Dr. Steven Novella

She invented it.

Other people had tried to invent a dishwasher prior to her, but they failed.

They just mechanically did not work.

And she came up with – they were trying to use scrubbers.

She was the one who came up with the idea of using pressurized sprays of soapy water, basically the modern mechanism of a dishwasher.

So she came up with that.

And she, you know, freaking engineered it, built it, manufactured it, and sold it.

Yeah.

Eventually, her company was sold to KitchenAid, which is now part of Whirlpool.

Wow.

That's great.

But Cara, you said, yes, of course a woman invented it because she was trying to relieve herself of the drudgery of washing dishes.

Yeah.

But that wasn't her primary motivation.

Although, who knows, right?

I'm just going on with the references.

But she, first of all, was wealthy.

She lived in a mansion.

And apparently she got the idea after a dinner party when the servants chipped the nice china.

And so she was looking for a way to wash the dishes that would be more gentle than hand washing.