Josephine Cochrane

Josephine Garis Cochrane was born in Ohio to a family of engineers and inventors; her maternal grandfather, John Fitch, patented a steamboat, and her father, John Garis, was a hydraulic engineer. Clearly, the apple did not fall far from the tree, though it did find itself in a rather different kind of water-related endeavor.

After her marriage to William Cochrane, a prominent businessman and politician, Josephine found herself hosting lavish dinner parties. But the post-party cleanup was often fraught, with servants breaking her heirloom china. Rather than merely complain, or perhaps fire her clumsy staff, Cochrane decided to invent a better way. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, or in this case, the impetus for ensuring one's expensive dishware remained intact.

She designed a machine with wire compartments, each specifically sized for plates, cups, or saucers, and a motor that squirted hot, soapy water from the bottom. She patented her design in 1886 and founded the Garis-Cochrane Manufacturing Company (later part of KitchenAid). Her invention, initially targeted at hotels and restaurants, was a game-changer, though it took decades for dishwashers to become a household staple. It seems even clean dishes need good marketing.

While her name doesn't typically appear on synagogue donation lists, and her ancestral tree is firmly rooted in good old American Protestantism, her impact on domestic efficiency is undeniable. For freeing countless hands from sudsy despair, her K-score practically bubbles over.