beautiful clothes hanging nicely in her closet. She then becomes enraged upon discovering that Christina has once again used a cheap wire hanger, instead of the expensive padded hangers Joan provided and instructed the girl to use. Joan wakes her daughter and gives her a thrashing. Joan's fierce cry of "No wire hangers ever!" quickly worked its way into pop culture.

Unfolded wire clothes hangers, because of their use in performing illegal (mainly self induced) abortions (by inserting one in the uterus), are often used in pro-choice rallies. Whoopi Goldberg used one as a symbol in a pro-choice rally in Washington, D.C. in 2004.

Unintended uses

Wire is versatile, and wire clothes hangers are often used as cheap sources of semi-tough wire, more available than baling wire for all sorts of home projects. Many do-it-yourself and children's projects use wire hangers as holders of various types, from keeping a brake caliper from hanging by the brake line during auto repair work, to securing a gate on a bird cage. After sanding, wire hangers also find uses as conducting wire for uses as varied as hot wiring cars to games to test hand steadiness. They are commonly used to gain forcible entry into 20th century automobiles whose locks and entry systems are not protected from such methods. Hangers have been identified as an implement used for spanking of children or adults, used like a switch, given their ready availability as a household object.

Collecticus magazine (UK) reported (in October 2007) that clothes hangers have now become collectable (especially those with a famous company or event advertised across the front). For example, a 1950 Butlins hanger sold for £10.10 in October 2006 within Collecticus.

See also

• Clothes valet (also called, men's valet/valet stand).

References