Lyon and Healy Factory, Chicago, Illinois.

Lyon and Healy is a musical instrument manufacturer that still operates in Chicago. Formed in 1864, Lyon and Healy opened a factory at Randolph and Ogden in 1890 that is still operating.

Known for their harps, they have also, at times, made guitars, banjos, pianos, and other musical instruments. In 1913, the factory depicted on the postcard was opened (designed by Hyland and Green). Located on Fullerton just west of Pulaski (then Crawford), along the Milwaukee Road line, the factory included a station along the railroad named after the complex; the station is still called Healy today.

The Lyon and Healy factory on Fullerton did not remain in operation for long; by the 1930s, it was home to the Mills Novelty Company, a noted coin-operated machine manufacturer. The usual model of industrial deconcentration would suggest that the company would have closed its original factory on the Near West Side and made the Fullerton location their main operation. In actuality, the Fullerton operation did not last twenty years, and the firm’s 100+ year old Near West Side factory at 168 North Ogden Avenue in Chicago still remains in operation. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Josephine Garis Cochrane [Cochran] (1839-1913). Inventor of the Dishwasher.

Josephine Cochrane believed that if you want something done right, you better do it yourself. But when it came time to do the dishes, she didn't want to, so she invented a machine to wash them for her. A man had made an attempt before her, but it didn't work and never got off the ground.

Josephine Garis was born on March 8, 1839. Her early childhood is unknown. After her mother, Irene Fitch, died and her sister moved out, she lived with her father, John Garis, in Ohio and Indiana. John Garis was an engineer from Chicago who invented a hydraulic pump for draining marshes. He worked as a supervisor in mills and as a hydraulic engineer, perhaps instilling an instinctive knack for the mechanical in Cochrane.

Her great-grandfather (not her grandfather, as some sources report) was John Fitch, who obtained a U.S. patent for a steamboat design in 1791 (note: this was not, as some sources report erroneously, the first patent for a steamboat design in the world, or America.)

She attended a private high school, but Garis sent his daughter to live with her sister in Shelbyville, Illinois, when it burned down.

After high school graduation, Cochrane's life took a traditional turn. At age 19, she married 27-year-old William Cochran. In 1857 after a disappointing four years of trying to strike it rich in the California Gold Rush, he returned home to Shelbyville. He made his mark and fortune in the dry goods business and other investment opportunities. Undoubtedly, the comfortable life he could offer his bride was one thing she was attracted to.

Despite her young age and the societal norm at the time, Cochrane was guided by her independent nature and personal confidence. She assumed her husband's name but preferred spelling it with an "e" at the end, a point of contention with his family.

The Cochranes had a busy social life, and in 1870 when they moved into what could be considered a mansion, they had the perfect house for entertaining. They threw dinner parties using heirloom china, allegedly dating from the 1600s. After one event, the servants washing up carelessly chipped some dishes. Cochrane discovered this the following day while she was putting the dishes away. She was furious and refused to let the servants handle the china anymore.

She may have regretted her decision, but she didn't give in. The morning after every subsequent dinner party, she begrudgingly endured dishpan hands, wondering why someone hadn't invented a machine that could clean dirty dishes. This was, after all, the late 19th century, and if someone could invent a machine to sew clothes and cut grass, how hard could it be?

One morning, she had an epiphany while she was up to her elbows in soap suds. Why not invent the dishwashing machine herself? Consumed with the idea, she immediately went into the library to think it through, forgetting she was holding a cup in her hand. Within half an hour, Cochrane had the basic concept for the first mechanical dishwasher. Just like she had been doing by hand, it held the dishes securely (in a rack) while the pressure of spraying water cleaned them off.

William Cochran was a rising star in the Democratic Party, but too much alcohol led to a violent temper and illness. While Cochrane was busy with the details of her invention, William went away for a rest. Unfortunately, he didn't get well and died two weeks later in 1883.

While the Cochrans appeared to be successful socialites to their friends, all was not well at home. Her husband left Cochrane with a mound of debt and only $1,535.59. Now, developing the dishwasher was not only for convenience. It was for survival.

Her creation had wire compartments for plates, cups and saucers. They were put inside a wheel that lay flat inside a copper boiler. A motor turned the wheel, pumping hot soapy water from the bottom of the boiler over the dishes. Cochrane showed her design to a few men for their input, which was a frustrating experience. "I couldn't get men to do the things I wanted in my way until they had tried and failed in their own," she said. "And that was costly for me. They knew I knew nothing, academically, about mechanics, and they insisted on having their own way with my invention until they convinced themselves my way was the better, no matter how I had arrived at it." Finally, she got help with the construction from mechanic George Butters.

She applied for a U.S. patent, which she received on December 28, 1886, obtaining U.S. Patent # 355139, the Garis-Cochran Dishwashing Machine. 

An earlier, unsuccessful dishwashing machine had been patented, in 1850, by Joel Houghton. It was made of wood, hand-cranked, and just ineffectually splashed water on the dishes. Consequently, the introduction to her patent application reads that her machine is an improvement.

A drawing of Joel Houghton's 1850 patented dishwashing machine.

Cochrane's first customers were not the housewives she thought she was helping. They didn't want to spend the money on something they didn't need, so she turned to hotels. After selling a dishwashing machine to the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, she had one recommendation. Then she did one of the hardest things she'd ever done: she made a cold call to the Sherman House hotel in Chicago, waiting in the ladies' parlor to speak with the manager. "You asked me what was the hardest part of getting into business," she once told a reporter. "…I think, crossing the great lobby of the Sherman House alone. You cannot imagine what it was like in those days … for a woman to cross a hotel lobby alone. I had never been anywhere without my husband or father—the lobby seemed a mile wide. I thought I should faint at every step, but I didn't—and I got an $800 order as my reward."

