135 years of seriously clean plates….
28 Dec 2021
Dear LPG,
In order to make sure that LPG can post this article today, I am writing it almost a year in advance of when readers need to see it, because today is the day for raising your glass to Josephine Garis Cochran before putting it in the dishwasher, if you have one. Did you know that it was 135 years ago today that this American lady introduced the world to the first commercially viable dish-washer?
Apparently she was quite wealthy and hosted a lot of dinner parties with the disappointing result that all too many of her dishes got chipped and damaged by her servants’ washing-up services and this was the catalyst that provoked her invention.
She started the first company to manufacture them in the late 19th century but they spent some fifty years only being used in restaurants, eating houses and the homes of the rich. I read some statistics which tell that as recently as two years ago only 49% of Briton’s had one in their houses which means that the jury is still out.
I feel the need to take my hat off to anyone who has taken the time to invent something so ingenious, although I have to say that there appears to be a fine balance between those who find them really helpful and those who are quite happy to continue using their many alternative variations of personal dishwashers; their hands, spouses, care workers, trusty rubber gloves etc...
CC, Dulwich
CC offers us a little history…
