WASHINGTON, March 8, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

INVENTIVE SOCIETY LADY

Profile America — Saturday, March 8th.The inventor of the first practical automatic dishwasher was born on this date in 1839 and was perhaps an unlikely candidate for the distinction. Josephine Cochrane was a socialite and devised the dishwasher out of some annoyance at how her domestic staff damaged her china. Awarded a patent in 1886, Cochrane sold her machines in the 1890s mainly to restaurants and hotels. Her company eventually became KitchenAid, now part of the Whirlpool Corporation. In 2011, the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey found that of the nation's more than 132 million housing units, almost 86 million had automatic dishwashers. They are sold at the nation's 8,500 household appliance stores in addition to department stores. Profile America is in its 17th year as a Public Service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources:http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldishwasher.htmhttp://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/cochrane.htmlhttp://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=AHS_2011_C03AH&prodType=tablehttp://www.census.gov/econ/susb/index.htmlNAICS 443111 U.S. All industries table

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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