# data[].attributes.body
Nancy Johnson (1794-1890)

# data[].attributes.body
Josephine Cochrane (1839-1913)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Josephine Cochrane (ur. 8 marca 1839, zm. 3 sierpnia 1913 w Chicago) - amerykańska gospodyni domowa, przedsiębiorca, wynalazczyni pierwszej napędzanej manualnie zmywarki do naczyń, która trafiła do szerokiej sprzedaży.

Wczesne lata życia Josephine Cochrane nie są znane. Po śmierci matki i wyprowadzce siostry mieszkała z ojcem w Ohio i Indianie. Ojciec jako inżynier prawdopodobnie zaznajomił ją z podstawami mechaniki. Początkowo uczyła się w prywatnym liceum, ale po jego pożarze zamieszkała z siostrą w Shelbyville w Illinois.

W wieku 19 lat wzięła ślub z Williamem Cochranem, który powrócił do Shelbyville z Kalifornii, gdzie bezskutecznie poszukiwał złota. Cochran otworzył w Shelbyville firmę, dzięki której dobrze mu się powodziło. W 1870 roku para wprowadziła się do rezydencji, odtąd Josephine Cochrane często udzielała się towarzysko, ale w związku z licznie organizowanymi przyjęciami miała problemy ze służbą, która zmywając naczynia często je tłukła. By zapobiec niszczeniu zastawy wykonanej z kosztownej porcelany, Cochrane zaczęła myśleć nad skonstruowaniem urządzenia zmywającego naczynia, a jednocześnie zmywała je osobiście.

W tym czasie jej mąż udzielał się w Partii Demokratycznej i zyskiwał coraz wyższą pozycję. Zmarł jednak w 1883 roku, pozostawiając żonę z długami.

Po śmierci męża zatrudniła mechanika George'a Buttersa do pomocy w gospodarstwie. Wspólnie z nim skonstruowała pierwszą zmywarkę do naczyń, którą opatentowano 28 grudnia 1886 roku. Pierwszy egzemplarz został zainstalowany w domu Josephine Cochrane. Po opracowaniu urządzenia założyli wspólnie przedsiębiorstwo produkujące zmywarki. Konstrukcja urządzeń była niemal identyczna ze współcześnie używanymi zmywarkami. Początkowo zmywarki były napędzane ręcznie, kolejne modele wyposażono w silnik parowy. Pierwsze egzemplarze firma produkowała na potrzeby znajomych i przyjaciół założycielki. Cochrane reklamowała także swój wynalazek w lokalnej prasie, dzięki czemu zainteresowały się nim pierwsze restauracje i hotele.

Cochrane zaprezentowała swój wynalazek na Wystawie Światowej w Chicago w 1893 roku, została tam nagrodzona za projekt i trwałość urządzenia. Firma zaczęła zwiększać obroty dopiero w ostatnich latach przed jej śmiercią. Po śmierci Cochrane jej firma trafiła (1926) w ręce The Hobart Manufacturing Company, która w latach 40. XX w. spopularyzowała wynalazek. THMC od 1949 sprzedawała artykuły gospodarstwa domowego pod marką KitchenAid. Obecnie marka należy do koncernu .

Cochrane zmarła w 1913 roku, została pochowana na Glenwood Cemetery w Shelbyville.

Josephine Cochrane była córką Johna Garisa i Irene Fitch Garis. Od 1858 roku była żoną Williama Cochrana (ur. 1831, zm. 1883), para miała córkę Katharine i syna Halliego.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Josephine Cochrane - Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Josephine Cochrane (ur. 8 marca 1839, zm. 3 sierpnia 1913 w Chicago) - amerykańska gospodyni domowa, przedsiębiorca, wynalazczyni pierwszej napędzanej manualnie zmywarki do naczyń, która trafiła do szerokiej sprzedaży. Wczesne lata życia Josephine Cochrane nie są znane. Po śmierci matki i wyprowadzce siostry mieszkała z ojcem w Ohio i Indianie.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
JOSEPHINE COCHRANE | SCIENCE | Invention of Dishwasher | News in Science | Women Scientist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Racing Nellie Bly-Famous women in history

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Nancy Johnson Brought Ice Cream To The Masses

By filing her patent No. 3254, in September of 1846, Nancy Johnson brought ice cream to the masses. With that patent, an ice cream revolution began. Little is known about the woman who gave us so much, other than the fact that we love her.

