The first clothes dryer came some time after the washing machine was invented. In the modern era, we take for granted the power of our washing machines and clothes dryers. Ancient peoples got their clothes clean by rubbing sand on them or pounding them on rocks before using a local stream to wash the sand away. The fat of sacrificial animals was used as soap.
The first washing machine was created during the Industrial Revolution. It was a scrub board which was created in 1797. Yet it was not until 1851 when a washing machine with a drum was invented. James King is the man responsible with his invention similar to a modern machine. However, it was hand operated. Seven years later, Hamilton Smith created the rotary machine with William Blackstone inventing the first machine to remove and wash dirt away from clothes in 1874. Yet people were still drying their clothes in the sun or depending on the rudimentary clothes dryers created in France.
A Frenchman named M. Pochon is accredited with creating the first clothes dryer in 1800. It was known as the ventilator which was a metal drum that was shaped like a barrel. There were holes in it and the clothes dryer had to be turned by hand over an open fire.
Very little is known about the history of clothes dryers between Pochon's primitive invention and George T. Sampson's Convection Dryer which was patented in 1892. This dryer used the heat from a stove and was a better version of Pochon's ventilator. The first clothes dryers to be operated by electricity were created in 1915. Brook Stevens is credited with creating the first clothes dryer to have a glass window in the 1940s.
Despite the amazing service a clothes dryer provides, it is important to take great care when using one. The lint filter should be cleaned after every use because it is flammable and could potentially go on fire. Clothes that have been exposed to flammable substances should never be placed in a clothes dryer nor should items made from rubber, foam or plastic.
It is said that every clothes dryer produces a carbon footprint of 2 kilograms worth of CO2 every year. While this may not seem like much, it becomes a massive figure when every clothes dryer in the world is taken into account. Therefore, we should use energy efficient clothes dryers and put clothes out to dry on a washing line whenever the sun is shining.
