Innovations in Everyday Technologies Larry Verstraete Crabtree Publishing Company www crabtreebooks com
Washing Dishes When your kitchen becomes cluttered with dirty dishes you might do what millions of others do load up the dishwasher turn a dial or press a button and sit back while the machine does the work Over 100 years ago there were no dishwashers to make life easier It wasn’t until Josephine Cochran became so frustrated with finding chipped hand-washed dishes that she decided to invent a machine to wash them instead Josephine Cochran created a company called Garis-Cochran Manufacturing Company to build her dishwashers Her company later became part of KitchenAid 4 In 1949 KitchenAid introduced the first dishwasher to the public which was based on Josephine Cochran’s design
Inventions and Innovations An invention is a product or process that is the first creation of its kind Josephine Cochran’s original dishwasher is an invention An innovation is a change or improvement to an existing invention The dishwasher now used in many homes is an innovation because it has modern features that improved upon Josephine Cochran’s invention Inventors and innovators solve a problem or meet a need They have made life easier and more enjoyable for us with everyday products gadgets and materials Perhaps the stories in this book will inspire you to be a problem solver too The next great invention could be yours Thanks to Josephine Cochran’s invention many people now have dishwashers in their homes 5