Josephine displayed and demonstrated the machine herself at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, where it was exhibited in the Machinery Hall. The dishwasher was a hit and won the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Medallion, the same award for all contest winners in the top 20% of their category in scoring. 

       

She also sold nine of them on the spot to people running kitchens at the Exposition for $150 each ($5,100 today).

Her next model was motorized; it pumped the water and moved the rack back and forth. She registered this one for an American patent in 1900. A subsequent model had the racks revolve and drain via a hose into the sink.

That success led to her opening her own factory in an abandoned schoolhouse. Her customers extended to hospitals and colleges for whom the sanitizing effects of the hot water rinse were significant. Homemakers finally started using it too.

In 1912, at 73 years old, Cochran was still personally selling her machines. She managed her company until she died of a stroke in Chicago on August 3, 1913. She was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Shelbyville, Illinois. 

In 1916, her company was bought out by Hobart, which became KitchenAid and is now Whirlpool Corporation. Cochrane is considered the founder. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The One and ONLY Prize Awarded for Contests at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois.

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (aka: Chicago World's Fair) official contest winners medallion in fine condition. (see complete history below.) Officially awarded in Bronze ONLY and measures: Diameter: 3" (76mm) - Thickness: 0.2" (5.5mm) - Weight: 7.2 ounces (205 grams). 

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago was a commemoration of the Four Hundredth Anniversary of Christopher Columbus' landing in the New World in 1892. 

THE FRONT (obverse) designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens reads:

Christopher Columbus
Oct. XII, MDCCCXCII (1892)
Artist Signature: Augustus Saint-Gaudens Fecit

In the background are portions of a ship, an unfurled banner, and three male figures. In the upper right, in the distance, is a symbolic device of ships passing the Pillars of Hercules and the text inscription. 

NOTE: The small hooded figure to the right of Columbus is believed to be the only known self-portrait of Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

THE BACK (reverse) designed by Charles F. Baber (Mint Engraver) Reads:

World's Columbian Exposition in Commemoration of the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Landing of Columbus. MDCCCXCII (1892) - MDCCCXCIII (1893)
Artist Signature: C. E. Barber Fecit

The medallions were struck by the Scovill Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Connecticut.

MINTAGE: 400-600 known (References: Eglit 90; Baxter 87; Marqusee 348; Jaeger & Brown 64/53; Tolles p.135; and Weiss BW549.)

1893 WORLD’S FAIR CONTEST AWARDS HISTORY
The 1893 World’s Fair organizers decided to judge the contest prizes a little differently. Instead of competing directly against each other, the exhibitors, in all categories, were judged against a list of criteria that represented a standard of excellence for that category. 

For example, the beer exhibitions. The judges were instructed to score each brew on purity, color, and flavor and assign a score between 0 and 100. All beers that scored an 80 or higher would be awarded a bronze Augustus Saint-Gaudens medallion and a parchment certificate. Things didn’t exactly work out that way once the exposition opened. The beer judges decided to come up with their own scoring system with ranked prizes awarded based on numerical scores in categories of their own creation. The brewers were left to assume that whoever ended the fair with the highest score “won”, never mind that there was, officially, no grand prize and that each medal was bronze and were identically the same as all the other prize medallions given out.

“Awards are designed to indicate some independent and essential excellence in the article exhibited, and as an evidence of advancement in the state of the art represented by it. They will be granted, upon specific points of excellence or advancement, formulated in words by a Board of Judges or Examiners, who will be competent experts; and the evidence of such awards will be parchment certificates, accompanied by bronze medals. Such awards will constitute an enduring, historical record of development and progress, and at the same time afford exhibitors lasting mementoes of their success.”

SOURCE: ”After Four Centuries the World's Fair. The Discovery of America to be commemorated by an International Exposition. Chicago, ILL., U.S.A. 1893” – Published by: Department of Publicity and Promotion. World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1891.

THERE WERE NO GOLD, SILVER, OR ANY TYPE OF RIBBONS (BLUE OR OTHERWISE) OFFICIALLY GIVEN TO CONTESTANTS AT THE 1893 WORLD’S FAIR. 

Saint-Gaudens’ design for the reverse of this medal was not used, despite the sculptor’s eventual willingness to modify it. It was rejected by the United States Senate Quadro-Centennial Committee because the premature circulation of a photograph of the new design fostered criticism of the youth’s nudity. Saint-Gaudens attempted various modifications but ultimately refused to alter his design, and solicited public support for his cause.

The art world supported him against the committee action, but to no avail. Saint-Gaudens made a model that eliminated the figure altogether, retaining only the inscription. This last model was the one adopted by Mint engraver Charles F. Barber for the final design. Saint-Gaudens’ design of Columbus for the obverse, however, was retained.  Louis Saint-Gaudens assisted his brother with this commission.

NOTE: As with all official WCE souvenirs, permission was given to companies to produce souvenir items for sale. This included official picture books, "so-called" half dollar souvenir coins, etc. 

The W.B Conkley company was given permission to produce blue ribbons for the contestants that were awarded a bronze medallion and official certificate. The ribbons were to be made of silk with gold leaf lettering and gold fringe. Contestants were charged $2.50 for each ribbon.

NOT AN OFFICIAL AWARD AT THE 1893 WCE.

READ MORE
OVER 100 BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS ABOUT THE 1893 WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION IN MY DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY OF ILLINOIS HISTORY®. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.