Invention Of Hand-Held Hairdryer

The hand-held hairdryer was made possible by the diminishing size of electric motors. The first two models went on sale in the USA in 1920, and hairdryers developed independently in Germany shortly afterwords.

The hand-held electric dryer is a relatively simple appliance comprising an electric heater and an electric motor driving a fan; the invention leap came in combining these two existing technologies to make a new product. Electric heaters developed from the invention of the light bulb - it was noted that early filaments converted more energy into heat than light, and this observation led to the development of electric heaters using high resistance wires as heating elements, mounted on a reflector to radiate heat in one direction.

Making a miniature heater was no problem, so all that was needed to make a hand-held hairdryer was an electric motor small enough to fit into a compact casing. Chester A. Beach (USA) was a pioneer of small, high-speed, low-power universal electric motors, and made his first such motor in 1905. He later joined forces with Fred Osius and L.H. Hamilton (both USA) to form the Hamilton Beach Manufacturing Company, which was based in Racine, Wisconsin, USA. Beach's motors were used in developing several appliances including the first patented electric food mixer in 1910, an electric sewing machine in 1912, and a fixed-stand hairdryer in 1914.

By 1920 electric motors were small enough for Hamilton Beach to produce the Cyclone, one of the world's first two models of hand-held electric hairdryer. The other was the Race, produced by Racine Universal Motor Co. in the same town at almost exactly the same time. Hairdryers gradually improved, with smaller, lighter, quieter motors and variable temperature settings and fan speeds, but the next big development, during the 1950s, saw the appearance of the first hairdryers to have plastic casings. Plastic not only allowed for more fashionable designs, it also made hairdryers lighter still and paved the way for the various styling nozzles, volumizers and diffusers without which today's hairdryers would look like little more than a case containing a heater and a fan.

Source - The Book Of Inventions by Ian Harrison