Josephine Cochrane

Josephine Garis Cochran (later Cochrane) (March 8, 1839 – August 3, 1913) was an American inventor[1] who was the inventor of the first commercially successful automatic dishwasher, which she designed in the shed behind her home, she then constructed it engaging the assistance of mechanic George Butters, who became one of her first employees.[2] Since she found washing dishes to be very boring and mundane, she is claimed to have said "If nobody else is going to invent a dish washing machine, I'll do it myself!" [3] Once her patent issued in 28 December 1886, she founded Garis-Cochrane Manufacturing Company to manufacture her machines.[4] Cochrane showed her new machine at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 where nine Garis-Cochran washers were installed in the restaurants and pavilions of the fair and was met with interest from restaurants and hotels, where hot water access was not an issue. She won the highest prize for "best mechanical construction, durability and adaptation to its line of work" at the Fair. Garis-Cochran Manufacturing Company, which built both hand and power operated dishwashers, grew through a focus on hotels and other commercial customers and was renamed as Cochran’s Crescent Washing Machine Company in 1897.[5]

Josephine Cochrane
Stamp of Romania, 2013
Born
Josephine Garis

(1839-03-08)March 8, 1839
Ashtabula County, Ohio, U.S.
DiedAugust 3, 1913(1913-08-03) (aged 74)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Known forInventor of a popular model of dishwasher
Spouse(s)
William Cochran
​
(m. 1858)​
Children2

Cochran's Crescent Washing Machine Company became part of KitchenAid through acquisition by Hobart Manufacturing Company after Cochran's death in 1913, who first grew the commercial business, and in 1949, the first KitchenAid dishwasher based on Cochran's design was introduced to the public. By the 1950s, most households had access to hot water which had been limited in the past and cultural attitudes regarding the role of women were shifting so the consumer home market opened for dishwashers in the 1950s. Cochran was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 for patent 355,139 issued on December 28, 1886 for her invention of the dishwasher.[6]

Biography

She was born Josephine Garis in Ashtabula County, Ohio, on March 8, 1839 and raised in Valparaiso, Indiana. Cochrane was the daughter of John Garis, a civil engineer, and Irene Fitch Garis.[7]

After moving to her sister‘s home in Shelbyville, Illinois, she married William Cochrane on October 13, 1858. William had returned the year before from a disappointing try at the California Gold Rush, but had gone on to become a prosperous dry goods merchant and Democratic Party politician.[8][9] Josephine and William had 2 children: Hallie and Katharine.[10]

In 1870 the family moved into a mansion and she joined Chicago society. After one event dinner party, some of the heirloom dishes got chipped while washing up, prompting her to search for a better alternative to handwashing the china.[11] She also wanted to relieve tired housewives from the duty of washing dishes after a meal.[12]

Death and recognition

Cochrane died of a stroke or exhaustion in Chicago, Illinois, on August 3, 1913, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Shelbyville, Illinois.[13] In 2006 she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[14]

Cochrane's dishwasher

The first few men she tried to hire to put her design into reality insisted on changing her design, and the results didn’t work. Other attempts had been made to produce a commercially viable dishwasher. In 1850 Joel Houghton designed a hand-cranked dish soaker.[15] In the 1860s, L. A. Alexander improved on the device with a geared mechanism that allowed the user to spin racked dishes through a tub of water. Neither of these devices was particularly effective.[16]

Cochrane designed the first model of her dishwasher in the shed behind her house in Shelbyville, Illinois.[17] George Butters was a mechanic who assisted her in the construction of the dishwasher; he was also an employee at the first dishwasher factory. To build the machine, she first measured the dishes and built wire compartments, each specially designed to fit either plates, cups, or saucers. The compartments were placed inside a wheel that lay flat inside a copper boiler. A motor turned the wheel while hot soapy water squirted up from the bottom of the boiler and rained down on the dishes. Her dishwasher was the first to use water pressure instead of scrubbers to clean the dishes inside the machine.[18] After receiving a patent on December 28, 1886[19]

The Garis-Cochran Manufacturing Company became part of KitchenAid, and in 1949, the first KitchenAid dishwasher based on Cochran's design was introduced. It was in the 1950s that dishwashers became a common household item after new suburban homes were built with the plumbing required to handle the extra hot water.[20]

References
  1. Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. Reader's Digest. 2009. p. 6. ISBN 978-0276445699.
  2. David John Cole; Eve Browning; Fred E. H. Schroeder (2003). Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 100–. ISBN 978-0-313-31345-5.
  3. Bellis, Mary. (2020, August 28). Josephine Cochran and the Invention of the Dishwasher. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/josephine-cochran-dishwasher-4071171
  4. "Woman Invents Dishwasher: Patent For First Practical Dish Washing Machine Issued December 28, 1886 – Josephine Cochrane". USPTO. United States Patent Office. 2001. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  5. "Dishwasher Woman". mirage world of women. Mirage. 18 July 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  6. "Josephine Cochrane - Dishwashing Machine". MIT Lemelson Invents. Lemelson-MIT. 2001. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  7. "NNBD: Josephine Cochrane". NNDB. Soylent Communications. 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  8. In spite of her young age and the societal norm at the time, Cochrane was guided by her independent nature and personal confidence. She assumed her husband’s name but preferred spelling it with an “e” on the end, a point of contention with his family. Forgotten Newsmakers: Josephine Cochrane (1839–1913) Invented the Dishwasher
  9. John, Lienhard (1999). "Engines of our Enginuity". Inventing the Dishwasher. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  10. "NNBD tracking the entire world".
  11. Ed Sobey (2010). The Way Kitchens Work: The Science Behind the Microwave, Teflon Pan, Garbage Disposal, and More. Chicago Review Press. pp. 41–. ISBN 978-1613743072.
  12. "Inventing the Dishwasher". Parts Select. Eldis Group Partnership. 2015. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  13. "Cook's Info". Cook's Info. 1998. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  14. "Spotlight | National Inventors Hall of Fame". Invent.org. 2013-11-21. Archived from the original on 2016-08-14. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  15. Mary Ellen Snodgrass (2004). Encyclopedia of Kitchen History. Routledge. pp. 320–. ISBN 978-1-135-45572-9.
  16. Hilpirn, Kate (2010-10-29). "The Secret History of: The Dishwasher". www.independent.co.uk. The Independent. Retrieved 2014-05-06.
  17. Blattman, Elissa (2013), Three Every-day Items Invented by Women, National Women's History Museum
  18. Johanna, Brenner. [Cochrane showed her design to a few men for their input which ended up being a frustrating experience. “I couldn’t get men to do the things I wanted in my way until they had tried and failed in their own,” she said. “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.”https://web.archive.org/web/20150508232050/http://woh.pdx.edu/heroine/2725 "Portland's Walk of the Heroines"] Check |archiveurl= value (help). woh.pdx.edu. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  19. US Patent No. 355139A: Dish-washing machine
  20. "Lemelson-MIT". Josephine Cochrane. Lemelson-MIT Program. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
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