The History of The Dishwasher

Josephine Cochrane was so upset by all her expensive crockery being broken by her servants that there was only one thing for it – to invent a dish washing machine to do it better. And so, in 1886, the dishwasher was born.

She built the first automatic domestic dishwasher, a wooden wheel lying flat in a copper boiler. The wheel could be turned by hand or driven by a power source via a pulley. Wire-framed compartments, made to fit the dishes in, were attached and the marriage of it spinning and soapy hot water showered on the crockery was made. So when she unveiled it at the 1893 Worlds' Fair in Chicago, hotel and restaurant owners couldn't believe their eyes. She soon opened up a dishwasher production factory, which later became the appliance giant KitchenAid which is a very popular and common brand in the commercial sector.

It wasn't until the 1920s, when better plumbing was introduced, that companies including Miele made their entrance into the dishwasher market. In 1929, they launched Europe's first electric top-loading dishwasher. The invention, was wildly exciting but doomed because the stock market crash meant there was no way people were going to spend a lot of their money on a dishwasher.

Miele introduced the first automated dishwasher model in 1960, but it was still very costly. Yet the concept stood the test of time and by the end of the 1970s, the dishwasher had become one of the most common home appliances. Miele today are considered just about the best appliance brand on the market with they're dishwashers and washing machine models proving very popular, that's if you can afford them. The design is old but extremely reliable tending to rely on bulky metal parts then the modern plastic type we see in cheaper brands today. Most good brands of domestic appliance manufacturers today have at least one dishwasher in their range.