A motor turned the wheel while hot soapy water squirted up from the bottom of the boiler and rained down on the dishes. Her friends talked a lot about their new machines and soon, Mrs. Cochrane was getting orders for her dishwashing machine from restaurants and hotels in Illinois. She patented her design and went into production. She showed her invention at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and won the highest award You don't have to be a genius to be an inventor. It just takes thought and creativity.
Every invention starts out as an idea and everybody has ideas.
That means anyone can be an inventor. The first step to inventing is to find a problem. Mrs. Cochrane's problem was that it took too long to wash her dishes by hand and too many dishes broke. Many inventors come up with ideas by thinking about their lives and how they could be made easier. The second step is thinking about possible solutions.