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Authors: Michael Brunsfeld
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well, so Cochrane decided to invent a better one.
TO THE DRAWING BOARD
First, she set up a workshop in her woodshed. She measured her dishes, and designed wire racks to hold them. She placed the racks inside a wheel, then laid the wheel inside a tub. The wheel turned while hot soapy water squirted up from the bottom of the tub, falling down on the dishes. Then clean hot water squirted up to rinse them. And finally, the dishes air-dried. It worked.
But while she was busy working on the dishwasher, her ailing husband died. Mrs. Cochrane was left with little money and a lot of debt. Now she needed to follow through on this invention not for convenience, but out of necessity. She needed to earn a living.
Cochrane patented her design in 1886. A Chicago machine firm manufactured them for her while she managed the company and marketed the product.
In 1950, only 7% of American women dyed their hair. Today, 75% do.
Although Cochrane’s wealthy friends immediately ordered the “Cochrane Dishwasher” for their own kitchens, the home model did not sell well. Few homes had electricity in those days. Water heaters were rare. Most available water was hard and did not create suds well. And the price tag of $150 was huge—equivalent to about $4,500 today. Furthermore, many housewives felt that there was nothing wrong with washing dishes by hand—it was a relaxing way to end the day.
Cochrane tried changing her sales pitch to point out that the water in her dishwashing machines was hotter than human hands could stand, resulting in germ-free dishes. But it didn’t matter: Her strongest potential market was not private homes, it was industry.
SUCCESS!
Cochrane got her big break when she exhibited her dishwasher at the World’s Columbian Expo of 1893 in Chicago. Against heavy competition from around the world, her dishwasher received first prize for “best mechanical construction for durability and adaptation to a particular line of work.” And she sold dishwashers to many of the restaurants and other establishments catering to the large crowds at the Expo. Hotels, restaurants, boardinghouses, and hospitals immediately saw the advantage of being able to wash, scald, rinse, and dry dozens of dishes of all shapes and sizes in minutes. One of the concessionaires sent her this glowing tribute: “Your machine washed without delay soiled dishes left by eight relays of a thousand soldiers each, completing each lot within 30 minutes.”
Cochrane continued to improve her product, designing models with revolving washing systems, a centrifugal pump, and a hose for draining into a sink. She ignored the clergy (who claimed the dishwasher was immoral because it denied women the labor to which God had called them) and the servants (who claimed it would put them out of business). The company kept growing, pushed by Josephine Cochrane’s energy and ambition until her death at age 74 in 1913. By the 1950s, the world finally caught up with Cochrane. Dishwashers became commonplace in ordinary homes…using the same design principles she had invented 70 years before.
Kiwis are the only birds that hunt by smell.
LUNAR BASEBALL
It gives us great comfort to know that scientists are hard at work…figuring out what it would be like to play baseball on the moon. From
Think Tank: If Baseball Expands to the Moon, Be Sure to Back Up Those Fences,
by Bruce Weber.
S PACE CASE?
It isn’t, perhaps, the most pragmatic of disciplines, but Peter Brancazio probably has it all to himself. A lot of people have applied the laws of physics to sports, Mr. Brancazio among them. He’s the guy who demonstrated that Michael Jordan’s vaunted hang time was only eight-tenths of a second, and that a rising fastball doesn’t really rise. (It just doesn’t fall as quickly as the batter expects.)
But because he taught astronomy in the physics department of Brooklyn College (he is now retired), Mr. Brancazio, 62, asserts with pride that he is uniquely qualified for his
TO THE DRAWING BOARD
First, she set up a workshop in her woodshed. She measured her dishes, and designed wire racks to hold them. She placed the racks inside a wheel, then laid the wheel inside a tub. The wheel turned while hot soapy water squirted up from the bottom of the tub, falling down on the dishes. Then clean hot water squirted up to rinse them. And finally, the dishes air-dried. It worked.
But while she was busy working on the dishwasher, her ailing husband died. Mrs. Cochrane was left with little money and a lot of debt. Now she needed to follow through on this invention not for convenience, but out of necessity. She needed to earn a living.
Cochrane patented her design in 1886. A Chicago machine firm manufactured them for her while she managed the company and marketed the product.
In 1950, only 7% of American women dyed their hair. Today, 75% do.
Although Cochrane’s wealthy friends immediately ordered the “Cochrane Dishwasher” for their own kitchens, the home model did not sell well. Few homes had electricity in those days. Water heaters were rare. Most available water was hard and did not create suds well. And the price tag of $150 was huge—equivalent to about $4,500 today. Furthermore, many housewives felt that there was nothing wrong with washing dishes by hand—it was a relaxing way to end the day.
Cochrane tried changing her sales pitch to point out that the water in her dishwashing machines was hotter than human hands could stand, resulting in germ-free dishes. But it didn’t matter: Her strongest potential market was not private homes, it was industry.
SUCCESS!
Cochrane got her big break when she exhibited her dishwasher at the World’s Columbian Expo of 1893 in Chicago. Against heavy competition from around the world, her dishwasher received first prize for “best mechanical construction for durability and adaptation to a particular line of work.” And she sold dishwashers to many of the restaurants and other establishments catering to the large crowds at the Expo. Hotels, restaurants, boardinghouses, and hospitals immediately saw the advantage of being able to wash, scald, rinse, and dry dozens of dishes of all shapes and sizes in minutes. One of the concessionaires sent her this glowing tribute: “Your machine washed without delay soiled dishes left by eight relays of a thousand soldiers each, completing each lot within 30 minutes.”
Cochrane continued to improve her product, designing models with revolving washing systems, a centrifugal pump, and a hose for draining into a sink. She ignored the clergy (who claimed the dishwasher was immoral because it denied women the labor to which God had called them) and the servants (who claimed it would put them out of business). The company kept growing, pushed by Josephine Cochrane’s energy and ambition until her death at age 74 in 1913. By the 1950s, the world finally caught up with Cochrane. Dishwashers became commonplace in ordinary homes…using the same design principles she had invented 70 years before.
Kiwis are the only birds that hunt by smell.
LUNAR BASEBALL
It gives us great comfort to know that scientists are hard at work…figuring out what it would be like to play baseball on the moon. From
Think Tank: If Baseball Expands to the Moon, Be Sure to Back Up Those Fences,
by Bruce Weber.
S PACE CASE?
It isn’t, perhaps, the most pragmatic of disciplines, but Peter Brancazio probably has it all to himself. A lot of people have applied the laws of physics to sports, Mr. Brancazio among them. He’s the guy who demonstrated that Michael Jordan’s vaunted hang time was only eight-tenths of a second, and that a rising fastball doesn’t really rise. (It just doesn’t fall as quickly as the batter expects.)
But because he taught astronomy in the physics department of Brooklyn College (he is now retired), Mr. Brancazio, 62, asserts with pride that he is uniquely qualified for his
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