She was a housewife, probably living in Philadelphia and she was a game changer. Her simple hand-cranked ice cream churn launched a "disruptive technology" that made it possible for everyone to make quality ice cream.

Ice Cream Once Belonged To The Ruling Class

In their article on Legends and Myths of Ice Cream Making and Ice Cream History, What's Cooking America says that the exact origins of ice cream are murky at best. "Legends and facts meet and sometimes inaccurately become part of the history." One thing is certain. The laborious collection of snow and ice by servants and the delicate techniques of cooks mixing that ice with costly sweet ingredients produced a treat enjoyed only by the wealthiest.

While myth and fact converge, we do know that:

- Chinese conserved winter ice for the summer by building icehouses. Around 200 B.C., they made a frozen mixture of milk and rice.

- Persians in 400 B.C. mixed their ice with rose water, fruits, saffron and other flavors.

- Alexander the Great coveted his snow mixed with honey in the 300s B.C.

- In 37 to 68 A.D., Caesar had ice brought from the mountains to be mixed with fruits in the first Snow Cones.

- Fruit sorbets were enjoyed in the 16 th century Asia with relays of horsemen bringing ice from Hindu Kush to Delhi.

- In 1533, Catheine de'Medici brought her Italian chefs to France where they served their "frozen snow" treats. Their recipes wee later sworn to secrecy.

- In the 1718, the first ice cream recipe was published in England in Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipts.

Ice Cream In America

We can thank the Quakers for bringing their recipes with them to America. During the Colonial Era, ice cream was sold in shops in New York. Early adopters included Ben Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who brought a "cream machine" home with him from France when he was Secretary of State.

We won't call George Washington an addict, but a merchant in 1790 reported that he purchased $200 worth of the confection. He also owned two pewter pots to make his favorite treat. Ice cream was often served at his Presidential Thursday Dinners. An entry in his ledger states that he also purchased a "cream machine" for Mr. Vernon.

Nancy Johnson's Revolution

As with so many inventions in the Industrial Revolution, Nancy Johnson's device was a stepping-stone in the burgeoning technology of the treat.

Before Nancy Johnson perfected her contraption, ice cream was made by the "pot freezer" method. You placed a metal pot inside a bin or bucket filled with ice. You added your ingredients to the inner pot and stirred like mad. That method was a lot of work with unpredictable, often lumpy results.

Nancy Johnson's hand cranked ice cream churn was simple, but elegantly genius. It consisted of concentric cylinders, a lid, a paddle and a crank.

Nancy Johnson's Design Is Still Used Today

An inner can was placed inside the main bucket. Ice and rock salt were placed between the two vessels. Because salt lowers the temperature of ice, a thin layer of milk froze in the inner can.

Ingeniously, Nancy Johnson used a crank on the outside that was connected by meshed gears to a paddle inside. The hand crank moved the paddle that scraped the frozen milk from the walls to expose a layer of milk not yet frozen. The consistent stirring and temperature resulted in smoother ice cream with a consistent texture. Brava Nancy!

Ice Cream: The Greatest Gift Of The Industrial Revolution

Thanks to Nancy Johnson's patent, ice cream could be made much faster than before. Because her device was small, less salt and ice were necessary. Thus, ice cream was affordable for everyone. As progress was made in the technology of manufacturing and freezing, ice cream became a mega industry.

According to the International Dairy Foods Association, 1.53 gallons of ice cream were made in 2013. That resulted in $5.4 billion in sales. Americans eat a whopping 22 pounds per year.

The majority of American ice cream companies have been in business for more than 50 years. Many of them are still owned by single families.

