Dish drying cabinet

A dish drying cabinet is a piece of kitchen shelving placed above the sink, with an open bottom and shelves made of steel wire or dowels to allow washed dishes set within to drip into the sink and air dry.

A dish draining cabinet in a Finnish home

While recorded history of the idea goes back as far as 1876 with a patent application by an American inventor Chandler Vashti,[1] the concept was popularised in Finland in the 1940s by Maiju Gebhard, the head of the household department at the Finnish Work Efficiency Institute. Though Gebhard had introduced a doorless, wall-mounted dish drying rack in her 1930 book Pienviljelijäemännän kotitalousopas,[2] her 1940s cabinet was inspired by a countertop dish drying rack used in Sweden.[3][4] Gebhard's motivation was to save the time and effort of women; according to her calculations, a Finnish housewife spent 30,450 hours of her life washing dishes, and the dish drying cabinet resulted in a time saving of 50 percent.[4][5]

Gebhard developed the dish drying cabinet in 1944 and 1945, and the Institute started manufacturing the cabinets and selling the design in 1945. These cabinets were wholly made of wood, and made only in two sizes. Enso-Gutzeit began industrial production of the cabinets in 1948, and in 1954 a rack made from plastic-coated steel wire was introduced. The measurements of the cabinets were standardised in 1982.[5][4] Dish drying cabinets have become a standard accessory in virtually every Finnish home.[6][5]

See also

References
  1. CA 6309, Chandler Vashti, "Dish Drainer.", published 1876-07-17
  2. Manninen, Kirsti. "Maiju Gebhard – astiankuivauskaapin kehittäjä". Naisten Ääni. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  3. Michaelsson, Sannika (20 November 2017). "Astiankuivauskaappi ei olekaan suomalainen keksintö – Suomessa myönnetyistä yli 127 000 patentista vain yksi on saanut Nobelin". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  4. Lindfors, Jukka (24 November 2009). "Astiankuivauskaapin keksijä Maiju Gebhard". Yle Elävä Arkisto (in Finnish). Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  5. Halme, Merja (8 March 2018). "Tiedätkö, kuka on Maiju Gebhard? Hän on säästänyt keksinnöllään sinunkin aikaasi". Meillä Kotona. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  6. Karvonen, Anita (18 April 2017). "Astiankuivauskaappi – suomalainen arjen esine". SVT Nyheter. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
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