Magic in the Kitchen - Josephine Cochrane and Her Miracle Machine

"I have to admit that I'm one of those people who think the dishwasher is a miracle."

                                                                                                                 Clarence Thomas

Each evening in our house, the ritual of cleaning the kitchen and setting it to rights after supper follows the same pattern. While my husband puts away the food and leftovers, I scrape the plates, rinse the flatware, and stack the dishwasher. The sameness of this routine got me thinking about and giving thanks to the inventor of the dishwasher, even though I did them by hand the first twenty-five years of our married life.

 Appropriately enough, it was a woman who pioneered doing them automatically.

Before the dishwasher became a standard appliance, cleaning up after meals was a labor-intensive chore. But in the late 19th century, Josephine Garis Cochrane had an idea that would change kitchen cleanup forever. Frustrated with the damage the kitchen workers were doing to her heirloom dishes by handwashing, she designed and built the first automatic dishwasher. Her invention not only solved a household problem but also became a commercial success, making its way into hotels, restaurants, and eventually homes across America.

Cochrane, born in 1839, had no formal engineering training, but she came from a family of inventors. After her husband passed away in 1883, leaving her with mounting debts, she became determined to turn her idea into a working product. She sketched out a design, hired mechanics to help build it, and eventually patented the first practical dishwashing machine in 1886. Her model used water pressure instead of scrub brushes, making it more effective and gentler on delicate dishware.

The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893--also known as the Chicago World's Fair--presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain publicity and new sales for her dishwashing machine, and it worked like a charm. Orders spiked from restaurants and hotels throughout Illinois and neighboring states, and Josephine later found willing customers in hospitals and colleges due to their strict sanitation requirements.

Called the Garis-Cochran Dishwashing Machine, it was the only invention on display invented by a woman, and there were nine others just like it being used in the exposition’s many restaurants, from the Big Kitchen to the New England Clam Bake. Into this strange-looking contraption of gears, belts, and pulleys would vanish a cage full of over 200 dirty dishes, only to reappear two minutes later as clean as if they had been hand-washed, freeing staff from dishwashing duty and saving businesses vast amounts of money as a result. 

The exposition's judges were so impressed with the dishwashing machine that they awarded it the highest prize for "best mechanical construction, durability, and adaptation to its line of work."

This Victorian-era invention is not just a must-have appliance in almost every home today, but it’s also at the foundation of the venerable KitchenAid brand.

Despite her success in commercial kitchens, it took decades for dishwashers to become common in American homes. Early models were expensive and required a large hot water supply, making them impractical for most households. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that dishwashers became more affordable and widely adopted. Today, her invention is an essential part of modern kitchens, saving time and effort for millions. 

However, one unintended consequence remains...the continuous debate in households across the country over how to properly load the thing.