Hangers

Today as I was getting ready for work, I pulled a shirt off a hanger and thought to myself, "Who invented hangers?"

Today’s wire coat hanger was inspired by a clothes hook patented in 1869, by O. A. North of New Britain, Connecticut.
Albert J. Parkhouse, an employee of Timberlake Wire and Novelty Company in Jackson, Michigan, created a coat hanger in 1903, in response to co-workers’ complaints of too few coat hooks. He bent a piece of wire into two ovals with the ends twisted together to form a hook. Parkhouse patented his invention, but it is not known if he profited from it.
Schuyler C. Hulett received a patent in 1932 for an improvement which involved cardboard tubes screwed onto the upper and lower portions to prevent wrinkles in freshly laundered clothes.
Three years later Elmer D Rogers created a hanger with a tube on the lower bar which is still used today.
Thomas Jefferson invented the the early wooden coat hanger, the hideaway bed, the calendar clock and the dumbwaiter.

More information on the specifics of the first invention can be found here. It's pretty interesting.