Invention of the Dishwasher: Success
Cochran worked hard to sell her invention, traveling around the country for years, well into her 70s. She patented it in 1886, 1888, and 1894. Her dishwasher could wash 60 to 240 dishes of any size or shape in only two minutes. She even made a smaller version for use at home, advertising that it could hide dirty dishes. It was too expensive for most households, though. For this reason, the Garis-Cochran Dish-Washing Machine was mostly bought by hotels and restaurants, and even hospitals and colleges because of the sanitizing it did with hot water.
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Many businesses bought Cochran's dishwasher. The first place she sold it to was the Palmer House in 1887. Nine were used at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Hotels said they needed 75% less workers to wash dishes because of her machine. Lord and Taylor bought four when she traveled to New York at the age of 73 (Fenster, 59-60). Articles were published about it in The Woman’s Journal (a suffragist periodical edited by Lucy Stone), The Pittsburg Dispatch, and an article that appeared in The Sun, The Indianapolis Journal, and The Wichita Daily Eagle.
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Newspaper Articles
A SUCCESSFUL INVENTION
Mrs. J. G. Cochran, of Shelbyville, Ill., is the Inventor of a dish-washing machine that is a success. It will prove as great a revolution in the domestic department as the sewing-machine has been to the seamstress, and maybe more so, because no one will put tucks and ruffles on Wedgewood or china. It was my privilege to see one of these machines in operation at a large hotel in Decatur, Ill., last week. In twenty minutes dishes used to feed one hundred guests can be washed and dried, and this, too, without wetting the hands. The dishes come out thoroughly cleansed, and polished much better than can be done by hand. These machines can be made in sizes to accommodate small or large families. Mrs. Cochran is trying to get some one to form a company for the manufacture of her Invention, as she is not able to establish this herself. I wish that women alone might form the stockholders. There is money in it if properly managed. HELEN M. GOUGAR. |
A BOON FOR WOMEN
Would a Dishwashing Machine be, if it Could be Made to Work |
Nothing will add more comfort with the housekeeper's hard lot than the newly invented dishwashing machine, if it should prove to be a success. Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, the noted temperance speaker, states that she saw it in operation at a large hotel in Decatur, and testifies that it washed and dried the dishes used for 100 guests, and that all this was done in 20 minutes, without wetting the hands. The dishes come out perfectly cleaned and polished better than can be done with the deftest workers and nicest tea towels. These machines are to be adapted to the uses of either large families or small ones, as the sisters will be rejoiced to hear.
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Mrs. Cochran - if her dishwashing machine creates the revolution in domestic affairs presaged for it - will have written her name high in the list of benefactors who have blessed the world by their inventions.
BESSIE BRAMBLE |
The Inventor of a Dishwasher Machine
The patron saint of the emancipated woman of the future will be Josephine Garis Cochrane, the inventor of the dishwashing machine. She will be enshrined in the grateful heart of womanhood when the memory of Susan B. Anthony and the rest is lost in the oblivion, and at the base of every column reared to commemorate the noble achievements of free and happy women her name should be written in shining letters. |
...not until after the death of her husband that the idea of the machine came to her. She doesn't know exactly how or when it came; she only knows that pursued her and tormented her until she began to work it out.
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She worked at her models nearly eight years, spent her entire fortune, $25,000, on the device, and finally succeeded in perfecting this wonderful dishwasher that never nicks or chips your precious plates, has no antipathy to handles on cups; that never loses its temper, asks for days off, nights out or permission to go to relatives' funerals; that doesn't serve your choicest wines to kitchen callers, borrow your Sunday things or give warning when your husband's relatives are coming on a visit. Just now the machine is in use only in the large hotels, where it washes in an hour the entire service for 400 guests, but Mrs. Cochrane is forming a company to manufacture smaller sizes for private houses.
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