Jasmine: I'm Jasmine.
Chrissy: ...and I'm Chrissy.
Jasmine: We're from NIU STEAM and...
Chrissy: This is the Sound of Science on WNIJ.
Jasmine: With March being National Women's Month, we wanted to highlight the women innovators and inventors that have impacted our lives today.
Chrissy: For those of you who find washing dishes to be a thankless chore Josephine Cochrane deserves our attention. Cochrane came up with the idea of a mechanical appliance that would hold dishes securely in a rack while they were sprayed with water and soap. The first automatic dishwasher was featured at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and became a household word. Conchrane's company was purchased in 1916 by Kitchen-Aide and her legacy lives on.
Jasmine: Mary Anderson was a real estate developer and rancher who came to New York City in 1902, on business. While riding a city trolley, Anderson noticed that the driver had to open the panes of glass that made up the windshield in order to see through sleet that was falling. When Anderson returned home, she began working on the prototype that we currently use today on our cars during rain and sleet: the windshield wiper. Car manufacturers didn't see a need for these devices when first marketed, however Cadillac made wipers a standard accessory on their cars in 1922, shortly after Anderson's patent expired.
Chrissy: Melitta Bentz was a housewife who hated the chore of making coffee. The percolators at the time over-brewed the coffee making it taste bitter, espresso machines allowed
the grounds to pass into the drink, and linen filters were difficult to clean. To make life easier, she experimented with multiple materials and found that the paper her son used for his school work, when placed in a basket with small nail holes, allowed the
water to pass through but contained the grounds. The best part was, these filters were disposable. In just the first year, she sold over a thousand of these filters within 10 years had a company that employed dozens. Perhaps you've seen coffee makers,
filters, and coffee beans in the stores bearing her name: The Melitta Cofee Group.
Jasmine: You have been listening to The Sound of Science on WNIJ where you leam something new everyday.
