Patent ID: 6877248

Claim:
In a clothes dryer as found in a domestic residence equipped with an access door, a rotating drying drum accessed through said access door, said rotating drying drum rotatable about a center axis, the improvement comprising: an ultraviolet light; a plurality of conventional control circuitry provided on an upper panel face, said control circuitry including an ultraviolet light control switch which provides ON and OFF control functionality over the sterilization process associated with the clothes dryer with ultraviolet light; wherein when said control switch is on the ON position, ultraviolet light rays are applied to fabric articles located inside of the clothes dryer with ultraviolet light; a series of reflectors located around a perimeter of the rotating drying drum; a series of sets of ultraviolet light sources, each positioned such that its central axis is parallel to the central axis of the rotating drying drum; and an ultraviolet light detector designed to produce an electrical signal in the presence of ultraviolet radiation, said detector positioned between the ultraviolet light source and the reflector.