Nancy Johnson Sold Her Brain Child

Sadly, Nancy Johnson did not have the funds to manufacture her own invention. She sold it to William Young for $200. We're happy to report that Young called it, "The Johnson Patent Ice-Cream Freezer.

A Special Ice Cream Entrepreneur: Augustus Jackson

Augusta Jackson was an African American confectioner who has been called "the father of ice cream." He left his job as a White House chef in the late 1820s and moved back to Philadelphia to start a highly successful catering business.

Jackson became known for creating several unique flavors of ice cream. He also pioneered manufacturing techniques that made his product superior. He packaged his ice creams in tin cans and distributed them to ice cream parlors across Philadelphia.

Since Augustus Jackson worked in the White House, it's fair to assume that George Washington's love of ice cream influenced him. We wonder if Augustus Jackson's ice cream in turn inspired Nancy Johnson who was also believed to live in Philadelphia when she filed her patent in 1846.

Next Up: Who Made The Ice Cream Cone?

Success has many "fathers" or in this case, perhaps a mother or two. The number of people racing to claim credit for the first cone looked like a gold rush. We'll dive into that mystery in our next post, Behold The Ice Cream Cone: Invention of Necessity.

Racing Nellie Bly
Victorian Secrets From Footnotes In History
Know The Past To Invent The Future

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nancy Johnson Brought Ice Cream To The Masses

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By filing her patent No. 3254, in September of 1846, Nancy Johnson brought ice cream to the masses. With that patent, an ice cream revolution began. Little is known about the woman who gave us so much, other than the fact that we love her.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We've reached the tail end of summer and ice cream is taking up even more space in my brain than usual. The coquito cart across the street from my work sells double scoops of coconut ice cream for $2, which I have been taking advantage of daily at lunch. In the evening, a walk too far in any direction always seems to land me squarely in front of a Mister Softee truck, digging at the bottom of my purse for cash with which to buy a vanilla ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles. I've recently discovered that the grocery store nearest my apartment carries adorable little pints of Ben & Jerry's Pistachio Pistachio, which means that I'm now blissfully consuming it multiple nights a week - sometimes with dinner, sometimes dinner. It's sick, it's glorious, and I wouldn't do summer any other way.

In the headlines this week, everyone was abuzz with news of melt-resistant ice cream and fridges with built-in ice cream makers. Although it seems there's ice cream nearly everywhere you turn today, this fantastic frozen confection wasn't always available to the masses. In fact, for most of the 19th century, ice cream was a rare treat enjoyed primarily by upper class people. This began to change 172 years ago today, when Nancy M. Johnson, an American woman from Philadelphia, received a patent for the first hand-crank ice cream freezer.

Grab some ice cream and let's celebrate this woman's mechanical genius!

Prior to 1843, the standard way of making ice cream was known as the "pot-freezer" method. Users placed a metal pot inside of a "freezer" bin full of ice, added ice cream ingredients to the pot, and agitated the mixture by hand. Although this practice had been in place and working relatively well for almost two centuries, it was very labor intensive. Even when the French added a handle to the top of the pail and called it a sorbetière, it was difficult and extremely time consuming.

Similar to pre-existing methods, Johnson's ice cream making method consisted of an outer bucket packed with ice and salt, and a metal container inside to hold milk, sugar and flavorings. The salt lowered the freezing point of the ice, allowing the inner container to reliably reach a cold enough temperature that a thin layer of milk would freeze to the inside of the inner container. Ice cream was made by scraping a frozen layer from the edge, allowing a new layer to freeze, and repeating the process until the whole mixture was frozen.

Yet while older machines relied on operators to scrape down the sides of the inner container by hand, Johnson's invention ingeniously placed a crank on the outside, connected by meshed gears to a rotating paddle (known as a "dasher") on the inside. The dasher would move ingredients from the edge of the freezer to the center and back again, "thus constantly allowing fresh portions of the cream or other substance to be frozen to come in contact with the refrigerating surface." When the mechanism stopped turning, the ice cream was frozen and ready to eat.

