Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 5: The Mechanical Dishwasher (1886)

15. The mechanical dishwasher came about because of Josephine Cochran(e) in Central Illinois' Shelbyville who was tired of having servants break her dishes after fancy dinner parties. So at first she did the dishes herself, but got tired of this and wanted a machine to do it without chipping the dishes. //// Joel Houghton had an 1850 patent for this but it was not practical and not adopted. Josephine didn't know of it anyway. //// Supposedly she said, "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I'll do it myself." And, she did in 1886. //// She measured her dishes, built wire compartments and placed them in a wheel inside a cooper boiler. It worked and she received Patent No. 355,139. //// After her death, Hobart Manufacturing bought her company and began making dishwashers under the KitchenAid brand, now owned by Whirlpool. //// Now If Someone Would Invent a Way to Get the Dishes From the Machine to the Cupboard (Without Me). --Cooter