Josephine Cochrane invented the dishwasher in 1886. She is still listed on the board of directors of Kitchen Aid!
“I couldn’t get men to do the things I wanted in my way until they had tried and failed in their own,” Cochrane 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.”
Josephine Cochrane was left without any money when her husband died - and she had five kids to feed. In those days, women didn’t just go out and get jobs. So she was in trouble.
What’s a woman to do? Well, she hated washing dishes, so she invented a dishwasher - mechanical, with cranks, since there wasn’t electricity yet. She had an engineering background because her father and brothers were all engineers.
Below is a video of the first dishwasher ever built. Cochrane designed a similar one, but MUCH bigger, to work for hotel restaurants. She sold it for $800! $25,000 in today’s money. Eventually, she founded her own company - later called Kitchen Aid, now part of Whirlpool. She is still listed as on the Board of Directors of Kitchen Aid
