Women and their Incredible Inventions

5. Josephine Cochrane- Dishwasher

Josephine Cochrane got so frustrated when her servants made it a habit to break her heirloom china after fancy dinners that she was compelled to find out a solution for this. Cochraine who came up with her invention ‘dishwasher’ got patent for it in the year 1886, but found it pretty hard promoting it. But the interesting fact is that a similar kind of machine, a hand-turned wheel that splashed water on dishes was invented by Joel Hougton years before Cochraine’s invention, but it was hardly a workable machine. Cochraine waited for someone else to invent the practical version for it and when she understood that no one is doing so, she proclaimed in disgust, ‘’if nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I'll do it myself." And she did it!