WASHINGTON, March 8, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
INVENTIVE SOCIETY LADY
Profile America — Wednesday, March 8th. The inventor of the first practical automatic dishwasher was born on this date in 1839 and was perhaps an unlikely candidate for the distinction. Josephine Cochrane was a socialite, and devised the dishwasher out of some annoyance at how her domestic staff damaged her china. Awarded a patent in 1886, Cochrane sold her machines in the 1890s mainly to restaurants and hotels. Her company eventually became KitchenAid, now part of the Whirlpool Corporation. Recently, the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey found that of the nation's nearly 133 million housing units, some 87 million had automatic dishwashers. They are sold at the nation's 8,300 household appliance stores, in addition to department stores. You can find more facts about America's people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at www.census.gov.
Sources:
Birth and life/accessed 1/5/2016: http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/technology/mechanical/biography/cochrane.htm
Inspiration/accessed 1/5/2017: http://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/josephine-cochrane
Dishwashing machine/accessed 1/5/2017: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldishwasher.htm
Housing units and those with dishwashers/American Housing Survey: https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/AHS/2013/C03AH
Appliance stores/Economic Census/NAICS 443111: https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/00CCOMP1//naics~443111
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu).
SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
Share this article