Here's an example of how a machine based on Johnson's design operates:

In 1843, this was an absolute game changer. No longer did a cook need to spend hours manually stirring and scraping by hand. All that was required now was to load the machine and turn the crank! Johnson's invention made ice cream creation more accessible on the basis of ingredients, too, with an outer tub diameter only three to four inches larger than the freezer. Combined with the lid, this meant that less ice and salt was required to keep the freezer cold - a significant feature during an era when cooks most commonly purchased natural ice delivered by truck. Johnson's ice cream even had a smoother consistency, thanks to the consistently cold environment and regular stirring made possible by her machine.

Johnson patented her invention under Patent No. 3254 and sold the rights to wholesaler William G. Young, who began marketing it in 1848 as the Johnson Patent Ice-Cream freezer. Although several other patents were given around the same time (including an invention by salesman Thomas Masters in England in the same year, and Eber C. Seaman's large scale commercial invention five years later), Johnson's is the first on record. Her basic design and many associated iterations are still in use today, including many home ice cream makers currently on the market.

Little else is known about Nancy M. Johnson except that she died . Historical accounts differ on what city Johnson resided in, how much she was paid by Young for her patent rights, and even in Quaker City at an advanced age when the patent was issued (although it says it clearly on the patent document itself). While I'm a little saddened by this (there are so many more details available about most male inventors from the time!), I also find it sort of comforting that a person can be remembered exclusively for an excellent piece of work that they did. I'll be thinking of Johnson's invention today as I eat ice cream with my lunch. And afternoon snack. And dinner.
Notes From A Queer Engineer is a recurring column with an expected periodicity of 14 days. The subject matter may not be explicitly queer, but the industrial engineer writing it sure is. This is a peek at the notes she's been doodling in the margins.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How One Woman Inventor Revolutionized Ice Cream

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We've reached the tail end of summer and ice cream is taking up even more space in my brain than usual. The coquito cart across the street from my work sells double scoops of coconut ice cream for $2, which I have been taking advantage of daily at lunch.

# data[].attributes.body
"Certain people – men, of course – discouraged me, saying [science] was not a good career for women. That pushed me even more to persevere."

— Francoise Barré, virologist and winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On May 5, 1809, Mary Kies became the first woman to receive a patent in the United States. (It was for her technique of weaving straw with silk.)

Of course, women inventors existed before this time, but the property laws in many states made it illegal for women to own property on their own. This led some women to apply for patents in their husbands' names if they decided to apply at all.

As of last year, only 10 percent of U.S. patent holders were women, although women account for half of doctoral degrees in science and engineering. This disparity is due in part to the the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office being more likely to reject patents with women as sole applicants.

Further, when patents sought by women are approved, they are more likely to have added parameters that made the description of the patents far more detailed. These revisions tend to lower the scope of the patent, making it weaker and less valuable.
Female workers: Women's History Month: Podcasts on motherhood, business, health, politics and more The highest paying jobs for women in the US
It's no secret that women face more scrutiny in STEM fields, which is why the women on this list have more to be congratulated on than their inventions. They are pioneers in their fields - some of them were kids when they invented their first product - and have often overcome tougher hurdles based on their sex than their male counterparts.
1. Circular saw
Though women patent holders have increased fivefold from 1977 to 2016, there's still a long way to go before women are fairly represented as innovators in their fields.

To compile a list of 50 things people never knew were invented by women, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed over a dozen news reports and historical articles on inventions, both by men and women, that changed history. And here is a list of great inventions we no longer use.

* Inventor: Tabitha Babbitt
2. Aquarium
* Year / period: 1812

While living in a Shaker community and working as a weaver, Babbitt watched people struggling to cut wood with a pit saw, which required two users and only cut in one direction. Determined to help, she attached a circular blade to her spinning wheel and invented the much more efficient circular saw.

* Inventor: Jeanne Villepreux-Power
3. Ice cream maker
* Year / period: 1832

A French naturalist, Villepreux-Power was trying to prove that the paper nautilus does not take discarded shells from other organisms, but rather grows its own shell. To observe the creature for an extended period of time and to study marine life, she invented a glass aquarium.

