After the hustle and bustle of the holidays, last thing anyone wants to do is more work. If you were lucky enough to host a party at your home, then it’s time for everyone’s favorite timely tradition – the cleaning of the house. There is no chore that most people dread to do than washing the dishes. Thanks to advances in technology, certain chores have become less of a burden. Enter the dish washing machine, thanks to Chicago’s very own inventor Josephine Cochrane, she has revolutionized the household work by reducing the time required to wash dishes and invest more time into leisure.
The year was 1885 on New Year’s Eve when Josephine would go on to invent (or filed her first patent) the dish washing machine; Josephine would receive her U.S. patent for no. 355,139 for her “Dish Washing Machine” a day after Christmas in 1886. The idea for a cleaning device didn’t blossom from a dislike of performing the chore (although it was a critical reason for the innovation), but it’s because she was fed up with her servants washing her fine China heirloom dishes and they kept getting them chipped.
Originally, Josephine undertook the task herself by washing the fine China, but soon became frustrated of the tedious task. She became determined to find a mechanical solution to make the chore easier, not just for herself but other as well. She went on to design a prototype of a washing machine.
“If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself.” – Josephine Cochrane.
During this time, Josephine’s husband was struggling with alcoholism and became ill and died in 1883 – leaving her with about $1,500 and an alarming amount of debt. Making her invention of a workable dishwashing machine a crucial financial necessity and no longer a dream. Finding knowledge and experience proved difficult.
“I couldn’t get men to do the things I wanted in my way until they had tried and failed in their own…And that was costly for me. They knew I knew nothing, academically, about mechanics, and they insisted on having their own way with my invention until they convinced themselves my way was the better, no matter how I had arrived at it,” Josephine said.
In 1923, Josephine founded the Crescent Dishwashing Company with a distinctive half-moon logo. In 1926, the company was acquired by the Hobart Manufacturing Company, who also manufactured dishwashers under the KitchenAid brand name. In 1986, the Whirlpool Corporation acquired KitchenAid.
Josephine’s journey as an inventor and entrepreneur was a difficult one to say the least. She died at her home in Chicago on August 3, 1913, at the age of 74. Josephine Cochran was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006. With each passing year, we raise a glass to Josephine and her remarkable invention to spend more time with the people and things that matter in our life…like keeping our hands dry of soapy bubbles.
