The forgotten story of the woman who invented the dishwasher

For six months in 1893, Chicago was abuzz. More than 27 million people flocked to the fast-growing metropolis for the event of the century: the World’s Columbian Exposition, aka the World’s Fair. Perhaps the fair’s most pioneering display was found in Machinery Hall, showcasing American inventions like the cotton gin, phonograph, and telegraph. But a more recent innovation was causing an even bigger stir: the Garis-Cochran Dishwashing Machine, the only device in the massive hall invented by a woman. Over 200 dirty dishes could be loaded into the machine’s dish racks, which were then transferred inside a box surrounded by pulleys and gears. Two minutes later, the dishes would emerge sparkling clean. The contraption wasn’t just a display piece either: The fair’s many restaurants used it to clean tens of thousands of dishes each day. 

The invention even received an award for “best mechanical construction, durability, and adaptation to its line of work.” It was a breakthrough moment for socialite-turned-inventor Josephine Garis Cochran, one that would revolutionize the trajectory of the now-ubiquitous kitchen appliance. 

Cochran, whose maiden name was Garis, was born on a chilly March day in 1839 Ashtabula County, Ohio. One could say inventing was in her blood: Her great-grandfather received one of the first patents for the steamboat, while her father was a civil engineer who operated several mills in Ohio and Indiana. “She was from what appeared to be a prominent family,” says engineer Lauren Busch, who co-authored Women in the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which includes a chapter on Cochran.

After her mother died, Cochran moved in with an older sister in Illinois where she met William Cochran. William was something of a gregarious adventurer, who “couldn’t find himself for a while,” says Busch. Before the pair met, William had worked in the California Gold Rush, where he tried mining, teaching, railway work, and even digging up potatoes. He finally found success back in Illinois, where he ran a dry goods business.

In 1858, 19-year-old Josephine married William, who was nine years her senior. As the wife of a successful businessman, Josephine settled into a life of leisure. She took to spelling her married name “Cochrane” because she thought it sounded more European and sophisticated. “That was a pretty radical thing because her husband didn’t do that,” says Busch. “It showed that she definitely did have her own ideas and did have some sense of independence from her husband.”

The couple moved into a large house in Shelbyville, Illinois, where they had several servants, and often entertained their neighbors using Josephine’s heirloom 17th-century china. However, “she was unhappy that the china kept getting broken when it was being washed [by the servants] so she decided she would wash it herself,” says Busch, but “then she was chipping it,” too. She thought there had to be a way to automate the task, and vowed, “If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself.” 

But not everything was as pleasant as it seemed for the Cochrans. “It’s hard to imagine that [the marriage] would have been a happy one,” says Busch. William was a violent alcoholic with a temper, “and they had a child die, which is hard on any marriage.”

Then, William suddenly died in 1883, and Josephine learned the family’s financial situation was far from what she had thought: William had left her with only $1,500 and growing debts. With limited options, Cochran put all her effort into developing her dishwashing machine.

She needed to find someone who could build a prototype from her drawings, and she eventually hired mechanic George Butters. “They have a very successful working relationship because he does take her seriously, and he does know that he’s there to implement her ideas,” says Busch. Together, the pair work in Cochran’s shed with Butters entering through the back. Cochran “was very concerned that people would see him coming to her house over and over again and that it would hurt her reputation,” says Busch.

Just a few days after Christmas in 1886, Cochran was issued US Patent 355,139 for her “Dish Washing Machine.” Though the machine wasn’t the first of its kind, Cochran’s appliance used water pressure, rather than scrubbers, to clean dishes — a revolutionary idea modern dishwashers still utilize. 

Cochran had always hoped her machine would alleviate the burden of washing up that often fell to women. But the device was too cost-prohibitive for the domestic market. In a later interview, Cochran reflected, “When it comes to buying something for the kitchen that costs $75 or $100, a woman begins at once to figure out all the other things she could do with the money. She hates dishwashing — what woman does not? — but she has not learned to think of her time and comfort as worth money. Besides, she isn’t the deciding factor when it comes to spending comparatively large sums of money for the house.”

Instead, Cochran turned to hotels and restaurants, making her first sale in 1887 to the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. Cochran recalled just how intimidating it was to pitch her idea to male hoteliers: “You cannot imagine what it was like in those days…for a woman to cross a hotel lobby alone. I had never been anywhere without my husband or father — the lobby seemed a mile wide. I thought I should faint at every step, but I didn’t — and I got an $800 order as my reward.”

Shortly after founding the Garis-Cochran Dish-Washing Company alongside several male backers, Cochran finally had her big break during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. “She got a lot of exposure” at the fair, says Busch, which translated to more orders than ever before. In addition to restaurants and hotels, hospitals also started purchasing her dishwasher.

Around 1898, Cochran finally succeeded in bringing the manufacturing of her dishwashers in-house, renaming the business the Crescent Washing Machine Company. After opening her own factory, she promoted Butters to foreman. From there the company continued to grow, selling dishwashers to buyers from Alaska to Mexico. 

On August 3, 1913, Cochran passed away at her Chicago home at the age of 74. Thirteen years later, Hobart Manufacturing Company acquired Cochran’s Crescent Dishwashing Company, which started manufacturing KitchenAid dishwashers based on Cochran’s original patent. Eventually, in 1986, Whirlpool Corporation acquired KitchenAid. It’s surprising to realize there’s this “uninterrupted timeline” between Cochran’s early dishwasher and modern machines, says Busch.

In an interview shortly before her death, Cochran reflected, “If I knew all I know today when I began to put the dishwasher on the market, I never would have had the courage to start. But then, I would have missed a very wonderful experience.”

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