Who invented the clothes dryer?

A French inventor named Pochon was the one who invented the first ventilated clothes dryer in 1799 or 1800. It consisted of a vented barrel that wet clothes were placed inside and was turned by a hand crank over an open fire.

Pochon's invention opened the doors for other inventors to improve upon his design. During the early 1800s, an inventor named George T. Sampson patented a similar design. This one was designed to work over a stove. In the early 1900s, the electric dryer was patented by J. Ross Moore, which did not become well-known until it was produced by the Hamilton Manufacturing company in the 1930s.