Getting creative with a wire hanger

Make a Newspaper or a Magazine Holder!

Materials that you will need:

- Wire hanger
- Gummed tape or felt / fabric or ribbon
- Bottle cork, optional

Step 1
Straighten hook on wire hanger as pictured below.



Step 2
Now bend hook on wire hanger down as pictured below.



Step 3
Now bend arms on wire hanger down as seen below. Letter ‘C’ is where the cork will be placed.



Step 4
Now pull apart hanger about 6 inches at the top. Remember, the cork can also be seen as letter ‘c’.



Step 5
Cover the hanger entirely with gummed tape. If you don’t have gummed tape, then wrap your hanger in ribbon, fabric or felt…but you will need to use glue to secure to the hanger.

Step 6
Insert the end (C) into the center of the cork, if you have one. The cork will keep the holder from scratching table, desk, or floor when it stands with magazines held neatly in it.

Wire hanger book covers

Clair Hawkins's ''The Coat Hanger Book''

A book talking about over 400 uses of the common coat hanger, it also contains coat hanger realted contributions from every corner of the globe. It is without question, the world's most concise collection of coat hanger realted literature ever written.

 

 



   

 Alan Robert's ''Wire Hangers'' comic book series

Rocker Alan Robert of the legendary metal-crossover music group, Life of Agony, writes and illustrates this twisted horror/conspiracy series. Wire Hangers uses nightmarish visuals and graphic storytelling to depict a wave of abductions plaguing New York City. Pill-popping detectives, corrupt secret agents, and a mysterious, disfigured homeless man are all inter-connected in this horrific tale of revenge and redemption.

 

 

 

 

  



A wire hanger stamp

Zazzle is a company that prints custom designed products, such as posters, t-shirts, stamps etc. One of their latest stamp bears a simplified coat hanger.

 

 



True pieces of ART!

 

Scottish sculptor and installation artist David Mach has built an entire collection of sculptures around his original use of wire hangers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A, B, C, D....

Art
Bending wire
Clothes
Disposable
Easy to bend
Fabric
Garbage
Hanging
Iron wire
Joan Crawford - Mommie Dearest
Known
Light
Metal
No wire hangers ever!
Oh, it's fun to play with!
Parkhouse, Albert J. - the inventor
Quantity vs. Quality
Reuse
Shoulders
Twisting the wire
Usage - everyday
Very accidental invention
Wrinkles
XX century
You all have it at home
Zen simple
 

The first patents collection

A collection of wire hanger models, patented as different products, from the first original idea by Albert J. Parkhouse in 1903, to the most simplified version of it, with a protective hook.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The accidental birth of the wire hanger

One morning in 1903, Albert J. Parkhouse arrived as usual at his workplace, the Timberlake Wire and Novelty Company in Jackson, Michigan, which specialized in making lampshade frames and other wire items. When he went to hang his hat and coat on the hooks provided for the workers, Parkhouse found all were in use. Annoyed, and inspired, Parkhouse picked up a piece of wire, bent it into two large oblong hoops opposite each other, and twisted both ends at the center into a hook. Then he hung up his coat and went to work. The company apparently thought it was a good idea, because they took out a patent on it. In those days, companies were allowed to take out patents on any of their employees’ inventions. Attorney Charles l. Patterson applied for the patent on january 25, 1904, and U.S. patent # 822,981 was granted and assigned to John B. Timberlake. (Patterson put his own name on the line that asked for 'name of inventor.') Timberlake owned the company that Parkhouse worked for. The company made a fortune. Parkhouse never got a penny.

 

 

 

 

Etymology of the wire hanger

English: a wire hanger - a wire clothes hanger - a wire coat hanger

wire - metal in the form of a usually very flexible thread or slender rod.
hanger - a shoulder-shaped frame with a hook at the top, derives from the verb to hang, meaning one that hangs or causes to be hung or hanged.

Italian: gruccia fil di ferro (gruccia: hanger, fil di ferro: iron wire)
French: cintre en fil de fer (cintre: hanger, en fil de fer: of iron wire)
German: drahtbügel (draht: wire, bügel: hanger)
Russian: проволочная вешалка [provolochnaya veshalka] (проволочная: of wire, вешалка: hanger)