* Inventor: Nancy Johnson
4. Computer algorithm
* Year / period: 1843

Johnson had her priorities straight before freezers were even invented. She created a double-cylinder hand-crank ice cream machine. It could create two flavors that are frozen at the same time but separately.

* Inventor: Ada Lovelace
5. Submarine lamp and telescope
* Year / period: 1843

While translating the notes of mathematics professor Charles Babbage for his theoretical invention the analytical engine, Lovelace added her own notes, tripling the original text, and is credited with writing the world's first computer algorithm.

* Inventor: Sarah Mather
6. Paper-bag-making machine
* Year / period: 1845

Mather's 1845 patent was for her "submarine telescope," an apparatus with a lamp that was attached to a tube, which was then sunk under water. It was used not by underwater vessels, but by people above water attempting to see into the depths to investigate wrecks, damaged ship hulls, and enemy activity during the Civil War.

* Inventor: Margaret Knight
7. Dishwasher
* Year / period: 1871

After having her invention stolen by a man who claimed that there was no way a woman could have invented such a thing, Knight finally received a patent in 1871 for a machine that could produce square-bottomed paper bags.

* Inventor: Josephine Cochran
8. Globes
* Year / period: 1872

Though other prototypes existed, it took a woman's common sense to create a dishwasher that actually cleaned the dishes. Cochran's design was the first that used water pressure rather than scrubbers to remove debris.

* Inventor: Ellen Fitz
9. Locomotive chimney
* Year / period: 1875

Fitz was a tutor in Canada when she designed a globe mount that could display the earth's daily rotation in relation to the path of the sun not only by day and night but also throughout the year.

* Inventor: Mary Walton
10. System to reduce noise by trains
* Year / period: 1879

Passionate about improving urban conditions and air pollution, Walton invented a train chimney system that reduced air pollution by filtering smoke through water, trapping the airborne chemicals and holding them in suspension.

* Inventor: Mary Walton
11. Alphabet blocks
* Year / period: 1881

In addition to the pollution-minimizing locomotive chimney, Walton also patented a way to greatly reduce the noise of New York City's elevated railways by insulating the tracks with boxes of sand. The city's Metropolitan Railroad bought the rights almost immediately.

* Inventor: Adeline D. T. Whitney
12. Life raft
* Year / period: 1882

Whitney, author of many books for people young and old, patented an early version of alphabet blocks that came in various shapes and sizes and could form letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols.

* Inventor: Maria Beasley
13. Fire escape
* Year / period: 1882

Though Beasley had already made a fortune on a barrel-hooping machine patent, this serial inventor went on to design an improved life raft with guard rails that was fireproof and foldable for easy storage. Her life rafts were used on the Titanic and saved over 700 lives.

* Inventor: Anna Connelly
14. Ironing board
* Year / period: 1887

Tenement fires were much more deadly before Connelly invented an external metal staircase, the very first fire escape. In addition to saving lives, her invention also precipitated one of the first New York City building codes, which required residential buildings to have a secondary means of escape for emergencies.

* Inventor: Sarah Boone
15. Car heater
* Year / period: 1892

Though patents for folding ironing boards appeared in the 1860's, Boone's ironing board featured a key difference: It had a narrow, double-sided arm that made it perfect for ironing sleeves without forming creases.

* Inventor: Margaret A. Wilcox
16. Medical syringe
* Year / period: 1893

Taking advantage of the heat already generated as a byproduct of combustion, Wilcox invented a way to heat cars by channeling air over the engine and into the cab.

* Inventor: Letitia Geer
17. Street sweeper
* Year / period: 1899

For centuries before Greer's invention of a one-handed syringe, medical professionals had been using syringes that required both hands to administer injections.

* Inventor: Florence Parpart
18. Windshield wiper
* Year / period: 1900

Parpart's street sweeper design was not the first, but it was such an improvement on earlier models that within two years of receiving her patent she had contracts all across the United States to manufacture her design.

