The first reports of a mechanical dishwashing device are of an 1830 patent in the United States by Joel Houghton for a hand-powered good device. This device was made of wood and was cranked by hand while water sprayed onto the dishes. This device was both slow and unreliable. Another patent was granted to L.A. Alexander in 1865 that was similar to the first but featured a hand-cranked rack system. Neither device was practical or widely accepted.
Modern dishwashers are descended from the 1887 invention of Josephine Cochrane who invented a new advanced dishwasher, also hand-powered, which she unveiled at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Cochrane was quite wealthy and was the granddaughter of John Fitch, the inventor of the steamboat. She never washed dishes herself and invented the dishwasher because her servants were chipping her fine china.
Models installed with permanent plumbing arrived in the 1920s. In England in 1924, William Howard Livens invented a small dishwasher suitable for domestic use. It had many of the features of a modern dishwasher, including a front door for loading, a wire rack to hold crockery and a rotating sprayer.Livens' invention was not, however, a commercial success. Electric drying elements were added in 1940.
Initially home appliances were standalone or portable devices in a kitchen, along with other sinks and the water heater, but with the development of the wall-to-wall countertop and standardized height cabinets, dishwashers evolved into standardized size and shape appliances first integrated with the sink, and then underneath the kitchen countertop as a modular unit.
Adoption was greatest at first in commercial environments, but by the 1970s dishwashers had become commonplace in domestic residences in the US. By 2007, 62 percent of US homes had dishwashers.
