Today, we will take a brief respite from talking about writing to discuss useless information you can use to impress friends or colleagues at cocktail parties. Or better yet, maybe one of your characters can use the information to impress their friends, enemies or colleagues when necessary.
In the first Indiana Jones movie, there is a wonderful scene where the heroine, who has been taken captive by the Germans, is seated in a tent when the chief questioner for the German walks in. With ominous music flowing in the background, she stares up at him in horror as he pulls out a heavy piece of metal, divides it into three sections, pops it outwards, then slowly assembles it—into a coat hanger. Everyone in the theater grinned as they shared a collective sigh of relief. Have you ever wondered who came up with the coat hanger?
Several websites (all of whom, I think, were copying Wikipedia’s entry) say that Thomas Jefferson was believed to have invented a forerunner of the wooden clothes hanger. However, the foremost authority on all things Thomas Jefferson, the Monticello website, disagrees. According to the Monticello website, there is no evidence that Thomas Jefferson invented the individual clothes hangers similar to what we use today, but he did invent the most ingenious closet gadget which allowed him to hang and access over 48 sets of coats, waistcoats and other clothing with ease. The device, alas, has not withstood the ravages of time.
One of the first patents for a device similar to today’s coat hangers was issued in 1869 to O.A. North, from New Britain, Connecticut. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find that patent or the drawing that should be with the patent—records that old at the United States Patent Office are listed by year, classification and patent number only rather than by key word. Over 13,000 patents were issued in 1869 alone!
Until 1903, coat hangers were made of wood supported by other materials. The ubiquitous wire coat hanger was first designed by Albert J. Parkhouse in 1903. Parkhouse was an employee of the Timberlake Wire and Novelty Company in Jackson, Michigan. His co-employees were unhappy because the company did not have enough coat hooks, so many of their heavy winter coats would fall to the floor during their work shift. Mr. Parkhouse grabbed a length of wire, twisted it so that one end had a hook on it, there were two ovals below that, and then the other end of the wire twisted around the stem of the hook.
In keeping with the custom of the day, Parkhouse’s employer, Timberlake, patented the idea and reaped the profits. After a few years, Albert Parkhouse (perhaps realizing that it is cold in Michigan in winter and not that cold somewhere else) moved his family to Los Angeles, where he started his own wire novelty company. He died at 48 from a ruptured ulcer.
Over the years, other patents have been issued for designs that improved the original one, to where today the variety of coat hangers is expanded. However, the wire coat hanger is the champion of them all, beloved by dry cleaners everywhere and collecting (or breeding, I find more likely) in our closets in prolific amounts.
Do you have any useless information you feel like sharing today?
Brings to mind the late great Erma Bombeck's theory that wire coat hangars, whose population seems to explode in closets, are actually the final stage of metamorphosis that transform missing socks from the laundry into wire coat hangars, much as caterpillars turn into butterflies.
ReplyDeleteInteresting theory!
DeleteKathleen, unidentified tupperware lids fall into the metamorphosis category.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents' beach cottage had an assortment of stuff from the twenties, including several different kinds of wooden coat hangers (wire hangers rust in the salt air). Yankee thrift: wooden coathangers never fall apart, like the cheap plastic ones.
In the twenties, wooden coathangers didn't cost what they cost now. :)
DeleteYou guys! There was no need for wire coat hangers before the invention of the automobile where it performed two vital functions - holding engine pieces in place (what-your father never did that?) and opening doors when you leave the keys dangling in the ignition, and usually the motor running :). I fear the advent of the key fob may bring on the demise of the wire coat hanger. Alas.
ReplyDeleteSadly, there are cars now that can't be opened with a wire coat hanger. Not sure what those of us who have locked our keys in the car can do (and yes, I did it once with the engine running my first few days as a first year teacher at a high school).
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