Cracked BuckeyeCracked Buckeye

Notable people · Inventor

Josephine Cochrane

Inventor born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, who patented the first successful hand-powered dishwasher (US 355,139, 28 Dec 1886). She was raised in Indiana and lived in Illinois.

At a glance

Born
1839-03-08
Died
1913-08-03
Known as
Inventor

Life story

Josephine Garis was born in 1839 in Ashtabula County, Ohio, the daughter of civil engineer John Garis and Irene Fitch Garis. She was raised in Valparaiso, Indiana.

In 1858 she married William Cochran in Shelbyville, Illinois, and later lived in Chicago society. She built her first dishwasher prototype in a shed behind the Shelbyville house, using water pressure rather than scrubbing, and filed for a patent on December 31, 1885.

Patent 355,139 was granted on December 28, 1886. Her machine won a prize at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and her company was sold to KitchenAid in 1926. She died in Chicago in 1913 and was buried in Shelbyville.

Timeline

  • 1839-03-08: Born Josephine Garis (Ashtabula County, OH) source
  • 1858-10-13: Marries William Cochran (Shelbyville, IL) source
  • 1870: Moves to a Chicago mansion (Chicago, IL) source
  • 1885-12-31: Files first patent application (US) source
  • 1886-12-28: Patent 355,139 issued (US) source
  • 1893: Wins prize at World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago, IL) source
  • 1898: Opens factory (Illinois) source
  • 1913-08-03: Dies (Chicago, IL) source
  • 2006: Inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame (US) source

What Josephine is known for

  • Dishwasher patent US 355,139, 28 Dec 1886
  • National Inventors Hall of Fame 2006
  • US Patent 355,139 dishwasher (1886)
  • Cochran's Crescent Washing Machine Company (name from 1897)

Honors and things named for them

  • National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2006
  • Prize at 1893 World's Columbian Exposition

Family

  • father: John Garis
  • mother: Irene Fitch Garis
  • husband: William Cochran
  • child: Hallie
  • child: Katharine

Ohio places

Where Josephine Cochrane was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

Correct this page · hello@crackedbuckeye.com