Person:Clara Minkler (1)

From Lorian County records

ESTATE OF: ROUTSON, CLARA ES17739 Decedent: ROUTSON, CLARA EMILY Fiduciary: ROUTSON, LEON E Judge: OLD CASE HISTORY Case Number: ES17739

American Joel Houghton invented the first dishwasher in 1850. He made it out of wood, and gave it a hand-turned wheel that splashed water on the dishes inside. It didn't really work, but it did get the first "dishwasher" patent.

Josephine Cochrane invented the first automatic dishwasher in 1886, in Shelbyville, Illinois. She was a rich woman who had a lot of dinner parties. She had servants to wash her dishes. But she wanted a machine that could do the job faster without breaking as much. So, she built one hersel

First, she measured her dishes and then built wire compartments - each specially designed to fit plates, cups, and saucers. The compartments fit in a wheel that lay flat inside a copper boiler. A motor turned the wheel, while hot soapy water squirted up from the boiler and rained down on the dishes. She unveiled her invention at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, and won its highest award.

Cochrane's friends liked her dishwasher, and soon, Mrs. Cochrane was getting orders for the machine from restaurants and hotels around Illinois. She patented the design and went into production. (Her company is now the well-known upscale kitchenware corporation KitchenAid.)

Other companies made dishwashers for restaurants and caterers that were powered by steam. They worked by passing the dirty dishes under jets of hot water using a conveyor belt or spinning basket. These were generally inefficient. It was not until the 1950s, when dishwashers became cheaper and smaller, that they caught on with the general public.

1. ↑ Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints. LDS Ancestral File.
2. ↑ Henry Allen Smith. SMITH: A Genealogical History of the Rev. Nehemiah Smith of New London County, Conn. (J. Munsell, Albany, NY 1889).