JOSEPHINE GARIS COCHRANE: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Josephine Garis Cochrane (1839-1913) was an American inventor who created the first dishwasher with mechanic George Butters. In the past several attempts have been made to build a dishwasher that is really workable, useful and efficient.

Among them was the hand-cranked dishwasher that Joel Houghton patented in 1850, a container in which dishes were placed while water was poured into it and turned manually via a lever.

Post of Romania, via Wikimedia Commons

Levi A. Alexander and Gilbert Richards also tried it in 1863 with a device that had a rotating mechanism to throw water against dishes. They both continued to work on their idea separately and filed their patents. However, neither model worked.

The only one that succeeded was the Cochrane design for having a better mechanical construction, much more practical and durable. His dishwasher was the first to use pressurized water instead of a scouring pad and by 1949 his invention became the best known and most widely used in American homes.

Biography

the beginning

Josephine Garis was born on March 8, 1839, in Ashtabula County, Ohio. Her father, John Garis, was a hydraulic engineer who was involved in the founding of Chicago and who invented a wetland desiccant pump.

His mother, Irene Fitch, was the granddaughter of the watchmaker and engineer John Fitch, inventor of the Perseverance, America's first steamship.

After her mother died, Josephine lived with her father in Ohio and subsequently attended a private school in Valparaiso, Indiana, until the school burned down.

After this incident, her father sent her to live with her sister in Shelbyville, Illinois, where she finished her training.

Life as a couple

Her husband, William A. Cochran, was a merchant for 16 years, a county clerk, a bricklayer, and a member of various committees of the Democratic Party. From 1853 to 1857 William was in California trying to get rich in the Gold Rush, but he failed.

He returned to Shelbyville and started a dry goods store. On October 13, 1858 he married Josephine, she took her husband's last name but written with an "e" at the end.

The Cochrans moved into a mansion and would always host dinners where they used fine china. Josephine was very concerned because her servants were very careless with her Chinese relic when they washed it.

Therefore, she made the decision to wash the dishes. After spending several days washing dishes by hand, she decided there had to be a machine that could do the job.

Death of husband

When her husband William died in 1883, building the machine became a priority for her. Despite having lived in wealth, William left Josephine with very little money and many debts; so her idea went from being a hobby to a means of generating income.

To develop her idea, Josephine met in the shed behind her house with George Butters, who was a mechanic, and helped her build the first dishwasher. They both created the Garis-Cochran dishwasher and received a patent on December 28, 1886.

First sales

In the 1890s, Josephine Cochrane traveled extensively to supervise the installation of her machines. Even though Josephine's initial idea was to create a household dishwasher, she only managed to sell it in hotels and other institutions, starting with the Palmer House in Chicago.

In 1893, at the World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago, he convinced 9 restaurants to use his invention; and at the Machinery Hall exhibition it won first prize for "best mechanical construction, durability, and fit for your line of work."

Word spread, and soon after, Cochrane received orders for its dishwasher from restaurants and hotels in Illinois.

She patented her design and it went into production. The Garis-Cochran factory business began in 1897. In a short time their customer base expanded to hospitals and universities.

Cochrane argued its failure to attract the home market by explaining that when it comes to buying a kitchen appliance that costs $ 75 or $ 100, the housewife begins to think of other things she could do with that money.

While it is true that women hate washing dishes they had not yet learned to think that their time and comfort were worth money. On the other hand, husbands also viewed the purchase of expensive kitchen amenities adversely, while spending heavily on appliances for their offices.

Death

The company continued to grow, driven by its extraordinary energy. In 1912, at the age of seventy-three, he set out on his most ambitious business trip. He traveled to New York to sell machines to several new hotels, including the Biltmore, and to department stores, such as Lord & Taylor.

The company finally began to prosper in the years before his death on August 3, 1913 in Chicago, when he died of nervous exhaustion at the age of 74.

She was buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Shelbyville. After her death, the company changed its name and hands until in 1940 it became part of Whirlpool Corporation's Kitchen Aid.

The first dishwasher

His dishwasher was the first to use water pressure, the design was similar to current electric dishwashers but was driven by a crank, sending jets of soapy water to dishes that were deposited on wire shelves inside an airtight metal box.

For rinsing, the user poured water over the soapy dish rack. Later models added a self-rinse cycle.

References

1. Josephine Cochrane. Inventor of the automatic dishwashing machine. Excerpted from The Robinson Library. robinsonlibrary.com
2. Snodgrass, Mary. Encyclopedia of Kitchen History. New York: Taylor and Francis Books. 2004.
3. Cole, David; Browning, Eve; Schroeder, Fred. Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2003.
4. Josephine Cochrane-Famous Inventor. Extracted from Edubilla. edubilla.com.
5. Lienhard, John. No. 1476: Inventing the dishwasher. Excerpted from Engines of Our Ingenuity. uh.edu.
6. Josephine Cochrane (1839-1913) Invented the Dishwasher. Excerpted from Forgotten Newsmakers. People Who Made Headline and Faded into Obscurity. forgottennewsmakers.com.