Woman of the Week - Josephine Cochrane

For the next few months, we’ve decided to dig into the CR4 archives and expand upon some blog posts from 2007. Back then, we published a series of lists of women inventors and now we will write full blog posts about those who have yet to be featured. Do you know of a great person to be a subject? Let us know!

To this day, Josephine Cochrane makes our lives easier. She’s the inventor of the automatic dishwasher.

She was born in Ohio on March 8, 1839 and grew up in Indiana. She attended a private school but burned down. She then moved in with her sister in Illinois.

In 1858, she married William Cochrane who had returned the year earlier after an unsuccessful try at the California Gold Rush. He became a dry good merchant and Democratic Party politician. They had two children a son Hallie, who died at age 2, and a daughter Katharine.

In 1870, they moved into a large house and started throwing large dinner parties for their friends. Guests often were served food on the couple’s heirloom china from the 1600s. The china was very delicate and the handwashing caused the paint to chip. Cochrane also thought it might be nice to relieve homemakers from the seemingly endless task of hand washing dishes.

In 1883, her husband died. She was only 45 and William didn’t leave behind much. Cochrane used this as motivation to make her invention a success so she could survive.

She worked tirelessly to come up with a design. She built the first model in the shed behind her house. A friend, George Butter, helped her build it. He later became the first dishwasher factory employee.

Cochrane first measured the dishes and built wire components specifically to fit plates, bowls or cups. They were placed inside a wheel that lay flat inside a copper boiler. A motor turned while hot, soapy water sprung up from the bottom and rained down on the dishes. The pressure helped get food off the dishes.

Josephine Cochrane received a patent on December 28, 1886 and showcased her invention at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and won the highest prize for "best mechanical construction, durability and adaptation to its line of work.”

People loved it, and she was soon getting orders from hotels and restaurants. Individual households often didn’t have hot water tanks big enough to heat the amount of water needed for the machine but there was an interest.

Many businesses used the machine though and eventually her company became a part of Kitchen Aid. In the 1950s, most American households were built with a dishwasher, finally showcasing her invention. Unfortunately, this was long after Cochrane had died in 1913.