* Inventor: Mary Anderson
19. The First Monopoly Game
* Year / period: 1903

After receiving a patent in 1903, Anderson tried to sell her new windshield cleaning device to a manufacturer, who refused, stating that her invention lacked practical value. Her windshield wipers failed to take off before her patent expired and it was 10 years before a similar device became standard on cars.

* Inventor: Elizabeth Magie
20. Retractable dog leash
* Year / period: 1904

Originally designed to demonstrate the evils of unchecked capitalism, Magie's "The Landlord's Game," was patented in 1904, 30 years before a man patented a very similar game called Monopoly and sold it to Parker Brothers.

* Inventor: Mary A. Delaney
21. Coffee filter
* Year / period: 1908

In Delaney's words, her invention of a leash you could shorten at a moment's notice was to prevent dogs from "running on the wrong side of lamp posts or pedestrians, thus causing much annoyance to the owner." Thank you, Mary.

* Inventor: Melitta Benz
22. Electric refrigerator
* Year / period: 1908

Pour-over coffee fans may be surprised to learn that the company Melitta isn't named after an Italian coffee maker. It's actually named after Melitta Bentz, a German entrepreneur who invented an easy, minimalist way to make coffee by placing it in a filter and pouring water over it.

* Inventor: Florence Parpart
23. Electric hot water heater
* Year / period: 1914

In a time when people were still using ice-boxes, Parpart patented an electric refrigerator that she successfully marketed and improved upon for years.

* Inventor: Ida Forbes
24. Airplane muffler
* Year / period: 1917

Not much is known about Ida Forbes besides that she patented the first electric hot water heater in a time when most hot water heaters ran on gas.

* Inventor: El Dorado Jones
25. Central heating
* Year / period: 1917

Nicknamed "Iron Woman," El Dorado Jones owned her own metalworking factory where she employed only women over 40. Though she never received the funding to manufacture it, she invented the airplane engine muffler.

* Inventor: Alice Parker
26. Foot pedal trash can
* Year / period: 1919

Parker's revolutionary design for central heating, though never utilized, was the first that used natural gas, rather than wood, to heat a home.

* Inventor: Lillian Gilbreth
27. Microelectrode
* Year / period: N/A

Gilbreth, an engineer and psychologist, performed exhaustive research on the psychological impact that work spaces have on productivity. Her genius in the area of ergonomics brought us many valuable inventions, including the foot pedal trash can.

* Inventor: Ida Hyde
28. Low-reflection glass
* Year / period: 1921

The first female researcher at Harvard Medical School, Hyde created one of the earliest models of an intracellular micropipette electrode, which allowed her to stimulate and monitor a cell without disturbing the cell wall. This technology is still widely used in science laboratories.

* Inventor: Katharine Blodgett
29. Wireless transmission technology
* Year / period: 1935

Before Blodgett's revolutionary non-reflective glass coating was invented, glass wasn't nearly as useful or reliable as it is today. Her invention has proven indispensable in the making of camera lenses, microscopes and eyeglasses.

* Inventor: Hedy Lamarr
30. Thermoelectric power generator
* Year / period: 1941

During World War II, Lamarr, who also happened to be a movie star, created a frequency-hopping communication system that could guide torpedos without being detected. Her groundbreaking work paved the way for the modern invention of WiFi, GPS, and bluetooth.

* Inventor: Maria Telkes
31. Disposable diaper
* Year / period: 1947

A pioneer in the field of solar thermal storage systems, MIT researcher Maria Telkes created the first solar-heated system for her home in Dover, Massachusetts.

* Inventor: Marion Donovan
32. Anti-fungal drug
* Year / period: 1950

First inventing a leak-proof diaper covering, then a fully disposable diaper, Donovan was intent on helping as many people as possible with her ingenuity. While it's not surprising that her inventions were completely ignored as "unnecessary and impractical" by the male manufacturers she pitched them to, Donovan took matters into her own hands and sold them straight to Saks Fifth Avenue.

