Clothes dryer is a machine that dries clothes, linens, and other items, usually after washing. Before the development of clothes dryers, people dried clothes by hand, often by hanging them on a clothesline or laying them in the sun. Such methods require more time and effort than using a modern clothes dryer. Most clothes dryers work automatically. The operator puts wet clothes into the machine and sets the controls, which adjust drying time and drying temperature. Different fabrics and clothing items require different settings. For example, high heat can damage some fabrics.
Wet clothes become dry through the evaporation of the water in them. Evaporation is the conversion of a liquid into a gas, in this case water vapor. Water evaporates more quickly from wet clothes when they are surrounded by hot, moving air that contains little water vapor. Each major part of a clothes dryer works to speed evaporation. A gas or electric heating element heats the air inside the dryer. A blower keeps the air moving. A vent enables water vapor to leave the clothes dryer. A tumbler (rotating drum) keeps the pieces of clothing separate, enabling air to move between them.
Drying clothes removes tiny bits of fluff that accumulate as lint. Dryers have a lint filter or lint trap that collects lint where the operator can easily remove it. Because lint is highly flammable and clothes dryers can become extremely hot, dryers rank as a leading cause of house fires in the United States. People can reduce the risk of fire by never running a dryer unattended, by emptying the lint trap with each use, and by regularly cleaning and checking vent lines.
In 1799, a French inventor named Pochon made one of the first mechanical dryers to feature a rotating drum. Other clothes-drying devices were made in France and England through the 1800’s. In 1892, the American inventor George Sampson received a patent for an early clothes dryer. Clothes dryers and other household appliances became more popular after World War II (1939-1945), in part due to the availability of the steel used to make them.
