Textile material to be dried is mounted in an apparatus on a plurality of supports (1). The supports are moved along a predetermined path, and suction and radio frequency energy are applied to the material, to dry it.A pump (10a) which can pump both liquid and vapor draws air through the material to remove water. A valve (12) is associated with the suction duct (2) leading to each support, and these valves are adjusted as the supports move along the path, so that a maximum amount of suction is applied to the wet material and a lesser amount of suction to the drier material.