The Woman Who Invented the Dishwasher Because Her Servants Kept Breaking the China

In 1886, Josephine Cochrane watched her servants chip another piece of her fine china. And she said the line that would change kitchens forever: "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I'll do it myself."She wasn't an engineer. She wasn't a scientist. She was a wealthy Illinois socialite who was tired of her dinner parties costing her heirloom porcelain.In this episode of Hidden History with Aiden Thomas, we trace the dishwasher from ancient Roman sand and wood ash, through the two hours a day people spent scrubbing by hand, to Cochrane's revolutionary hot-pressurized-water machine — unveiled at the 1893 World's Fair as the "Lavadora." We follow it through restaurants and hospitals, the post-war suburban kitchen, and into the modern engineering marvel that uses less water than washing by hand.It wasn't an appliance. It was the quiet automation of half of humanity's unpaid labor.Take a look around. History is everywhere.