The Invention of the Wire Hanger

The clothes hangers and their history

We often don't think much about where various tools we use to organise and simplify our daily lives came from.

A brilliant example is clothes hangers which have a simple design and functionality. But who envisioned the idea and invented the first hanger?

Of course there are many kinds of hangers which we use for many different purposes.

The most famous and probably the first hanger invented was the wire hanger. But before that it was the coat hook.

One morning in 1903, Albert J. Parkhouse arriving at his workplace at the Timberlake Wire and Novelty Company, a manufacturer of various wire products in Jackson, Michigan, going to hang his hat and coat on the hooks, found that no one was available.

Terribly annoyed, Parkhouse took a piece of wire and folded it into 2 large oblong semi-circular hoops, one opposite the other, and twisted both ends in the middle, giving them the shape of a hook. Then he simply hung up his coat and went to work!

The world's first classical hanger had just been invented!

An improved type of hanger was designed and patented in 1932 by Schuyler Hulett, which included paper tubes placed at the top and bottom of the wire, preventing clothes from slipping.

Three years later Elmer D Rogers made a hanger by placing a paper tube on the bottom bar of the hanger for hanging trousers, that is still in use today.