* Inventor: Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen
33. Liquid Paper
* Year / period: 1950

These two New York Department of Health lab researchers discovered Nystatin, one of the first effective anti-fungal medicines, by collaborating on experiments through the mail.

* Inventor: Bette Nesmith Graham
34. Computer software
* Year / period: 1951

This invention turned Graham from a secretary to a millionaire. First marketed as "Mistake-Out," Graham's home-made typewriter correction fluid was an instant hit among her fellow secretaries. After further experimentation, she perfected her recipe and Liquid Paper was born.

* Inventor: Grace Murray Hopper
35. Waterproof leather protector
* Year / period: 1952

A computer scientist who helped design Harvard's Mark I Computer, Hopper also invented a compiler that could translate written language into computer code, and was a part of the team that developed COBOL, one of the first modern computer programming languages.

* Inventor: Patsy O'Connell Sherman
36. Hydyne rocket fuel
* Year / period: 1956

While attempting to develop a new kind of rubber for jet fuel lines, Sherman and her lab partner Sam Smith accidentally discovered a waterproof, stain proof, insoluble polymer that eventually became Scotchgard.

* Inventor: Mary Sherman Morgan
37. Immunosuppressive drug
* Year / period: 1957

Explorer I, the first satellite ever launched into orbit by the United States, owed its success to Hydyne, the improved rocket fuel that Morgan created during her time as technical lead at North American Aviation's Rocketdyne Division.

* Inventor: Gertrude Belle Elion
38. Bullet-proof fiber
* Year / period: 1957

During her long career as a pharmacologist, Elion helped develop countless drugs that are used in the treatment of AIDS, malaria, herpes, and cancer. Along with George Herbert Hitchings, she invented the first immunosuppressive drug, Azathioprine, which was initially used for chemotherapy patients, and eventually for organ transplants.

* Inventor: Stephanie Kwolek
39. Space rocket propulsion system
* Year / period: 1966

While searching for strong but lightweight plastics to use in car tires, DuPont researcher Stephanie Kwolek discovered what would become known as Kevlar. This revolutionary fiber has saved countless lives in the form of bullet-proof vests, and is also used in numerous applications, such as bridge cables, canoes, and frying pans.

* Inventor: Yvonne Brill
40. Call-center system
* Year / period: 1974

Brill's groundbreaking invention, the hydrazine resistojet, streamlined various rocket propulsion systems, which all required different types of fuel and added prohibitive weight, into a lighter system with a single fuel source. Monopropellant thrusters are now standard, and are why we have self-propelling satellites.

* Inventor: Erna Schneider Hoover
41. Home security system
* Year / period: 1967

Before Hoover's invention of a telephone call traffic system, phone circuit equipment at Bell Labs - where she was a researcher - was constantly overloaded. Her computerized solution monitored call volumes and adjusted acceptance rates accordingly, so as not to overload circuits.

* Inventor: Marie Van Brittan Brown
42. Caller ID and call-waiting
* Year / period: 1969

With New York City police being notoriously slow to respond to calls in her neighborhood, Brown took matters into her own hands and created a home security system with closed-circuit television.

* Inventor: Shirley Ann Jackson
43. Word processor
* Year / period: 1970's

Shirley Ann Jackson was an award-winning theoretical physicist. Her contributions to the field of telecommunications led to the invention of numerous technologies, including caller ID and call-waiting, as well as solar cells and fiber optic cables.

* Inventor: Evelyn Berezin
44. Photo enhancement
* Year / period: 1971

In addition to creating the first computerized airline booking system, Berezin created the world's first word processor. Realizing that because of her gender she wouldn't be able to move up in the industry, she also founded her own company, Redactron, to get her inventions on the market.

* Inventor: Barbara Askins
45. Space station batteries
* Year / period: 1978

While working for NASA, Askins was tasked with finding a way to improve the quality of photos taken from space. Her method of enhancing photo negatives was far more widely applicable, as it could be used to clarify photos after they were already developed. Her technology has been adapted for use with X-rays and historical photo restoration.

