The first recorded evidence of a dishwasher was from the 1850s when a simple hand-turned backsplash device attached to a wooden tub made by Joel Houghton received a patent. Developing this idea, LA Alexander added gears to a rotating rack that contained dishes that allowed spinning inside a tub of water and this was patented in 1865. Both were very rough and made entirely of wood and didn’t really clean the wheels much. dishes. well.

Josephine Cochrane was a wealthy woman and engineering was in her blood, as her grandfather John Fitch was famous for inventing the steamboat. He also liked to entertain his friends frequently and hold social events at his house, which made it necessary to clean a large number of dishes each time. Dinnerware used for entertaining was expensive and was often broken by servants while washing. Fed up with this, she decided to build a dishwasher that could wash dishes quickly without breaking them. She built a machine that consisted of a wooden wheel laid flat on a copper kettle that could be turned by hand or driven by a power source through a pulley. Wire-frame compartments made to fit your dishes were attached to this wheel and the combination of spinning and hot soapy water that the kettle threw on them resulted in the first efficient dishwasher.

He brought his dishwasher to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, where it won the highest award and people ranging from friends to hotel and restaurant owners lined up to order a dishwasher of their own. He quickly patented the invention and opened a production factory to build them and this company grew into the appliance giant today known as KitchenAid. More companies also started making other versions, some with conveyor belts and others with baskets spun by various methods, both using a jet and a jet of hot water poured from above to clean the dishes.

It wasn’t until the 1920s that significant advances were made in the design of these machines when permanent plumbing was introduced to connect them to a constant water supply. Only restaurants, hotels and wealthy families had these appliances as they were large and expensive and it was not until 1937 that a dishwasher small enough for a home was built. It was built by William Howard Livens and looked more like the washing machines we have today with mesh baskets inside a metal container and a front opening door with a drying element introduced in its design in 1940. Little by little more were made. smaller, cheaper and more efficient and by the late 1950s they became more popular as kitchen appliances. The popularity continued to rise and most houses in the US owned one in the late 1970s. Today they are popular throughout Europe and the Middle East, where they took longer to catch on than in the US. .

Today there is a wide range available with many reputable manufacturers such as Whirlpool, Bosch Maytag, GE and many others creating a very competitive market.