The Power of Women - Josephine Cochrane

Many women in not so long ago had to attribute their achievements and inventions to men.

About 20 years ago, the Wall Street Journal used the term "glass ceiling" to describe an invisible barrier that women face when trying to take a leadership position. Not much has changed since then. discrimination, women still have to prove their competence and success much more, and the glass ceiling is still in place, albeit discreetly cracked in some places.

This is the story of a woman - little known to the general public who invented the machine without which households today are unthinkable!

Josephine Garis Cochrane born March 8, 1839 in the state of Ohio made the first practical mechanical dishwasher in 1886. Josephine Cochrane was a wealthy woman with a rich social life so she often hosted dinners with lots of guests. She did not wash the dishes herself, but the service did, but she wondered how to make life easier for THEM and for the dishes to be washed well. One evening, supervising the housekeeping service after dinner, she said, "If no one else invents the dishwasher, I'll do it myself!"

Encouraged by this idea, Josephine soon put together the basic details of her invention. But when her husband died suddenly in 1883, leaving a pile of debt, her idea became a necessity for survival.

First she measured the plates and glasses ...

She had drawers made of wire, each of which she designed to suit different sizes of plates and cups. The compartments are located inside a wheel that lay in a copper boiler. The engine turned the wheel as hot soap from the bottom of the boiler and fell on the dishes. Her friends were very impressed, so they had the same machines made for their households, calling them "Cochrane dishwashers".

Word of the invention quickly spread and soon the clever Josephine Cochrane, although she did not patent the invention, had a small factory where she produced dishwashers for restaurants and hotels in Illinois.

She demonstrated her washing machine in 1893 at the World's Innovation Exhibition in Chicago and won first prize for "best mechanical construction, durability and adaptation at work."

The popularity of machines rose sharply in the 1950s, when technology, according to household chores and dishwashing detergent, changed in favor of the dishwasher.

Today, the dishwasher is part of the typical American and world household. Cochrane’s company eventually became KitchenAid, part of the Whirlpool Corporation.