"1. Find out what the typical housewife really wants.
2. Produce it!”
Kenwood dishwasher ad, 1965
The dishwasher was invented in the nineteenth century, not by a busy housewife or a restaurant owner looking to speed up the kitchen dishwashing, but by a well-to-do American socialite who was tired of her servants chipping her plates.
The first patent for a dishwasher was granted in 1850 to John Houghton, but his design proved to be impractical. Josephine Cochrane (1839-1913), the daughter of a civil engineer, came up with a machine, patented in 1886, that was not dissimilar to the dishwasher we use today. Plates and cups were supported in a wire rack lying flat in a copper boiler and blasted with pressurized water until clean. The machine created interest among Josephine's friends who began putting in their orders, and, following a showing at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, Josephine was soon supplying machines to restaurants and hotels in Illinois, trading under the name of Cochrane's Crescent Washing Machine Company.
It was not until the 1950s that dishwashers became more popular, with the advent of permanent plumbing and electronic motors. Today a dishwasher is a common feature in Western kitchens.
