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Here is an
interesting article about the History of the Dishwasher.
Kitchen Aid Magnets like the dishwasher
magnets for clean dishes and dirty dishes have helped make life in
the kitchen a little bit easier.
History of the Dishwasher
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 so many. So, she
built a dishwasher herself!
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. I wonder
if our dishwasher magnets would have won any awards?
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 (not the same
as our kitchen aid magnets).
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 which were inefficient. It
was not until the 1950s, when dishwashers became cheaper and
smaller, that they caught on with the general public. And, it
wasn't until the 21st century that MadCap Collections dishwasher
magnets were discovered.
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