How Irritation Turns Into Innovation

What do you think of when you think of a great invention?

I’ll guess it’s one of these.

• The Internet

• The personal computer

• Something by Apple

• The car

• The airplane

• The light bulb

What do all these have in common? Except for the light bulb, they’re traditionally considered man stuff.

But for sheer labor saved, what’s traditionally considered woman stuff ranks at the very top of all innovations. I’m talking about domestic appliances: the clothes washer and dryer, the vacuum cleaner, the modern stove, the refrigerator, and the dishwasher. The story of the dishwasher is especially inspiring… although it doesn’t begin that way.

This story starts with a rich lady being fed up with her clumsy house staff.

Josephine Cochrane, inventor of the dishwasher

In the 1880s, Josephine Cochrane, a wealthy Illinois socialite, was irritated by her servant's repeated chipping of her fine china. Not exactly the makings of a feel-good biopic here.

But Cochrane still fits the bill for our romantic vision of the inventor. Soon after she conceived her idea, Cochrane’s husband died. She needed to make a living and she was an outsider. Cochrane was a woman in the 19th century and not an engineer or mechanic.

Nonetheless, she knew what she wanted: a machine that would wash dishes without scrubbing. She pieced together a primitive prototype in her back shed, with the assistance of a mechanic.

Cochrane’s resulting machine could wash dishes faster and more safely than manual washing. Her design of racks to hold the dishes and water jets to clean them remains the foundation of modern dishwashers.

How much time has the dishwasher saved us? Most families will save about 40 minutes per day using a dishwasher. In a year, that’s about 6 weeks of full-time work.

I’ve lived most years of my adult life without a dishwasher. I’ll say this: life is a little bit better with one. Consider this a testament to how irritation turned into innovation by a determined woman in the 19th century.