McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP is proud to celebrate Women’s History Month in March in recognition of it as an annual celebration of achievements by women in spotlighting their critical role in U.S. history. In this regard, we are highlighting noteworthy women inventors whose creations changed the world.
Josephine Cochrane is credited with inventing the first commercially successful automatic dishwasher wherein her invention would hold dishes securely in a rack while the pressure of a water sprayer cleaned them. She began marketing her dishwasher to hotels upon receiving her patent in 1886. In 1893 her dishwasher was exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, making it into a household word. Cochran was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 for her dishwasher patent.