Sampson, George (1855?-1900’s), an African American inventor, improved the process of drying clothes. The United States Patent Office awarded him a patent for his invention in 1892. Little is known about Sampson’s life. Historians do not know exactly when he was born or when he died. Records indicate he may have been born around 1855 in Kentucky. Sampson was living in Dayton, Ohio, when he made his clothes-drying invention.
For most of history, people dried clothes outside in the open air and sun. In the early 1800’s, people in France and England experimented with drying wet clothes over fires. They put the wet clothes in rotating metal barrels suspended over the flames. Despite the convenience of being able to dry clothes indoors, this invention sometimes led to clothes being covered in soot or smoke. Sampson’s invention minimized smoke exposure by making use of the heat from a stove instead of an open flame. He designed a frame to suspend wet garments near the stove. People could easily swing this drying rack into position closer to the stove’s heat. After the clothes dried, people could fold the frame and put it away.
Like many inventors, Sampson pursued multiple ideas. He received several patents at a time when Black inventors were often discouraged or blocked from taking credit for their ideas. In 1885, Sampson received a patent for an improvement to sleds. His sled design enabled riders to use pedals to turn a roughened wheel, propelling the sled across ice or snow. Like many inventions, the sled design never became popular. In 1910, however, Sampson invented a way to attach a two-wheeled trailer to a bicycle. Today, people use similar devices to bring children and pets with them on bicycle trips.