* Inventor: Olga Gonzalez-Sanabria
46. Blissymbol printer
* Year / period: 1980

The International Space Station relies on solar power, but for a third of its rotation, the earth blocks the sun's rays. Gonzalez-Sanabria's long-life nickel hydrogen batteries keep the International Space Station powered up during that dark portion of its rotation.

* Inventor: Rachel Zimmerman
47. Laser cataract surgery
* Year / period: 1984

At only 12 years old, Zimmerman invented software that allows people with speech disabilities to communicate non-verbally by using symbols on a touchpad that are then translated to written language.

* Inventor: Patricia Bath
48. Humane cattle restraints
* Year / period: 1986

Bath's patented Laserphaco Probe allows doctors to dissolve cataracts quickly and painlessly before applying new lenses to patients' eyes. This technology is used worldwide to prevent blindness due to cataracts.

* Inventor: Temple Grandin
49. Stem cell isolation
* Year / period: 1990

Grandin's innovative designs in the field of animal husbandry have led to calmer livestock and fewer injuries. She has developed numerous ways to handle cattle based on how they naturally behave, rather than on brute force. Her center track cattle restraint system is now used to manage about half of the cattle in the United States.

* Inventor: Ann Tsukamoto
50. Naturally colored cotton
* Year / period: 1991

A vital breakthrough in cancer research, Tsukamoto's co-patented process of isolating human stem cells found in bone marrow has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

* Inventor: Sally Fox
24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
* Year / period: 1997

Before Fox's innovative plant-breeding work, naturally colored cottons were rare, temperamental, and could only be picked and spun by hand. Her work has led to cottons that grow in an array of colors and that can be machine-harvested and spun. This allows for a drastic reduction in chemical and bleach processing, and the need for synthetic dyes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Who invented the dishwasher, windshield wiper, caller ID? Women created these 50 inventions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On May 5, 1809, Mary Kies became the first woman to receive a patent in the United States. (It was for her technique of weaving straw with silk.) Of course, women inventors existed before this time, but the property laws in many states made it illegal for women to own property on their own.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The mechanical dishwasher as a practical device emerged not from convenience but from annoyance, when a wealthy woman in downstate Shelbyville got tired of servants breaking her dishes after fancy dinner parties.

The stories about Josephine Cochran - she later added an "e" and became "Cochrane" - have the prairie patrician storming out to the woodshed to build the machine forthwith. Actually, she started doing the dishes herself, and probably for many years. But she wanted a machine that could do the job faster, without the risk of chipped china, and the yearning haunted her.

Joel Houghton had an 1850 patent for a device made of wood and cranked by hand, but it was neither practical nor widely adopted. Cochrane knew of no such patent. "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine," several accounts have the Shelbyville socialite saying, "I'll do it myself."

Cochrane measured her dishes, built wire compartments, and placed them inside a wheel inside a copper boiler.

It worked. Cochrane received patent No. 355,139 for the first dishwashing machine just after Christmas in 1886.

Cochrane was the granddaughter of steamboat inventor John Fitch and the widow of a successful grocer and court clerk named William Cochran. Their friends asked for and received their own models of Cochrane's contraption. Restaurants and hotels eventually called her with requests. Though Cochrane got credit for the invention, a local Illinois Central Railroad mechanic named George Butters helped build it in a shed on her property.

Her invention extends to the modern market. Cochrane showed the dishwasher at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and later started a company to build the machines. After her death, Hobart Manufacturing bought out the company, and later released the dishwashers under the KitchenAid brand - now owned by Whirlpool.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The mechanical dishwasher as a practical device emerged not from convenience but from annoyance, when a wealthy woman in downstate Shelbyville got tired of servants breaking her dishes after fancy dinner parties. The stories about Josephine Cochran - she later added an "e" and became "Cochrane" - have the prairie patrician storming out to the woodshed to build the machine forthwith.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How one woman invented the automatic dishwasher & saved us all countless hours of drudgery - Click Americana

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The invention of the dishwasher was a kitchen game-changer, and cleanly earned its inventor, Josephine Garis Cochrane, a spot-free finish in history.